The fight for women’s rights has come a long way and it has taken many years and efforts for women activists. The first significant and most important move was made by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. They have initialized the changes in society towards women’s rights, freedom and equality.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were united by the same idea but came towards the idea in very different ways. Elizabeth Stanton was born and grew up in a wealthy family. Her father has had four sons but they all died and as women had no rights at the time, he lost all hopes that someone will take his place as the leader of the family.
Elizabeth Stanton wanted to please him very much and acted according to her father’s words, which were: “I wish you were a boy” (Barnes, 1999). When the time came for her to continue education and she very much wanted to, both social rules and her father did not support her.
When she met and married Henry Brewster Stanton, she received support from him, as he was also a revolutionist and supported slavery abolition. When they were attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, Elizabeth Cady Stanton met Lucretia Mott who was a feminist and a great supporter of rights of women. Lucretia Mott has very much influenced Elisabeth’s views and goals in the fight for women’s equality (Barnes, 1999).
Susan B. Anthony, on the other hand, was born in a Quaker family and her father was also quite a successful man. The difference was that he supported his daughter and her want to get educated. He pulled her from a public school and educated her himself. Later Susan B. Anthony finished her education and became a teacher herself.
She was very intelligent and organized, as well as tactical. She became a good teacher and was given a head position. During the 4 years of teaching, she had many opportunities to get married, as there were several suitors. Instead, she chose to be independent, she did not want to belong to anyone, as this was the predominant view of society, that women were a man’s property.
She returned home and her father placed her in charge of his farm. This was the place where a lot of revolutionaries and human rights activists would meet and she realized that she wants to be a “full time reformist” (Barnes, 1999).
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were introduced to each other in 1851, they joined their forces in the temperance movement (Isecke, 2011). They have started their lives in different surroundings but were united by the same goal. As mentioned in the video titled “Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony – Not for Ourselves”, they complimented each other.
Susan Anthony was strategic, organized and a critic. She would also supply the facts and be representative of their mutual thoughts in the speeches that she made. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a better writer, a philosopher and good at rhetoric.
In the video, Kathleen Barry says that these two women “are women’s history” and that without them the movement might have never started. These two individuals have created a unit so strong that it changed the course of history and their differences were only skin deep, while their common goal was their life and passion.
References
Barnes, Paul. (Executive Producer). (1999). Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony. [Film]. Washington, United States: WETA.
Isecke, D. (2011). Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Early Suffragists. Huntington Beach, United States: Teacher Created Materials.