Elizabeth Cady Stanton

 Elizabeth Cady Stanton inspired many people to fight for women's suffrage. Her childhood as a daughter of a lawyer and judge helped spark her desire for equality for all. Her organizational skills helped unite women. Her dedication to the women's suffrage movement never ceased, even in hard times. This amazing woman was the first women's suffragist.

 Even as a child, Stanton tried to right things she saw as politically wrong. She was born in Johnstown, New York on November 12, 1815. She would read her father's law books and if she found a law she thought unjust, like that married women couldn't own property, she simply cut it out of the book. Her father had to explain to her that just because the law wasn't in his book didn't mean that it was gone altogether and that they didn't need to abide by that law. When her brother died, her father told her that he wished she was a boy. Stanton studied classics and learned horseback riding to try to be more like a son for her father. She wanted to go to Union College, where her brother had studied, but was instead sent to Emma Willard's all-female seminary for three years. Stanton studied hard there, even though she disapproved of single-sex education. Later, she met Henry Stanton, an abolitionist. Disregarding her father's objections, they were married and went to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London for their honeymoon.

 Stanton worked her whole life trying to get rights for women. At the World Anti-Slavery Convention, she met Lucretia Mott. They worked together to hold the first women's rights convention in 1848. Stanton declared that women and men were equal and that women should be able to vote. Stanton wrote articles on women's rights and through the paper, met Susan B. Anthony. Together, they organized the Women's Loyal National League in 1863.

 Stanton is remembered as the “brains” of the women's suffrage movement. She wrote and spoke out for women's rights. She contributed a lot to the movement. Even though she had seven children and a house to tend to, she still found time to write and make speeches, and go to conventions. She wore a short skirt over trousers, even though mocked by many, to make a statement about women's rights. Stanton's feminism led her to oppose the fourteenth and fifteenth amendment because they extended the rights of African-American men, but excluded women. She even wrote and published The Woman's Bible, where she tried to correct what she saw as a degrading view of women in the scriptures. Stanton continued to put forth her opinions and stayed up to date with women's suffrage until she died in 1902. She didn't live to see the amendment passed, but she helped tremendously in bringing it around.

Stanton is known as the founder of the women's suffrage movement. She dedicated a lot of her time to convincing people that women should have more rights because they are equal to men. Through many speeches and conventions, she influenced many people. Her life is a testament to what one person can do to change the world.