Don't let the bonnet and motherly demeanor fool you. Powerhouse Elizabeth Cady Stanton managed to birth and raise seven children all while serving as the driving force behind the women's rights movement.The U.S. Women's Rights Movement was officially set in motion in 1848 when Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Seventy-one years later, in 1920, the tireless efforts of Stanton, Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and many other women, resulted in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. Before 1970 only one or two scholars would have identified themselves as women historians, women's history wasn't seen as the subject of serious study. Today there's nary a college or university in the nation that doesn't offer women's history course, and most offer doctoral degrees in the field.
Women have a long way to go, but as we move into the future it's important to appreciate how far we've come. So this month, let's salute Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and all the courageous, multitasking women of our past and present, in the U.S. and around the world, for their work in helping half of of the world's population gain equality with the other half.
Here are a couple of interesting lists to share with your teens, male and female:
History Channel's Women's Hall of Fame List
Firsts for Women in U.S. Politics
