A woman unafraid to speak the truth, suffragist and feminist leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) was born in Johnstown, New York. The daughter of a judge, she grew up refusing to accept the limits placed on girls of her time, studying Greek, Latin, and mathematics.

“Because man and woman are the complement of one another, we need woman's thought in national affairs to make a safe and stable government,” she said. In 1848, she helped craft a Declaration of Sentiments, a bold reimagining of the Declaration of Independence that demanded equal rights for women.

“Woman will always be dependent until she holds a purse of her own,” she wrote, insisting that true equality required economic as well as political freedom.

An 1851 meeting with Susan B. Anthony sparked a lifelong partnership. Together they worked to secure women’s legal rights and full citizenship. In 1869, they helped form the National Woman Suffrage Association, pushing the idea of women’s votes from audacious dream to national conversation.

“It requires philosophy and heroism to rise above the opinion of the wise men of all nations and voices,” Stanton said, naming the inner courage needed to stand apart from the crowd.

In 1878, Stanton persuaded California Senator Aaron Sargent to introduce a women’s suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment finally passed Congress in 1919, and a year later was ratified as the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote.

“Nature never repeats herself, and the possibilities of one human soul will never be found in another,” she believed, honoring the unique potential of every life.