What Is The Women's Rights Movement In The 19th Century

The antebellum era in America was a time of swift change. With the principles of Romanticism in place, American’s were in the frame of mind to improve their society in order to reach a state of perfection, that according to the movement was thought to be achievable. American reform movements in the mid-19th century reflected both optimistic and pessimistic views of human nature and society with regards to women’s rights, temperance, and education. Women’s rights had its high and low points. Although women’s rights did rally a great deal of support, mainly in the form of women, they were often viewed as a secondary. In this time period, however, there were advances in the foundation of women’s rights. Equality of the sexes was also largely …show more content…
During the antebellum, there was an overproduction and abundance of alcohol in America; so much so that the average male would have drank nearly three times as much as one would today. The fact that alcohol was so readily available in nearly all areas of the nation and affecting a large amount of the population, there were many outspoken assemblies in the dispute over abstinence against liquor items. Of them were the Protestants as a whole, becoming quite outspoken on this matter and argued that it placed an excessive strain on the women, due to the fact that their men could not support their families while in a sort of drunken stupor all the time. As this movement went on, many sought to join and pledge their abstinence against liquor. However, the movement continued and also included other alcoholic items such as beer and wine, creating issues for Catholics. As many Catholic immigrants also used alcohol as a part of their social activities, the temperance movement called for abstinence from all alcohol came to be a problem for Catholic-Protestant interactions. As you can see, temperance also reflected both the optimistic and pessimistic views of the mid-19th