When women can support themselves, have entry to all the trades and professions, with a house of their own over their heads and a bank account, they will own their bodies and be dictators in the social realm.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
Woman's degradation is in mans idea of his sexual rights. Our religion, laws, customs, are all founded on the belief that woman was made for man.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the societal belief that women exist primarily for men's needs and desires.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton highlights how various societal structures—religion, laws, and customs—are predicated on the notion that women are subservient to men, particularly regarding sexual rights. This quote challenges the deep-seated patriarchal views that have historically diminished the value and autonomy of women, urging a re-examination of these beliefs.
Themes
WomanRightsPatriarchySocietyEquality
In practice
Example use cases
In a women's rights rally to emphasize the importance of equality.
More from Elizabeth Cady Stanton
All quotes →To live for a principle, for the triumph of some reform by which all mankind are to be lifted up to be wedded to an idea may be, after all, the holiest and happiest of marriages.
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The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, her forces of mind and body... is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life.
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Only those who have lived all their lives under the dark clouds of vague, undefined fears can appreciate the joy of a doubting soul suddenly born into the kingdom of reason and free thought.
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We demand in the Reconstruction suffrage for all the citizens of the Republic. I would not talk of Negroes or women, but of citizens.
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Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
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