Declaration of Sentiments complaints:
1. Women had to obey laws created without their input.
2. Women could not attend college.
3. Married women were, for all intents and purposes, legally dead.
4. Women were not allowed to vote.
5. Women’s self-esteem was ruined due to their treatment at the hands of men.
6. Women had fewer rights than men with low morals and men who were not citizens.
7. Unmarried women were taxed with no say in how the money was to be spent.
8. Women could not be ministers, doctors, or lawyers. Women’s work was low-paying.
9. Women in divorce cases had no say over matters such as who would raise the children.
10. A married woman had no rights to property or the money she earned.
11. Men were given complete control over and responsibility for their wives.
12. Men were unrightfully "playing God" by deciding what was appropriate for women.
13. Because women could not vote, they could be more easily exploited.
14. Women were not allowed to hold important positions in the church or the state.
15. There was a different standard of behavior for men and women.
Questions:
1. Which complaint(s) would you consider the most serious?
2. Which complaint(s) most resemble complaints of colonists prior to the Revolutionary War?
3. Which complaint(s) relate more to entrenched attitudes about women than they do to legal obstacles to equality?
4. Which—if any—of the problems referred to in the complaints do you regard as still problematic today?
5. Which problem(s) referred to in the complaints, once solved, likely led to an improvement in society for everyone?
