Publication Date

1986

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Hamilton, Hallie J.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Journalism

LCSH

Women in journalism--United States; Women--United States--Social conditions

Abstract

The women's movement in the United States commenced in 1849 at the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Throughout the next decade, many loyal enthusiasts devoted their efforts to securing a better standard of living for women in the United States through the enactment of better laws for women and a higher social awareness of women's problems. As with any social movement, factions within held conflicting viewpoints on timing and methodology. In the case of the women's movement, this conflict erupted in a schism in their movement in 1869. The groups were led by Susan B. Anthony, who published The Revolution as a forum of the viewpoints of the National Woman Suffrage Association, and Lucy Stone, whose Woman's Journal espoused the views of the American Woman Suffrage Association. This thesis will chronicle the lives of the women who led the groups to the point of the split, then analyze the content of each publication on major issues. The summation will include comparisons of the papers' stands on those issues, as well as a statement of each paper's contributions, both to the movement and to the split. The conclusion will outline the impact of each paper on the realization of the goals of the women's movement. This thesis concentrated on biographies of Anthony and Stone, as well as history books on the women's movement. Five books were chosen for detailed analysis. It was discovered that far more was written about the radical element of the movement, that of Anthony and her Revolution. Although scorned and ridiculed by her peers and the country during her lifetime, Anthony's reputation as the most notable leader of the women's movement is solidly intact. Stone's conservative but long-lasting paper endures as a chronicle of the movement and as her major contribution.

Comments

Bibliography: pages [118]-119.

Extent

v, 123 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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