Davis married Francis Wright in 1833, who was a merchant from a prosperous family from
Utica, New York. They had similar values and both resigned from their church to protest its pro-slavery stance, and they served on the executive committee of the Central New York Anti-Slavery Society. In 1835, Davis and her husband organized an anti-slavery convention in Utica. They also supported women's rights reforms, associating with
Susan B. Anthony,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and
Ernestine Rose. During this period, Davis studied women's health. Francis Wright died in 1845, and the couple had no children. Davis moved to New York to study medicine following her husband's death. In 1846, she gave lectures on anatomy and physiology to women only. She imported a medical mannequin and toured the eastern United States teaching women and urging them to become physicians. In 1849, she married
Thomas Davis, a Democrat from
Providence, Rhode Island, and they adopted two daughters. In 1850, Davis started to focus her energies on women's rights. She stopped lecturing and helped to arrange the first
National Women's Rights Convention in
Worcester, Massachusetts, at which she presided and delivered the opening address In her speech, she argued that women were not being afforded the constitutional protections of equal protection and due process, and that they were treated as a "disabled caste" by the government. She was president of the National Woman's Rights Central Committee from 1850 to 1858. In 1853, she began editing the women's newspaper
The Una, handing over the responsibility to
Caroline Healey Dall in 1855. ==Death and honors==