Throughout history, women have often, if not always, been second to men. Women have often been denied the rights and opportunities that men have had. For years, women's only role was to stay at home and take care of the family. This belief became very popular in the “cult of domesticity” movement in the 1800s. The cult of domesticity was the belief that women should stay at home as the “moral guardians” of family life. They were expected to be weak, caring, and altruistic (2). Many women opposed this belief and began to fight for equality. The women's suffrage movement helped bring about many changes in society's view of women and their rights. The campaign for women's suffrage began in the decades before the Civil War. At the same time, many people began to seek reform. People founded temperance clubs, religious movements and moral reform societies, anti-slavery organizations – and in many of these women played a leading role (3). The first major step toward women's suffrage was taken in 1848, when women's rights activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott invited men and women to Seneca Falls, New York, to discuss the issue of women's rights. At this conference, delegates produced a Declaration of Sentiments which states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these they are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (3). In the 1850s the women's rights movement gained momentum, but lost it when the Civil War broke out, as attention focused on the war and the abolition of slavery. Women's rights were set aside. Then in 1869 the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded, led by Susan B Anth...... middle of paper ......ger, William L. Barney, and Robert M. Weir. The American Journey: A History of the United States. Fourth ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. Print.3) History.com Staff. "The fight for women's suffrage". History.com. A&E television networks, 2009. Web. 21 April 2014.4) Imbornoni, Ann-Marie. "Women's rights movement in the United States" Infoplease. Pearson Education and Web. 23 Apr. 2014.5) "15th Amendment of the Constitution". Web Guides: Primary Documents in American History. The Library of Congress, nd Web. April 23, 2014.6) Williamson, Heidi. “Women’s Equality Day: Celebrating the Impact of the 19th Amendment on Reproductive Health and Rights.” Center for American Progress. Center for American Progress, August 26, 2013. Web. April 23, 2014.7) Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Flappers in the Roaring Twenties." About.com History of the 20th century. About.com and Web. April 20. 2014.