Independence Day is truly a day to celebrate, but we have more work to do.
Our Founding Fathers fought for American independence and wrote a fine framework for freedom — for men.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
That wonderful sentence is probably the best-known portion of the Declaration of Independence, ratified on July 4, 1776.
But it was 72 more years until, in 1848, the first Woman’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, N.Y. It was there that convention organizers Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann McClintock, Martha White and Jane Hunt improved on the Declaration with new words and a motto: “All men and women are created equal,” and they demanded social and political equality for women. The idea got a headline or two, but little more.