This review briefly examines one of the most profound documents concerning women's political, educational, and religious rights of the nineteenth century, The Declaration of Sentiments.This document was signed by women at the Seneca Falls convention in 1848, which was one of the major achievements for the women's reformation movement. Although the document was well respected in the nineteenth century, people had trouble abandoning their traditional mindsets. This contention, voiced by Abagail Adams animates the most powerful sector of feminism today. The document is closely aligned rhetorically with that of the Declaration of Independence.

This article shows the Nineteenth Century American perception and literary fascination with the "Pure American Girl." During this time period, the ideal girl was portrayed as a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, who was young and innocent. However, this was not a factual representation of most women of the time, but rather the idealistic view of how women should be. With a rising influx of emigrants into the country, an American icon was needed that represented the nation’s values both visually and behaviorally.  This was done by creating three female representations for literature.  These portrayals of the “American girl” appealed to various aspects of society, the New England Woman, the Beautiful Charmer, and the Outdoor Girl.   The New England Woman was known for her knowledge and thoughtful wisdom.  The Beautiful Charmer wooed with southern mannerisms and the Outdoor Girl embodied a woman’s free spirit.  However, once the issue of voting rights surfaced, a “New Woman” combined the three previous portrayals for political purposes. Thus the “WASP princess” was created in literature to ensure the purity of American citizenship give rise to women’s suffrage. 

The goal of this review was to shed light on the feminized constructions of literacy, literature, education, and nation building in the domestic women’s narrative genre. The genre began around the late eighteenth century when the new written constitution formally denied women suffrage. Therefore, alternative routes became the dominant way for middle class women to gain political influence.

 Literature in the nineteenth century was a way to educate the population both morally and socially.  For example, Elizabeth B. Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped to alter social policy concerning race and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s works aided the progress of suffrage for women.  Domestic education was by far the most commonplace means of teaching, and as a larger influx of female author’s emerged, their words were the ones being read by a majority of the population.  This contributed to an increasing level of societal influence by women.

Susan B. Anthony is one of the most remembered and respected women of the nineteenth century sufferage movement. Anthony was a strong believer in freedom, equality, and intrinsic worth of all human beings.  Furthermore, she was a firm abolitionist, who wanted no compromise with slavery. In the era before the American Civil War, Anthony took a prominent role in the New York anti-slavery and temperance movements. Susan B. Anthony met and instantly befriended Elizabeth Cady Staton and together, the two women traveled the United States giving speeches and attempting to persuade the legislators that society should treat men and women equally!
Anthony published a weekly journal, titled The Revolution,  to promote women’s and African-Americans’ right to suffrage, and issues of equal pay for equal work. A few years later, In 1869, Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the American Women Sufferage Association, which was dedicated primarily to gaining women the right to vote. In 1878, Susan convinced Senator Aaron Sargent of California to propose an amendment to the constitution for women's suffrage. Although the amendment was defeated, Susan worked hard to have the amendment proposed every year. The amendment finally did pass fourteen years after Susan B. Anthony's death in 1906, and her dream was fufilled.

This review examines womens relationship between the public and private spheres, and the steps that they made toward broadening their roles in each. The household was the origin of and the limit of women’s public roles before the nineteenth century.  During this time, steps were taken to remove the ceiling through which women could not rise above or move through to enter the higher circles of a male dominated society.  Women could now enter public spheres concerning abolitionist movements, suffrage, property rights, education, and professional opportunities.  The ideal American political figure was rational, unified and autonomous and women’s behavioral roles contrasted these beliefs.  However in political fiction, women found their voices and moved from passivity to action, and ultimately from private to public.  Women’s participation in public affairs broadened as they became involved with commercial affairs such as shopping, browsing, and spending.  

Education had been the stumbling block keeping women from gaining equal status in society, separating them from their male counterparts in the early half of the 19th century. It has also been the door to this elusive dream of equality. Before women gained the right and privilege of higher education they were believed to be lower-class citizens, not worthy of voting or owning property, or any number of other “inalienable rights”.  In 1833, the nation's first university to accept women and blacks was Oberlin College, in Oberlin Ohio. Fifteen of the forty-four students enrolled were women, with strong ambitions and an even stronger desire to achieve their goals through education.  Societal trends such as an increase in labor-saving devices in the home, an increased demand for teachers, a proliferation of reading materials for women, and some limited employment opportunities for women due to the Civil War led to an increased demand for higher education for women.