"I am the better writer, she the better critic...and together we have made arguments that have stood unshaken by the storms of thirty long years; arguments that no man has answered."
(Elizabeth Cady Stanton)
In 1851, Elizabeth Cady fell in love and married the abolitionist Henry Stanton. The couple moved from Boston to Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Stanton missed the intellectual community in Boston and vowed to "transform women's place in society". In 1848, she held the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls. Susan Anthony, a teacher for ten years, joined the temperance movement, encouraging women to seek legal solutions to the poverty and violence caused by their husbands' drinking.
Stanton and Anthony joined forces to advance the cause of women. They complemented each other well. As Stanton explained: "I am the better writer, she the better critic...and together we have made arguments that have stood unshaken by the storms of thirty long years; arguments that no man has answered." Anthony was always "Pushing her [Stanton] to write one more speech, one more manifesto" (http://www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/resources/index.html). While Stanton was married with seven children, Anthony was single and had the freedom to move about. Anthony travelled to 54 counties in New York State delivering speeches about women's rights.
In 1856, the women joined the American Anti-Slavery Society. They joined forces with 5,000 women to secure 400,000 signatures supporting the 13th Amendment to free the slaves. In 1869, the women joined the National Women's Suffrage Association. From 1868 to 1870, Stanton wrote for The Revolution, a radical women's rights newspaper.
As part of the New Departure, Stanton and Anthony started to view the 14th and 15th Amendments as proof that all humans had the right to vote, not just males. In 1872, they voted in the presidential election, along with 150 women, and were arrested. Within three years, however, the Supreme Court struck down their argument.
In 1878, the women proposed their own Amendment, which would sit before Congress for 40 years.
Stanton and Anthony merged with the American Women's Suffrage Association and The Women's Christian Temperance Union to strengthen their numbers. And still they waited.
In 1892, Stanton retired from speaking but continued to write. Anthony continued the cause with a campaign to acquire women's suffrage one state at a time. Both women passed away in the early 1900's. The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, would not be passed until 1920.
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