Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the leading suffragists of 19th-century America. As coorganizer with Susan B. Anthony of the first women's rights convention in the United States, as the author of the first public statement calling for women's suffrage, and as the coauthor of History of Woman Suffrage, a massive work documenting the suffragist movement's history in the 19th century, Stanton was a major figure in popularizing the cause of women's rights.

Stanton first became aware of the injustices against women when she was a child visiting her father's law office. Her visits revealed to her the extent of problems faced by women at that time--especially due to their lack of the right to own property--and the little protection...