Remembering Susan B Anthony

Susan B. Anthony was an American social reformer and women’s rights activist. Let’s remember and learn about her on her birthday.

Susan Anthony was born on 15 February 1820, in Massachusetts, United States. Her family shared a passion for social reform. Anthony’s father sought to end slavery and the consumption of alcohol. Her brother joined the anti-slavery movement.

As an adult, Susan was interested in social reform, and she was distressed at being paid much less than men with similar jobs. In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a writer and activist, and together they worked for women’s rights and many reform activities.  

In 1852, they founded the New York Women’s State Temperance Society after Susan Anthony was prevented from speaking at a temperance conference because she was a woman. (Temperance is a movement in the United States to curb the consumption of alcohol.) In 1863, Susan and Elizabeth Stanton founded the Women’s Loyal National League and collected 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery. In 1868, they began publishing a women’s rights newspaper called The Revolution. In 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association was formed by them, which advocated the right for women to vote.

She passed away on 13 March 1906. In 1920, the women’s right to vote, colloquially known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment was implemented by the US government. Even though Susan Anthony was first ridiculed for her reforms, later she was widely respected for her work. She became the first woman citizen to be depicted on U.S. coinage when her portrait appeared on the 1979-dollar coin. 

Staff reporter