Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were delegates to the World's Anti-Slavery Convention at London.

They listened to the debate which ended in the refusal to recognize them as members of the Convention because they were women.

The tone of the discussion convinced them that women were looked upon by men with disdain and contempt.

Because the laws of the land and the customs of society consigned women to an inferior position, and because there would be no place for effective public work on the part of women until these laws were changed, both these women became advocates of women's rights and conspicuous leaders in the initiation of the propaganda.

The Reverend Samuel J.May, of Syracuse, New York, preached a sermon in 1845 in which he stated his belief that women need not expect to have their wrongs fully redressed until they themselves had a hand in the making and in the administration of the laws.