Therefore, basing the Declaration of Sentiments, which enumerated the demands of the convention's delegates, upon the Declaration of Independence was designed to highlight the fact that the Declaration of Independence was inapplicable to half of all adult Americans. In addition, the leaders of the suffrage movement demonstrated that working towards sexual equality could benefit all women. To demonstrate these changes, they worked on issues that affected women in their daily lives, such as changing sexually biased property, marriage, divorce and custody laws. By showing that women were not powerless to change the course of their own lives, these early leaders demonstrated that women's votes would not be redundant and inspired women to work for the vote.

             In contrast, the women's rights movement of the 1960s focused on issues that were more difficult to influence from the outside sphere. For example, second wave feminists chose to focus on issues like domestic violence and abortion rights. These issues were more difficult to conquer than the earlier issues, because they involved issues of privacy and secrecy. While women may have been willing to be vocal outward supporters of changing property laws, many of the women affected by domestic violence were unable or unwilling to provide the same type of public support. Furthermore, the women's rights movement was not successful in solving that problem; although awareness of domestic violence and resources for victims have dramatically increased over the last 20 years, there is no indication that domestic violence rates have experienced any type of decline. In addition, many women found the equation of the feminist movement with the abortion rights movement to be distasteful. Instead of unifying women, identification with the pro-choice movement by public figures discouraged many women from joining the feminist movement or supporting its other goals, such as the ERA.