The way women were treated in the late 1800’s is immensely different from how they are treated today. Women were not allowed to vote and had very strong stereotypes that were opposite of what men were. They were known to be weak, emotional, more susceptible to madness, pure, family oriented, and illogical to name a few. There were many other stereotypes that came along with being a woman, and none of them were to be taken in a positive way. All were very demeaning and decided their roles in society for them, which were always below men’s. In the late 1800’s was when we saw the first strong, relevant, and recognized rebellion by women. 

A woman by the name of Susan B. Anthony was one of the first women to truly fight and speak out for women’s rights, particularly the right to vote. Along with activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the two founded the NWSA (National Woman Suffrage Association) in 1869 that fought mainly for women to exercise the right to vote. Also in 1869, Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe founded the AWSA (American Woman Suffrage Association), that fought for women’s rights as a whole. The two groups had very similar beliefs but rivaled each other for the same purpose. After years of negotiation the two combined forces and created the NAWSA (National American Woman Suffrage Association) in 1890 and fought to give women the right to vote and all around equal rights.

In 1872 Anthony casted an illegal vote in the presidential election and was arrested, fined, and tried in court. She refused to pay and went on to give one of her most famous speeches on women’s rights to vote. She spoke of the preamble and how it says “We, the people of the United States…” and goes on to say that “We” is not defined as white males, that “We” is all peoples in America. She says women are included in this and that it is a violation of supreme law since women cannot vote and that it contradicts the preamble. This speech was a very important one in history, but sadly did not convince those in office at the time. It was not until 1920 that the 19th Amendment, giving adult women the right to vote, was passed. Sadly, Anthony died in 1906 and was never able to exercise her right to vote. She is known for her contributions to women’s rights and played a key part in making it possible for women to vote.

After these events occurred, women’s rights began to spiral positively for years to come. On a women’s rights timeline, we can see equal rights established for women in 1923, women being appointed political positions, women being paid the same salary if they perform the same job as a man, women having equal education and job opportunities, and much more. There are still stereotypes of women today but we see them being broken every single day. There are women engineers, doctors, army soldiers, and countless other traditional masculine jobs that women are perfectly capable of doing and many succeed in doing so.

In 1887 there was a book published, Ten Days in a Mad-House, by author Nellie Bly. It spoke of the mistreatment of women in a particular insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island in New York City. The institution was only for women and was very corrupt. Undercover, Bly faked insanity to be admitted so she could expose the place for what it really is. While there, she see’s women who are mentally ill and others who do not truly belong there. The doctor’s and caretakers do not care about the patients whatsoever. They are tortured by frequent ice baths, starvation, and beatings. The threat of sexual assault is present and the atmosphere is nothing close to healing or progression, which is what the goal of these asylums was said to be. 

This goes to show that in this time period women were in no way treated fairly or equally. It was an all-women’s asylum, meaning that men received a different and likely much better treatment if needed. Women were like the nuisances of the health world in this case. They were seen as useless, not worth saving, and a waste of space to many because they were not allowed to contribute as much to society as men. Funding was low and not of importance because of these widespread views about women. When something was supposedly wrong with a woman mentally, they could be sent off to get “treatment” that was everything but a real treatment, keeping them out of the way in the world run by men. 

After Bly leaves the asylum for good, it brought major attention to the abuse of the women at this specific ward. It became widespread knowledge of how these women were treated there and became a symbol for women’s rights.  Even though at this point in time suffrage and equality for women was the main goal, this was a major event that brought the needed attention to how women were being treated all around and really made people think of how awful it was.

Bly’s audience appeals mostly to women who believed they should be treated more equal, but also to males who were oblivious and stuck in their ways. It gave a view to a widespread audience that you could imagine seeing yourself in, which not a single person would want to go through what the women at the asylum went through. It opened the minds of many and improved the mental health care for women immediately. Bly also was intrigued to undergo this experiment by the general mistreatment of women in America as they had very little rights and were all around treated poorly and not given the chances that males were given. 

The issues Bly wrote about and the rights Susan B. Anthony and her acquaintances fought for are two different sides of women’s equality. The reason they go hand in hand is because in this time period, the late 1800’s, women were mistreated all around on every aspect of life. They were constantly oppressed and told how to live their lives by the males in their life and by males of power in society. Both of these women believed they could change the path for women in the future and they succeeded in doing so by taking many personal risks. If not for women like them and what they stand for, our society may not be as equal as it is today, and it would not be continuing to become even more equal.
