2.+Occasion

Occasion
 * How did society influence Stanton to write the Declaration of Sentiments?**

The Declaration of Sentiments was read by Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the Seneca Falls Convention on July 19-20, 1848. This convention was specifically organized to discuss the growing women's rights movement. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an active abolitionist who was shocked when the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London denied standing to all women representatives. In 1848, she and another women delegate, Lucretia Mott, called for a women's right convention to be held in Seneca Falls, New York. They were determined to focus on female suffrage when only voting rights of males was directed in Reconstruction. The Declaration of Sentiments written by Stanton was approved at the convention. The National Women Convention included only women who worked for a national Constitutional Amendment for women suffrage. Many other social reform groups drew women into other organizations and activities

All the reform movements inspired womens' interests in achieving equality. These movements were inspired by the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening was a religious and intellectual revival that motivated women in the 19th century. As religion was opened to women, they gained more power in society as they took control of their "cult of domesticity". As the women took on a more authoritative role, they advocated in reform movements that affected prison and mental instiution conditions, prohibition, and abolition. These movements achieved great success, especially the abolition movement. Women viewed their situation as similar to that of slaves in the South, so they felt that when slaves gained their freedom, they should as well. Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments to claim rights for women.