Biography of: Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Author: Heather R. Myers
Timeline
Leadership Style
Political Philosophy
Timeline
- November 12,1815 - Birth of Elizabeth Cady Stanton Early
- 1830's - Stanton Attended Troy Female Seminary
- 1833 - Traveled to Cousin's Home Where Anti-Slavery Reform Movements Developing
- 1840 - Married to Henry Brewster Stanton Attended Anti-Slavery Convention in London
- 1848 - Drafted Declaration of Rights and Sentiments Organized the First Women's Rights Conference
- 1861 - 1865 - Women's Loyal National League Formed
- 1866 - American Equal Rights Association Established
- May 1869 - National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) Formed
- 1878 - Stanton Wrote and Submitted Women Suffrage Amendment to U.S. Senate
- Mid 1880's - Helped publish "History of Woman Suffrage"
- 1888 - International Conference of Women Organized
- 1890 - NWSA and American Woman Suffrage unite to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), Stanton Presided
- 1892 - Stanton Retired as President of NAWSA
- October 26, 1902 - Elizabeth Cady Stanton died
- August 18, 1920 - Women's Rights Amendment Ratified
- August 26, 1920 - First Time Women Voted at Polls
Leadership Style
"I live… For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance And the good that I can do."
This poem, taken from Elizabeth Cady Stanton's diary, describes her life that was dedicated to a dream that women would share equal rights as men. Elizabeth Cady Stanton saw a wrong in her society's way of thinking. The focus of her life was to fight that injustice she saw. Her cause to end the suffrage and discrimination of women gave way to a movement that has impacted and changed the way women are viewed in society. The rights and opportunities that women have gained was the product of the revolutionary ideas, philosophies and rhetoric of the "mother of the women's suffrage movement," Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Stanton was born on November 12,1815 in Johnstown, New York to Margaret Livingston and Daniel Cady. Because her father was a wealthy, prominent judge in NewYork, Stanton grew up with many benefits and privileges that an upper-middle class family could provide. One such opportunity was an education that most women of her day could not obtain. She first attended Johnston Academy where she took advanced classes in math, science, and the languages. Stanton furthered her education at Emma Willard's Troy Seminary, which was considered to be the best provider of education for women. This education was one factor that allowed Stanton to become one of the most outstanding writer, orator, and freethinker of her time.
Elizabeth's strong drive for equality came out of an early, personal experience that enlightened her of the societal view that women were inferior to men and were treated as so. At age eleven, her only brother, who was adored by her father, passed away. Refusing any condolence and comfort from Elizabeth, her father spoke these words, "Oh my daughter, I wish you were a boy." Those few words changed Elizabeth's life that day. To compensate for the loss of her father, Stanton vowed to exceed her brother's accomplishments and prove that she was as good as any man.
After pursuing the highest education she could, Stanton traveled to the home of her cousin Gerrit Smith, where she was introduced to reform movements for slaves. During her stay at her cousin's home, Stanton met Henry Stanton, an advocate for anti-slavery and a man she later married. After their marriage in 1840, they attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. At this convention, Elizabeth met Lucretia Mott. The two joined together to campaign for the rights of women when they saw how the female delegates at the convention were denied recognition.
In the summer of 1848 Mott and Stanton, along with other feminist, organized the first women's rights convention in Seneca Fall, New York. Heading the meeting, Stanton presented the "Declaration of Rights and Sentiments of the Women of the United States" as a creed for the movement. This declaration, which was modeled after the Declaration of Independence, provided eleven resolutions that demanded social and political equality. Of the eleven resolutions was the right for women to vote, and even though that resolution was thought of as unobtainable, the declaration was passed with sixty-eight signatures from women and thirty-two signatures from men. Stanton quotes, "The right to vote is ours. Have it we must, use it we will."
Through the course of her work, Stanton befriended Susan B. Anthony, and both continued the quest to end the suffrage of women as a team. The two complimented each other nicely. Stanton, because of her duty to motherhood, stayed home and wrote speeches, manifestos, and articles of her rhetoric and philosophies for Anthony to take out on the road and spread throughout the United States. Anthony posed as the voice for Stanton's ideas.
Throughout their partnership, Stanton and Anthony achieved great steps for women's rights, and created several groups for support. During the Civil War (1861-1865) Elizabeth and Susan formed the Women's Loyal National League to help persuade Congress to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, allowing African-American slaves to vote. In 1866, both helped establish the American Equal Rights Association. This group supported the notion that all humans, including African-Americans and women, should have the right to vote. Stanton and Anthony soon became disgusted with the group because most of their colleagues felt that the right for African-Americans to vote should take precedence over that for women. As a result, the two left the group and formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in May of 1869. This group was solely dedicated in attaining an amendment for women's rights.
Between 1868 and 1870, Stanton helped publish one of the first radical women's rights newspaper named The Revolution. Stanton became the principal writer and editor. Later in 1878, Stanton, with the support of the NWSA, wrote and submitted the "women suffrage amendment" to the U.S. Senate. The amendment did not pass, but the NWSA submitted it to each session for forty years.
Because her children had grown and left the home, Stanton was able to start traveling and lecturing on her own in the 70's. She began to express some of her own views on marriage and divorce reform, dress reform, expanded educational opportunities for women, and religious oppression of women. In the mid 1880's, Stanton returned home to help write "History of Woman Suffrage," three volumes about the movement that she helped start. In 1888, Stanton and Anthony decided that their cause should be heard throughout the world, so they organized an international conference of women to celebrate the anniversary of the first conference in Seneca Falls.
To strengthen the women's rights movement, Stanton's NWSA agreed to merge with rival group, the American Woman Suffrage (AWS) to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890. Stanton served as President of this merged group until 1892. When Stanton retired as President of NAWSA, she began to withdraw from the mainstream views of women's rights and lobbied opinions that were viewed as too radical and controversial. Because of this stance held by Stanton, she was disassociated and censured by the Women's Suffrage Association. On October 26,1902, Stanton died of heart failure.
Stanton's hard fought battle for women's rights finally paid off in the spring of 1919, when the amendment that was presented in 1878 was passed in the Congress. On August 18, 1920, The House voted to ratify the amendment and it became law. Women voted at the polls for the first time on August 26,1920.
Stanton was a great leader and instigator of this important movement for women. She used a democratic style of leadership to perpetuate the movement. She never fought the battle alone. The decisions she made always included a group of colleagues. For example, when organizing the first convention for women's rights, she had help from a group of her peers including Lucretia Mott, Jane Hunt, Martha Wright, and Mary Ann McClintock. She relied mostly on Susan B. Anthony, and others to express her ideas in the earlier part of the movement because of the role she committed herself to at home.
Political Philosophy
Stanton's political philosophy was very revolutionary radicalism. She believed that the values and beliefs of women that society upheld was unjust. She felt that society and the government needed to change the role they played in discriminating against women. Stanton quotes in her address at the first women's rights convention: "Yours be the glory to discover, by personal experience, how long the kneepan can resist the terrible strapping down which you (society) impose…we are assembled to protest against a form of government existing without the consent of the governed - to declare our right to be free as man is free." Stanton uses arguments in her writings and speeches to persuade the members of the movement to take an active stance towards women's rights. In the same speech she states, "The right is ours. Have it, we must. Use it, we will." She calls for reform by demanding for rights - "We now demand our right to vote according to the declaration of the government under which we live." Finally, Stanton speaks of a type of war to get the rights she wants. She explains, "Now is the time for the women of this country, if they would save our free institutions, to defend the right, to buckle on the armor that can best resist the keenest weapons of the enemy - contempt and ridicule."
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