In 1848, a small gathering of 300 people in Seneca Falls, a village in upstate New York, marked the beginning of the women's rights movement. The Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention never produced revolutions, usurpation of power, or wars, but it led to metamorphosis of conscience and a movement of empowerment on behalf of half the human race that is barely comparable in history. Until recently, the convention was not recognized as significant by historians or celebrated as an important event, and it took decades of struggle by women's organizations, feminist historians, and preservationists to pressure the National Park Service to turn the building where to conference was held into a historic site. Today, it stands as a major tourist attraction, enhanced by the establishment of a National Women's Hall of Fame on the site. The history of the Seneca Falls Convention and the progress of women's rights since 1848 are presented.
