Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady, Lucy Stone: Three Feminist Figures Who Heavily Influenced The Pass
It’s no secret that in today’s modern world, women of the United States have fundamental and constitutionally recognized human rights. However, it’s important to understand that in order for women to achieve these rights, human rights activists of the past had to face centuries of misogyny implemented into political, cultural, and economic systems. Even as societally constructed gender barriers had stopped women’s rights from being acknowledged, the U.S. constitution soon realized that women had much more to offer than just submissive domestic services, and the works of the feminist movement (of the early 19th/20th first wave feminism) proved this. These works led to the passing of the 19th amendment by the U.S. Congress on June 4, 1919, which was then formalized on August 18, 1920.
While the 19th Amendment stands as a proud American attainment, which ratified women’s right to vote, it’s important for the people of today’s society to educate themselves on the countless feminist activists and groups who left influential legacies and contributed to change in American politics. One of the most moral amendments to be approved occurred as response to the women’s suffrage movement, in which organizations worked to reject the U.S government’s refusal to give women the right to vote. The two most notable organizations to do this were the National Woman's Suffrage Association (NWSA), guided by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady, and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), guided by Lucy Stone. While both groups were created to demand political equality of the two sexes, the National Woman’s Suffrage Association focused generally on getting the U.S. government’s acknowledgement for women’s voting rights, while the American Woman Suffrage Association focused on achieving women’s voting rights on a state-by-state basis.
The leaders of these organizations, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady, and Lucy Stone, were brave women who were able to object to patriarchal values that conflicted with their moral ethics. So, to support their works, it is crucial to learn more about their history, careers, and beliefs.
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony was an American activist born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. From a young age, Anthony was influenced by the Quaker belief that under God, everybody was equal. This belief would be the foundation of her and many of her siblings career, as they became activists against slavery and gender discrimination.
Anthony’s abolition activism is believed to have began after speaking with her father’s friends (when settling in her family’s home in New York), William Lloyd Garrison (an American journalist, most notably known for his support of suffrage and abolition of slavery as a white male in the 19th century) and Frederick Douglass (African-American public speaker and activist against slavery, who soon became a leader in the abolitionist movement). She continued to meet more abolition activists, like Parcker Pillsbury (American minister who supported the women’s suffrage and abolition movement), Wendell Phillips (American orator and advocate for Native Americans and abolition), and William Henry Channing (American philosopher, writer, and socialist in support of eliminating slavery, poverty, and war). While these famous reformers inspired her to help eliminate slavery, she was shamed for giving public speeches for abolition due to her gender, but she bravely continued to passionately educate others despite the criticism she received.
In 1851, Anthony met Elizabeth Cady (another women’s rights activist), and the two became close friends, as they worked together for over 40 years. With each other’s support, they traveled around the United States to give speeches and preach about women's suffrage, despite the risk of being arrested for spreading awareness of issues involving gender discrmination.
In 1853, Anthony, alongside Cady, founded the Women’s New York State Temperance Society, which carried the goal of convincing the State to pass a law that limited the sale of liquor. Both Anthony and Cady gathered 28,000 signatures for their petition to help accomplish this goal, but due to the misogyny of the time, the petition was rejected as many signatures were from women. In this same year, at a state teachers’ convention at Canajoharie Academy, Anthony called for more job opportunities and equal pay for women. In the next few years (1859), she would continue to support her stance, speaking before the teachers’ convention in New York and Massachusetts, preaching for coeducation in schools and African-American rights to receive an education. She would continue to support African-Americans by becoming chief agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society, an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan (American businessman, philanthropist, and abolitionist).
Anthony’s discipline, diligence, internal strength, and organization skills were some reasons as to why she was a powerful, successful leader. Working with other great leaders of the time, being Elizabeth Cady, Frederick Douglass, and Lucy Stone, Anthony founded the American Equal Rights Organization in 1866, which worked to grant equal rights to all American citizens, regardless of sex, color, and race. Two years before the dissolution of the organization in 1870, Anthony was an editor of its newspaper where they would preach ideas of gender equality.
During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Anthony helped organize the Women’s National Loyal League, which aimed for emancipation. Unfortunately, after the war, her efforts to alter the words of the 14th and 15th Amendments (which granted legal rights to emancipated African-Americans after the Civil War and African-American men’s voting rights), to be more inclusive to women proved unsuccessful. The 14th and 15th Amendments had also caused a divide in the women’s right movement. Anthony and her supporters disagreed with the Amendments, and as a response, she created the National Woman Suffrage Association (1869) to push for a constitutionally approved Amendment that would grant women the right to vote. One case, where Anthony was arrested for voting (1872), brought national attention and great support to the women’s suffrage movement. In 1867, she led a protest where she delivered a speech called “Declaration of Rights,” written by Elizabeth Cady and Matilda Joslyn Gage (American writer and women’s suffrage activist).
