One of Womens First Individuals in Society :: Essays Papers

One of Women's First Individuals in Society "There have been others also, just as true and devoted to the cause-I wish I could name every one-but with such women consecrating their lives, FAILURE IS IMPOSSIBLE." -Susan B. Anthony12 This remarkable Quaker women from Adams, Massachusetts was born on February 15, 1820. Her home life, as a child was not extraordinary, she lead a regular life. However, what she became in adult life challenges some curiosity.1 She was an American reformer and well recognized leader worldwide. The work, in which Anthony devoted her life to, perhaps her most memorable contribution, was her struggle with striving for women’s rights. What was it about Susan B. Anthony that made her a strong, persuasive, dignified individual of the nineteenth century society? After becoming headmaster of the Kenyon boarding school, when Eunice Kenyon fell sick, Anthony had her first taste of freedom. Anthony would no longer bow to the authority of others.2 It was at this very moment where she decide to set her- self apart from other women and become an individual who fought for universal rights. Some may have asked themselves why? "Not because she was robbed of her personal identity and independence, but because she had experienced a progression into independence that she became to see as essential for all women."3 The spark, which lit Anthony’s fire, began in 1852 in Albany, New York while attending a temperance rally where she quickly learned that she would not be permitted to speak because she was simply just a women. Now setting out to conquer her destiny, Anthony over the next several years would not only fight for women’s suffrage, but for universal suffrage as well. She combated the low income of women by "... pioneering for economic independence."4 "Any property, real or personal, which any married women now owns, or which may come to her by descent, etc., shall be her sole and separate property, not subject to control or interference by her husband."5 American Anti-Slavery Society, Women’s Loyal League, the National Woman Suffrage Association, a nd the International Council of Women are all organizations in which Anthony became affiliated. She was also an activist for pro-life. Anthony was not alone in her vie for women’s right’s. After years of suppression in her own corner of the world and contending in her own separate struggles, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was united with Anthony. Anthony had long awaited this day.