Susan B. Anthony is most known for her leadership role in the American woman’s suffrage movement of the 19th century. She was born in Massachusetts to a politically active and anti-slavery family in the early part of the 1800s, so Susan was automatically sensitive to inequalities of any kind. As a young woman, she was active in the Temperance (anti-alcohol) movement, but was chided by her male counterparts who didn’t believe women had a place in politics. The experience inspired her to dedicate her life toward woman suffrage with her fellow activist friend Elizabeth Stanton. Together they founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and wrote a weekly newsletter fittingly called Revolution. Susan was tireless in her speech-giving across the nation and she famously (but illegally) voted in the 1872 presidential election. She was arrested and fined for her impropriety. Imagine that! Unbelievably, Susan B. Anthony never lived long enough to see the right to vote be granted to American woman – yet female voters today have her to thank. The 19th amendment was finally passed in 1920. Women haven’t even been voting for 100 years yet. As Susan herself said: “Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.†Indeed Susan. Indeed.
