The Mother of the Women's Rights Movement

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born on November 1815 in Johnston, New York. She was born to Margaret Livingston and Daniel Cady. Her father was a prominent Federalist lawyer and judge, who worked with the likes of Hamilton, Burr, and Lincoln. Stanton received formal education from Johnstown Academy and Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary and was introduced to law by her father. Stanton married Henry Stanton, an abolitionist lecturer, which led her to become a part of the abolitionist movement. 

During a World's Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840, Stanton met Lucretia Mott, a fellow abolitionist who shared views on the unfair treatment of women during this meeting, as female delegates were excluded based off of their sex. Nearly a decade later, the two established the first Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, known as the Seneca Falls Convention. This meeting launched the women's suffrage movement, which after decades of disagreement would eventually enable women the right to vote in 1920. They penned the Declaration of Sentiments, which focused on demands for women. It was largely inspired by the Declaration of Independence by taking ideas from the original document and modifying them to include women, seen in a section which reads, "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal." It tackled issues such as women's voting prohibition, which forced women to heed to laws in which they had no say in, which has parallels to the very reason the United States was formed; laws that were imposed without proper representation. 

Through the years, Stanton consistently demonstrated dedication to the women's suffrage movement. In 1851, she met Susan B. Anthony, who began to collaborate and quickly dominated the woman's movement for multiple decades. When the Civil War broke out, she and Anthony joined to back the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. The two also spoke out against the 14th and 15th amendments, which would have extended voting rights to black men but not women. This opinion caused a rift within the women suffragists, leading to the creation of the National Woman Suffrage Association, in which Stanton contributed to its journal, The Revolution. The two women's suffrage groups would later reunite and form the National American Women's Suffrage Association, which Stanton would lead as president.

In 1902, Stanton died of heart failure, 18 years before her dream of women's right to vote was fulfilled. After her death, many suffragists only recognized Anthony as the leader of women's suffragist movement, largely due to the controversial religious ideas and other such opinions held by Stanton. However, over time, Stanton began to gain more and more recognition for her contribution to the movement. She, along with with many other prominent women, will appear on the back of the $10 bill, which will be revealed in 2020, the 100th anniversary of the extension of voting to women.