Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The intellectual architect of American feminism, she penned the revolutionary demand for women's suffrage and spent a lifetime agitating for absolute equality.
1815–1902 (age 87)·American suffragist·Birthday: November 12
Biography
Elizabeth Cady Stanton brought a formidable intellect and an unyielding radicalism to the cause of women's rights. Chafing against the legal limitations placed on women from her youth—she was outraged listening to the woes of widows in her father's law office—she found her perfect partner in activism in the Quaker abolitionist Lucretia Mott. Together, they orchestrated the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, a watershed moment for which Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments. This document, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, boldly stated that “all men and women are created equal” and included the then-shocking resolution demanding the vote. For the next five decades, Stanton was the movement's chief philosopher and propagandist, writing countless speeches, articles, and the seminal 'History of Woman Suffrage' with Susan B. Anthony. Her vision was expansive, tackling not just voting rights but also divorce law, employment, and organized religion, which she critiqued in 'The Woman's Bible.' Her insistence on addressing the root causes of female subordination, not just its symptoms, made her the foundational thinker of the American women's movement.
#1 When Elizabeth Was Born
The biggest hits of 1815
Elizabeth's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1815Born
1820Started school
1828Became a teenager
1831Could drive
1833Could vote
1836Turned 21
1845Turned 30
1855Turned 40
1865Turned 50
President: Andrew Johnson
1875Turned 60
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1885Turned 70
Karl Benz builds the first gasoline-powered automobile
President: Grover Cleveland
1895Turned 80
First public film screening by the Lumiere brothers
President: Grover Cleveland
1902Died at 87
The eruption of Mount Pelee kills 30,000 in Martinique
President: Theodore Roosevelt
Key Achievements
- Authored the Declaration of Sentiments, the foundational document of the organized women's rights movement, presented at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention.
- Co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association with Susan B. Anthony to fight for a constitutional amendment for women's vote.
- Co-authored the first three volumes of the monumental 'History of Woman Suffrage,' preserving the movement's early records and arguments.
- Served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, leading the fight in the decades before her death.
Did You Know?
She intentionally omitted the word 'obey' from her marriage vows to Henry Brewster Stanton.
She ran for Congress in 1866, nearly 50 years before women could vote, receiving 24 votes.
She was the mother of seven children and often wrote speeches while rocking a cradle with her foot.
She collaborated with Susan B. Anthony in a famous partnership: Stanton was the writer and thinker, Anthony the organizer and strategist.
““The best protection any woman can have... is courage.””
