POT4204 Question 1: What were the most prevalent sorts of arguments used by feminist writers during the period from 1776 to the granting of womanhood suffrage in 1920?

Core claims of all thinkers (4)

1. that women possessed the same natural and moral rights as men

2. that women’s inequality was socially created rather than natural

3. that women’s exclusion contradicted American democratic principles

4. expanding women’s rights would improve society as a whole

The earliest and most common argument

women were entitled to the same natural rights as men

Which feminist writers argue the earliest argument

Abigail Adams, Angelina Grimké, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Abigial Adams

Introduces this idea during the Revolutionary era