Other meanings of Susan B. Anthony (suffragist)
Women's Rights
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the 19th-century women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family, she dedicated her life to achieving equal rights for women, including the right to vote. Her tireless advocacy, organizational skills, and strategic partnerships helped lay the groundwork for the eventual passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, which guaranteed women the right to vote.
Susan Brownell Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts, to a Quaker family that emphasized social reform and education. She worked as a teacher before becoming involved in temperance and anti-slavery movements, where she honed her skills as an organizer and public speaker. In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, beginning a lifelong partnership that would prove central to the women's rights movement. Together they founded the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869, and Anthony served as its president from 1892 to 1900, coordinating campaigns across the country.
Anthony argued that the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed equal protection under the law, already granted women the right to vote. In 1872, she tested this interpretation by casting a ballot in the presidential election in Rochester, New York, for which she was arrested and tried. Although she was convicted and fined, she refused to pay the fine and used the trial to publicize the suffrage cause. Her relentless lobbying and petitioning efforts, including the introduction of a suffrage amendment to Congress in 1878, kept the issue on the national agenda for decades.
Anthony did not live to see the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which was popularly known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment in her honor. Her legacy extends beyond suffrage: she was a vocal advocate for equal pay, educational opportunities, and the abolition of slavery. In 1979, the U.S. Mint issued the Susan B. Anthony dollar, making her the first woman to appear on a U.S. coin. Her home in Rochester, New York, is now a National Historic Landmark, and her papers have been preserved for historical study.
Beyond her public activism, Anthony was a skilled strategist who often worked behind the scenes, managing finances and organizing conventions. She was also a prolific writer, co-authoring the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage with Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage. Anthony was an early advocate for women's property rights and helped secure legislation in New York in 1860 that allowed married women to control their own earnings. She also supported labor unions and was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which she helped unite in 1890. Her commitment to equality extended to her will, which left funds to women's colleges and organizations.
This article focuses on Susan B. Anthony as the American social reformer and women's rights activist (1820–1906).
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