is editor of Freethought Today

This weekend marks the 160th anniversary of the first women's rights convention in history.

The Seneca Falls Convention in New York, convened by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and four feminist friends, met on July 19 and 20, 1848, "to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of woman." At this convention Stanton proposed her shocking resolution demanding women's right to vote.

A short, unsigned notice, composed around a tea table, appeared in the July 14, 1848, issue of the Seneca County Courier. The women had only three days to draw up their Declaration of Women's Rights, and they hit upon the genius of rewording the Declaration of Independence.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal," they began. Instead of King George, they referred to the male sex, which had compelled woman "to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice" and which "allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position."

The final resolution, offered by Lucretia Mott, is still radical, still not yet realized:

"That the speedy success of our cause depends upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit and for the securing to woman an equal participation with men in the various trades, professions and commerce."

The anniversary of Seneca Falls is an appropriate time to take stock. While women have had the vote since 1920, we still are woefully underrepresented in the halls of power. And when one of our own, Hillary Rodham Clinton, ran for president, she faced all sorts of sexism. The media flayed the early feminists unmercifully. Some things haven't changed that much in 160 years.