The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) prioritized the women’s suffrage movement and sparked lots of controversy due to its stance towards numerous social issues, like marriage and divorce. In addition, the National Woman Suffrage Association invited all supporters (including societies in addition to people) to become the group’s allies, which resulted in more approval of women’s rights shown among citizens of the United States.
Anthony’s constant works for the women’s suffrage movement made her one of the most accomplished and influential feminist figures of the 19th century. All her amazing efforts to uphold the feminist movement, from giving speeches opposing the patriarchy, to forming many groups focused on attaining rights for women and African-Americans. Sadly, Anthony had passed away in 1906, 14 years before women’s right to voting would be acknowledged in the 19th Amendment. While Susan B. Anthony passed away a long time ago, her story continues to be learned and praised by many, as she played a crucial role in legalizing women’s right to vote.
Elizabeth Cady
Elizabeth Cady was a writer and advocate for the women’s right movement, born on November 12, 1815, in Johnstown, New York. She was an educated woman (having learned a lot from her father, Daniel Cady, who worked as a member of the U.S. representatives and soon a Supreme Court judge in New York), who is commonly known for working alongside many anti-slavery and women’s suffrage activists, such as Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and more. She began to learn more about the discrimination of women in politics when studying law, which inspired her to begin fighting for women’s suffrage. Opposing sexism, Cady even avoided using the word “obey” in her marriage.
Cady’s activism led her to becoming a public speaker for women’s rights, where she worked to create petitions that would give married women property rights (by the New York constitution passing the Married Women’s Property Act). In 1848, Cady and Lucretia C. Mott (a women’s rights and abolition activist) called for a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. In this meeting, Cady introduced her book Declaration of Sentiments (which was modeled on the Declaration of Independence) where she highlighted the inferiority of women in society and urged for reforms that would start the women’s rights movement. Cady’s activism had gained the attention of many, and she was even invited to address the legislation of New York. This resulted in a new law that would grant married women rights to wages and equality in guardianship of their offspring (in 1860).
Cady and Susan B. Anthony both met in 1851 (as mentioned in Anthony’s biography), and the women’s suffrage movement became the top priority for both women. While Cady could not travel due to her domestic duties (raising seven children), she wrote speeches that Anthony would deliver to the public. The two both suited each other greatly, Cady having astounding writing skills and Anthony having clever tactics.
Continuing her support in abolitionism, Cady and her business partner Anthony founded the Women’s National Loyal League in 1863. The two gathered over 300 000 signatures calling for emancipation for African-American individuals. Cady and Anthony pushed for further involvement in the abolition movement and urged Congress to push for the 13th Amendment (to ban slavery) and continued voicing their stance by working with many abolitionists, notably Frederick Douglass (in which they formed an association aiming for equal rights for all American citizens). However, Cady opposed the 14th and 15th Amendment (that gave black men voting rights) as she believed the Amendment should have included women as well. This opposition created controversy in the feminist community, which inspired Cady to form the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869, while Lucy Stone, who opposed Cady’s stance on the Amendments, founded the American Women’s Suffrage Association (AWSA).
As a significant feminist figure in politics, Cady continued to call for the government’s intervention in sexism and was the main writer of the Delcaration of Rights for Women which was presented at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia (1876). She further pushed for a women’s suffrage law by drafting a federal suffrage amendment, which was shown to every Congress in the United States, until the publishing of the 19th Amendment.
As the president of the NWSA, Cady was the editor for its newsletter The Revolution where she spread awareness about multiple women’s rights issues involving sexism (until the newspaper stopped operating in 1970). In 1890, the divide in the feminist movement calmed down as both major associations (NWSA and the AWSA) united as one (National American Woman’s Suffrage Assocaition), and Cady was once again named president of the newly found Association until 1892. Along her famous works with the NWSA and it’s newsletter, she continued to publish various writings, such as the three volumes of History of Women’s Suffrage in 1881-1885 (written with Anthony and another feminist figure, Matilda Joslyn Gage), the Woman’s Bible, in 1895-1898 (where she voiced her opinion on how patriarchal theology and religious orthodoxy prevented women from achieving self-power), and Eighty Years and More, highlighting the works in her life. Cady’s works continued to be published, such as The Elizabeth Cady-Susan B. Anthony Reader (1992) which collects various essays ranging from many topics.
