February 15, 2002

by Michele Keller, Web Editor

Today, Susan B. Anthony's birthday, we celebrate the life and accomplishments of a great leader in the women's movement who spent more than half a century leading the early struggle to win the most basic civil rights for women in the United States.

Throughout the 19th century, women could not vote. Colleges and universities did not admit women students. Women were barred from most profitable employment, and the women who did work received only about one-fourth what men received for doing the same work. Married women working outside the home experienced the indignity of having their earnings handed over to their husbands.

In the face of better and often abusive opposition, Susan B. Anthony campaigned for the abolition of slavery, women's rights to their own property and earnings, educational reform, and women's suffrage.

"Susan B. Anthony was often unorthodox, uncompromising and ahead of her time," said NOW President Kim Gandy. "She was a powerful political figure who worked tirelessly for the dignity, respect and legal rights for all women. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others, she plotted the first wave of the feminist movement."

"As we celebrate her birthday today, we can be proud of the progress women have made over the past century. We will never forget Susan B. Anthony's invaluable legacy of ideas and activism," Gandy added.

Facts about Susan B. Anthony (1820 - 1906):

• Anthony grew up in an activist Quaker family that believed in equal treatment for boys and girls. After working as a teacher, Anthony began her life as a social reformer by speaking out against drunkenness - focusing on the abuse of women and children at the hands of alcoholic husbands - and slavery.

• In 1853, Anthony spoke at a state teachers' convention, calling for better pay for women teachers. In 1859, she argued for coeducation, claiming there were no differences between the minds of men and women. She also campaigned for the right of children of former slaves to attend public schools.

• In 1869, she founded the National Woman's Suffrage Association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They worked together for women's suffrage for more than 50 years.

• From 1868 to 1870, she published a weekly paper called "The Revolution." Its motto read, "Men their rights and nothing more, women their rights and nothing less." It advocated an eight-hour day and equal pay for equal work, along with women's suffrage.

• On November 5, 1872, Anthony was arrested, put on trial and fined for voting in the presidential election. When she was not permitted to speak in her own defense in court, she refused to pay the fine.

• In 1878, she drafted legislation that would give women the right to vote. Twelve years later, she co-founded the National American Woman's Suffrage Association which focused on the national amendment to secure women the vote. She served as president for a decade.

• In 1900, Anthony persuaded the University of Rochester to admit women, using the cash value on her life insurance to meet the university's financial demands for the admission of women.

• Fourteen years after Anthony's death in 1906, adult women in the U.S. finally won the right to vote with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.

More information on Susan B. Anthony:

Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

The Susan B. Anthony House

Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership