5 NOTABLE LEADERS IN THE WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT
5 Notable Leaders in the Women’s Suffrage Movement – The suffrage movement in the United States began in 1848. However, it wasn’t until decades later that women won the right to vote. Thanks to the perseverance of several women throughout the years, the 19th Amendment was eventually passed. Though ratified on August 18th, the U.S. government didn’t certify the amendment until August 26, 1920.
Here are 5 Notable Leaders in the Suffrage Movement that made this critical amendment possible.
1. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Born in Johnstown, New York, in 1815, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the daughter of prominent citizens. Stanton was well-educated and married to Henry Stanton, an abolitionist lecturer. In 1848, Stanton held the first Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY. Along with helping women attain the right to vote, she also fought for women’s property rights and ending slavery. Stanton was also the mother of 7 children. When she couldn’t travel, she wrote speeches for Susan B. Anthony. Throughout the years, Stanton became the most well-known women’s rights activist. She died in 1902.
2. Lucretia Mott
Born on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, in 1793 into a Quaker family, Lucretia Mott learned early about equality. The Quaker religion believes that all people were equal under God, regardless of color or gender. Mott was the founder of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. In 1840, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton at a World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Like Stanton, Mott was angry that women could not participate in the proceedings. Besides ending slavery, she became a prominent figure in the Suffrage Movement. In 1848, Mott helped Stanton organize the Seneca Fall Convention. She died in 1880.
3. Susan B. Anthony
Born in Adams, Massachusetts, in 1820, Susan B. Anthony was also a Quaker. Members of her mother’s family had fought in the American Revolution. Her father’s friends included William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglas. Anthony was well-known as an abolitionist, but would also become one of the most prominent leaders of the women’s suffrage movement. Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851, and together they formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. In 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting and fined $100. She died in 1906.
4. Lucy Stone
Born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, in 1818, Lucy Stone was married to the abolitionist Henry Blackwell. Upon marriage, Stone refused to change her last name. She felt that by taking her husband’s name, the world would not recognize her as an independent, rational being. Stone helped form the American Women Suffrage Association. This organization fought for women’s rights on a state-by-state basis. In 1871, Stone and her husband published The Woman’s Journal, a weekly feminist newspaper. She died in 1893.
5. Alice Paul
Born in Moorestown, New Jersey, in 1885, Alice Paul grew up in a very intellectual and religious family. While attending a training school in England, Paul became involved with the country’s most radical suffragists. Paul came back to the United States in 1910. Many people disagreed with her “unladylike” tactics of civil disobedience and radical confrontation. In 1913, Paul helped organize an enormous suffrage parade. The parade distracted from President Wilson’s inauguration. Later, she formed the National Woman’s Party (NWP). Due to a 7-month picket of the White House, she and other members of the NWP were arrested and imprisoned. In 1923, Paul proposed an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. She died in 1977.
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