While her astonishing efforts in the feminist movement will continue to be appreciated, Elizabeth Cady passed away in 1902, where she unfornutely could not live up to witness the passing of the 19th Amendment 18 years after her death. However, Cady continues to be an important icon in opposing patriarchy and fighting for women’s suffrage, even after over a century of her death.
Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone was an American suffragist and pioneering abolitionist, born on August 13, 1818, Massachusetts. She was the first woman in her home state to earn a college degreedegree in college, uncommonly refused to take her husband’s last name after marriage, and began rejecting the idea of slavery (just like her father did). Carrying beliefs against sexism since she was a child, Stone was determined to attend college as a woman. She began working in her teen years to save money for college, and in 1843, enrolled in Oberlin College. When she graduated, she declined the “glory” of writing her own commencement speech, as a man would have had to read it for her.
Stone was nearly thirty when completing her education but did not have many career pathways open for her because of her womanhood. To support her career, William Lloyd Garrison hired her in the American Anti-Slavery Society to write and deliver abolition speeches. Like other female human rights activists, she was heavily criticized and once was attacked by a mob. However, this did not stop her from continuing to advocate for the rights of women and African-Americans. She even organized the first national Women's Rights Convention in Massachusetts (1850), where her speech was then reprinted in the international press. Following this, she participated in the women’s rights conventions held in 1852, 1853, 1855, and led the New York convention in 1856. She worked closely with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady, and supported the Women’s National Loyal League during the Civil War, and would later help form the American Equal Rights Association with Cady and Anthony.
Stone was known for traveling around the United States and Canada to give lectures, and often attended women’s rights conventions. During this time, she met Henry Blackwell, who begged her to marry him, promising a just and egalitarian marriage. As promised, their marriage rejected the stereotypical standard of an obedient wife, including a protest against marriage laws. Stone continued to omit the sexist marital standards by refusing to take her husband’s last name (and was known as “Mrs. Stone”). The couple ended up raising a daughter, who worked alongside her parents in the fight for gender equality and abolition.
Continuing her activism, Stone went by the principle of “no taxation without representation” and refused to pay her property taxes, which resulted in the selling of the Stone house goods. She also worked in many associations in her career, including the New Jersey Women’s Suffrage Association and the New England Association, and held a position of executive committee in the American Equal Rights Association where she worked alongside Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady, and Frederick Douglass. As mentioned, her partnership with Anthony and Cady split due to the divide in the feminist community over the 14th and 15th U.S. Amendments. Stone was in support of the Amendments as she stood strongly with the African American community and was willing to continue her fight for women’s voting rights. As Anthony and Cady were in disagreement, Stone formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). One of Stone’s jobs in the AWSA was to edit the group’s publication the Woman’s Journal. Her association pushed for women’s suffrage on a state-to-state basis, and this goal allowed for women to vote in local elections in Massachusetts. Stone registered to vote, but was rejected from doing so because she did not take her husband’s last name. Later, the union of the two associations was played out by Stone’s and Cady’s daughters, Alice Stone Blackwell and Harriot Stanton Blatch, who were able to tranquil past the controversies involving the 14th and 15th Amendments.
The last speech Stone gave was at the World’s Columbian Exposition (1893), before her death later in October. Stone was of the small population of white individuals to stand up for enslaved people’s rights. Working in many associations throughout her career, she truly accomplished what misogynists thought any woman could not do; become the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree, defied gender norms and kept her surname after marriage, led others to form state Amendments to grant women voting rights by forming many speeches and writings, and had a significant job in many associations.
Overview of Their Works
While the fight for gender equality in North America is largely over, it’s still important to commemorate and celebrate the achievements of brave women from the past who fought for their interpretation of moral righteousness. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady, and Lucy Stone, being some of these women, had worked tirelessly to take down the sexist barriers of society back then. Additionally, even if they did not live to see how their works had impacted society, the 19th Amendment was largely due to the reunion of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association which brought together all feminists fighting for women’s suffrage.
Continuing the fight in gender equality, the feminist movement of first wave feminism would galvanize the second wave feminist movement (1960s-1970s), around four centuries after the passing of the 19th U.S. Amendment. During this time, it is no doubt that the women’s suffrage movement had inspired those involved in ending gender discrimination. Even now, the lives of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady, Lucy Stone, and the other famous feminist figures of the past continue to encourage women of the world to stand up for their rights.
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