Stanton, Elizabeth Cady (1815-1902)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) was born November 12, 1815, in Johnston, New York, to wealthy judge and lawyer Daniel Cady and wife Margaret (Livingston) Cady. Stanton's class privilege allowed her access to advanced education at the Troy Female Seminary. After graduating, Stanton studied legal and constitutional history and visited her cousin, reformer Gerrit Smith. Through Smith, she met Henry Stanton, an abolitionist employed by the American Anti-Slavery Society. Their 1840 marriage ceremony parted ways with tradition as Elizabeth struck the word “obey” from her vows and was introduced by her own name, declining the customary “Mrs. Henry Stanton.” The couple attended the World Anti-Slavery Conference in London and witnessed female abolitionists such as Lucretia Mott being refused the right to speak. This offense led Mott and Stanton to plan a conference upon their return to the United States; this resulted in a meeting of women and like-minded supporters that would become the first conference for woman's rights. This plan was realized in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention. Stanton formulated the rewriting of the Declaration of Independence to include the rights of women, labeling it the Declaration of Sentiments. Included in this document was a list of grievances suffered by women, aimed at illuminating the tyranny of female oppression. Stanton's radical demand for female suffrage, while supported by noted reformer Frederick Douglass, was met with misgivings by many fellow abolitionists.

Also among Stanton's beliefs was that marriage was an institution maintaining the sexual oppression of women; she fought for fair divorce laws that would provide redress against abusive husbands. Stanton challenged the Victorian notion that men and women belonged in separate spheres and was aided in her battles by close friend and feminist activist Susan B. Anthony. The two women formed and led numerous reform organizations such as the American Equal Rights Association (1866) and the New York State Woman's Temperance Society (1852). Most famously, Stanton and Anthony created the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869 after a bitter split occurred between feminists and abolitionists over the issue of black male suffrage. Frustrated with abolitionists' belief that women's suffrage could not be realized before black male suffrage, Stanton and Anthony insisted that universal voting rights constituted an urgent necessity. Following the rift, Stanton and Anthony were often accused of racism and elitism. The branches merged in 1890 with the formation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

In later years, Stanton elucidated her critique of the inequalities inherent to organized religion. This culminated in the 1895 publication of The Woman's Bible, a controversial feminist commentary on the Old Testament. She participated in the publishing of History of Woman Suffrage and her autobiography 80 Years and More. Stanton's death in 1902 meant that she did not live to cast a legal vote of her own, but her lifelong contributions to the first wave of the women's rights movement continue to identify her as a founding author of feminist thought and action