HISTORY OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE IN THE U.S.

The triggering incident was a direct result of participation in anti-slavery organizations by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

Anti-slavery societies proliferated in the Northeast region of the United States and in some parts of what today we call the Midwest. Many of these organizations had female members.

According to Cristine Stansell in her article The Road from Seneca Falls, the abolitionist movement was what allowed women to get their foot in the door. They then began to use their involvement to promote women's rights. This caused the movement to split into two groups, the radicals and the conservatives.

The radicals promoted equality for all, including women, while the conservatives clung to traditional gender roles. It was these conservatives who attempted to constrain women to the domestic sphere by refusing to let them participate in the abolitionist cause.

In 1840 the World Anti-Slavery Convention met in London; some of the American groups elected women as their representatives to this meeting.

Once in London, after a lengthy debate, the female representatives were denied their rightful seats and consigned to the balcony by conservative abolitionists.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott met at this meeting while sitting on the balcony and walking through the streets of London.

Eight years later Stanton and Mott called a convention to discuss women's rights.