Question 31 - Reading: Level A Practice Test for the TABE Test

The Seneca Falls Convention was a meeting of people who supported women’s rights. It was held at Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19 and July 20, 1848. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a women’s rights activist, wrote a “Declaration of Sentiments” that listed some of the complaints she had about how women were treated and some ideas about how things needed to change. One of these ideas was that men and women are equal and deserve to be treated as such. At the time, women were viewed as inferior to men, especially intellectually. They could not vote, sign contracts, or buy property because these activities required a certain level of intelligence and capability. If she was married, a woman had to give any money she earned to her husband. Women who worked outside the home generally earned less money than men.

The convention discussed and voted unanimously on ten of the eleven resolutions that were presented. The resolutions sought to give women a voice in how they were treated by society and how they were viewed by the law. They demanded equality. Many of those involved in women’s rights were also part of the abolitionist movement, calling for an end to racial discrimination and slavery. Equality for all people, men and women, regardless of color.

Over one hundred people who attended the convention signed a document called the Seneca Falls Declaration, inspired by the Declaration of Independence. It voiced the desire for equality for women, but both men and women signed it, including abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass.