Which 1848 New York meeting is widely regarded as the first women’s rights convention in U.S. history?

The Seneca Falls Convention is widely regarded as the first women’s rights convention in U.S. history.

Held in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19–20, 1848, the meeting brought together roughly 300 people to discuss women’s social, civil, and religious rights. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were among its leading organizers.

The convention issued the Declaration of Sentiments, which declared that women should have equal rights and listed grievances against laws and customs that disadvantaged women. Its resolution supporting women’s suffrage was especially controversial, but Frederick Douglass argued for keeping it in the document, and the resolution passed.

The meeting did not immediately secure voting rights for women. Instead, it helped launch an organized reform movement. A second major gathering, the Rochester Women’s Rights Convention, followed in New York two weeks later, which is why the two events are sometimes confused.