​"We shall some day be heeded, and... everybody will think it was always so..."

Photo by Frances Benjamin Johnston [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

• WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST

• Cofounded the National Woman Suffrage Association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• Worked for 50+ years to improve women's rights, including lobbying for the successful expansion of New York's Married Woman's Property Act, which -- among other changes -- gave women the legal right to keep the money they earned. (Yes, you read that right: a married woman's earnings legally belonged to her husband!!)​

• So it's probably unsurprising that she never married, despite multiple suitors​
• ONLY suffragist of her generation to entirely support herself
• Also advocated for temperance, coeducation, and abolition
• One of 150+ women who VOTED in the 1869 Presidential election -- 51 years before it was legal. She was arrested and fined, although she refused to pay.​
• Helped organize the International Council of Women
• Strained her eyes as a child and crossed them; one eventually righted itself, but she remained self-conscious about her wandering eye for the rest of her life
• The Susan B. Anthony List claims that Anthony was anti-abortion rights. Is this true?

Not So Awesome

In addition to fighting for women's rights, Anthony spent the first half of her life also campaigning against slavery, gathering signatures and giving numerous public speeches. After the Civil War, the same abolitionists she had worked with began pushing for the voting rights of former slaves while at the same time refusing to lobby for women's suffrage, because they believed combining the two issues would result in defeat for both. After the 14th Amendment passed, giving all male citizens, including former slaves, the right to vote, Anthony employed the same strategy. She aligned herself with anyone who was in support of women's suffrage -- including people who were openly racist or pro-segregation -- and refused to publicly support the civil rights of Black Americans, including desegregation and interracial marriage. She even went so far as to deny Black suffragists the right to start their own chapters of the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Bibliography: Doig, Lesley L. "Anthony, Susan." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2008, 114-115.
Ward, Geoffrey C and Ken Burns. Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. Print.

---

Support these organizations dedicated to preserving her story:

National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House
Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum

---

Being Awesome Doesn't Always Come Easy

How we deal with FAILURE is what separates the Awesome from the average. Anthony accomplished a lot, but she didn't live to see her lifetime of work pay off. Here's a timeline created by the AWL Librarian with some of Anthony's major successes and -- equally as important -- major failures:

Books by this Awesome Woman

(coauthored with Elizabeth Cady Stanton)

Biographies for Kids and Young Adults

(graphic novel format)

(picture book)

(picture book)

Research

Spread the word!

Meet more Awesome Women like this

Please note that while Awesome Women Library tries to include links only to media from reputable sources, we cannot attest to the quality or content of any media listed on this website. Our mission is to introduce you to these Awesome Women and give you a wide array of resources for learning more. We haven't read everything listed and are not a recommendation site, nor is this meant to be an exhaustive catalog of every book related to this woman -- there's just too much out there! Happy reading!!