Answers to Trivia Questions

Week 1 Question

When the United States Constitution was signed in 1787, women in some states lost the right to vote. What state allowed women to vote as early as 1776? This was the only state that allowed women to vote after the Constitution was signed.

Week 1 Answer

New Jersey.

Week 1 Additional Information

New Jersey’s first constitution in 1776 gave voting rights to “all inhabitants of this colony, of full age, who are worth fifty pounds and have resided within the county for twelve months.” Only single women could vote because married women could not own property.

Week 2 Question

The first Women’s Rights Convention took place in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. The women passed a document called The Declaration of Sentiments which proposed that women should have the right to vote. What are two of the other ideas proposed in that document?

Week 2 Answer

Women should:

• Be equal to men
• Be able to own property
• Be able to sign contracts
• Be able to attend college
• Be able to keep the money they earned

Week 2 Additional Information

The declaration of sentiments outlined the rights American women should be entitled to as citizens. It was one of the first statements of the political and social repression of American women and it marked the start of the women’s rights movement in the United States.

Week 3 Question

The Declaration of Sentiments created at the Seneca Falls Convention almost didn’t include voting rights for women. What famous African American orator in attendance argued that the world would be a better place if women could vote?

Week 3 Answer

Frederick Douglass

Week 3 Additional Information

Born into slavery, Frederick Douglass became an outspoken advocate for abolition and for women’s rights. When he was invited to the Seneca falls convention, the first women’s rights convention, he argued that “right is of no sex, truth is of no color.”

Week 4 Question

Isabella Van Wagener was the legal name of this African American abolitionist and women’s right activist, but we know her better by the name she used to write the influential speech “Ain’t I A Woman?” What is that name?

Week 4 Answer

Sojourner Truth

Week 4 Additional Information

Sojourner truth was born into slavery at the end of the 18th century but managed to escape. She became a famed evangelist and first gave the “ain’t I a woman” speech at the Ohio women’s rights convention in 1851. She said, “if the first woman god ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.”

Week 5 Question

After the Civil War women joined various reform movements such as temperance, anti-slavery, marriage equality, and equal wages. Which reform movement ultimately was the most helpful for Elizabeth Cady Stanton who also argued for the vote?

Week 5 Answer

The anti-slavery movement

Week 5 Additional Information

Through her participation in the abolitionist movement, Stanton and other women developed the rhetorical and practical skills that enabled them to create a woman’s rights movement.

Week 6 Question

Today no one questions that women can own what they want. But in 1847 it was different. Why weren’t married women allowed to own their own clothing or even their garden vegetables?

Week 6 Answer

There was legislation that said a married woman’s husband owned everything of hers.

Week 6 Additional Information

In 1848 women were not allowed to own:

• Their clothing
• The land they lived on
• The house they lived in
• Their garden vegetables

Week 7 Question

Which early women’s rights advocate organized the Seneca Falls Convention and wrote the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the convention?

a) Susan B. Anthony
b) Carrie Chapman Catt
c) Elizabeth Cady Stanton
d) Harriot Eaton Stanton

Week 7 Answer

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Week 7 Additional Information

Elizabeth Cady Stanton is well-known for her work for women’s rights. Lesser-known women were among many social activists. Carrie Chapman Catt served as president of the National American Women Suffrage Association. Harriot Eaton Stanton, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, recruited working class women into the suffrage movement.