We, women, owe a lot to the good women who came before us. While it has always seemed quite clear to me that I was — or should be — on equal ground as my male counterparts, it always surprised me when I found otherwise.
My parents were fair people. To my knowledge, the boys did not have privileges that the girls did not. We all had chores, we all had responsibilities, we had the same “when the street lights come on” curfew. All of us were expected to excel in school and continue on to college. It always shocked me when my friends would talk about their greatest goal in life was to find a good husband.
As an adult, I learned about the discrepancies in human rights — for women, for people of color, for gays, and a slew of others — and I was astounded. In my astonishment, I was vocal about those transgressions, yet, I never truly DID anything about them. I wasn’t on the front lines, protesting or petitioning Congress. I was just upset.
So I am amazed at the people who have paved the way in this. The ones who have given their lives to make things better. One of those individuals, working for women’s rights and also for the freedom of the slaves, was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This is her birthday, November 12, 1815.
She did so much. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a leader of the women’s rights movement in the United States during much of the 1800s. There was that amazing 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. It was the first convention to be called for the sole purpose of discussing women’s rights, and she was the main force behind that event. She demanded the right for women’s to vote, which generated controversy at the convention. But it was quickly accepted as a central part of the women’s movement. (She cared about other things too, such as social reform and abolitionism.)
I mentioned I was amazed by these incredible leaders, and I always wonder what motivated them to be so incredibly fierce in their pursuits. What thing sparked them along the way?
Elizabeth Cady was born into the most prominent family of Johnstown, New York. They were quite rich, and their family mansion was smack dab on the town’s main square. They had around twelve servants to manage the operations of the homestead.
She had a conservative father, Daniel Cady, one of the richest landowners in the state. He was an attorney who served a single term in the U.S. Congress. He was also a Justice in the New York Supreme Court. Her mother, Margaret Livingston Cady, was more progressive and liberal. She supported the abolitionist movement.
Here is the thing. Elizabeth was the seventh of eleven children. Six of those kids died before reaching adulthood, including all of the boys. Her mother experienced much despair and anguish from seeing so many of her children die. She became withdrawn and depressed. The oldest sibling, a sister named Typhena, did much of the rearing of the younger kids.
During that period in life, she pursued her fine education, a privilege of the rich. She attended Johnstown Academy in her hometown until the age of 15. She was smart, the only girl in its advanced classes in mathematics and languages. She later said she did not encounter any barriers at school because of her sex.
Yet. It became clear to her that society felt differently about women. And so did her father.
When her last surviving brother, Eleazar, died at the age of 20, her father and mother were paralyzed by grief. Elizabeth was ten at the time. She went to her father in an attempt to console and comfort him. She told him she would try to be all her brother had been. Her father said, “Oh, my daughter, I wish you were a boy!”
Perhaps that was the motivation for her relentless pursuit of women’s rights. I’m not glad it had to happen that way, but extremely thankful that it did. Happy Birthday, ECS.
==========
“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
=========
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
― Maya Angelou
==========
“The test of whether or not you can hold a job should not be in the arrangement of your chromosomes”
― Bella Abzug
==========
The great big woman. A great big leader, she was.
