It’s hard to think about women’s history and the invaluable women’s Suffrage Movement without considering Susan B. Anthony.
She was one of the biggest faces of the women’s suffrage movement and dedicated her life to ensuring women would one day get the same opportunities as men.
Susan was born in Massachusetts in 1820. Her family was Quaker, and her dad was a farmer and her mom had served for the Massachusetts state government. She had seven siblings who also grew up to be activists.
As Susan grew older and became a teacher, she became more interested in social reform. Susan grew angry at the way women were being paid less than men for work and the overall gender inequalities of American society.
Susan’s fire for activism grew stronger and stronger as she learned more about the abolition and women’s suffrage movements. In 1851, she met writer and activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and together, they held a legendary partnership in social activism.
Susan and Elizabeth began traveling the country together, giving inspirational speeches and fighting for a woman’s right to vote in America. This was during a time when women were taught by society that they shouldn’t speak their minds so freely, and should instead dedicate their lives to becoming dutiful wives and mothers.
After the Civil War, Susan and Elizabeth co-founded the American Equal Rights Association, which campaigned for equal rights for white and Black women. In 1868, they created and became the editors of their organizations newspaper, The Revolution, which shared pieces about women’s rights and why it was important that women be able to vote.
Susan was able to fund the newspaper by getting paid for lectures and was said to have given up to 100 speeches a year while campaigning for the women’s suffrage movement.
In 1872, Susan was famously arrested in Rochester, New York, for voting when it was still only legal for men. She was tried and fined, but through the publicity surrounding her arrest, she was able to bring a lot of attention to the suffrage movement.
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Susan and Elizabeth continued to organize protests and fight for women’s rights after Congress passed the 14th and 15th Amendments, which were progressive in that they gave voting rights to African-American men but in no way gave women the right to vote.
That’s when they formed the National Woman Suffrage Association, which focused on pushing Congress to pass an amendment that would give women the right to vote.
Unlike many women in the 19th century, Susan never married and had no children. She continued working hard as an activist, traveling the country to give speeches, leading protests, gathering signatures for petitions, etc., until she was in her 80s.
Susan passed away in 1906 at the age of 86 in her home in New York due to heart failure and pneumonia. She never lived to see the passing of the 19th Amendment, which legally gave women the right to vote in 1920.
Although she never got to see the 19th Amendment pass, Susan was part of some of the most important political movements in American history. It’s strange to think about what the women’s suffrage movement would’ve looked like without her and the organizations she helped build.
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