The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again

by Robert D. Putnam

the founding of the American women’s movement is widely considered to have taken place at Seneca Falls in 1848. At what became the first national gathering addressing women’s rights, almost three hundred people convened at a church in upstate New York to discuss “the condition and rights of women,” and passed resolutions calling for equal rights in twelve areas, including ownership of property, education, access to employment, the ability to participate in the public sphere, and—most controversial of all—the right to vote.4 Thus, Seneca Falls launched what has been called in retrospect the “first wave” of the American women’s movement.5