Like the movement for racial equality, the struggle for equal rights for women has gone through two significant waves in American history. The first wave was the women's suffrage movement, which began in the mid 1800s and culminated in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. The second wave began in the 1960s and was also linked to a constitutional amendment; however the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have guaranteed equal rights to all Americans without regard to sex, but was never passed. Because the ERA was not ratified, many classify the second wave of the women's movement as unsuccessful. Although many would disagree with such a classification, there is little question that the first wave of the feminist movement was more successful at accomplishing its stated goals than the second-wave. There are several reasons for the differences in the results of the two movements. The first reason is that first wave feminists were more successful in appealing to the desires of the average woman. The second and probably more significant reason is slightly more complicated; while both the equal rights movements and the civil rights movements were linked in leadership and goals, but that the women's rights movement that began in the late 1960s was not as compelling to the average American as the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.

             In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott convened the Seneca Falls Convention, at which delegates passed a resolution seeking suffrage rights for women. At the time, the women's rights movement was relatively isolated and was very tied in to the abolitionist movement. Therefore, in order to appeal to a broader range of American woman, the delegates of the convention engaged in a brilliant act. Americans are, and have historically been, a patriotic group of people, and almost fierce in their defense of independence.