Profile of the Day: Elizabeth Cady Stanton

On this day in 1815, American suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born. An early leader of the women’s rights movement in the United States, Stanton helped pave the way for the eventual passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.

Image: Elizabeth Cady Stanton / Library of Congress

Stanton was born on November 12, 1815 in Johnstown, New York to Daniel Cady and Margaret Livingston. Her father was a prominent lawyer and judge in upstate New York. Her maternal grandfather, James Livingston, was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Stanton was well educated and in 1840, she married abolitionist Henry Stanton, whom she met through her involvement in the abolitionist movement.

In 1848, Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention of its kind in the United States. She helped write the Declaration of Sentiments, which called for women’s right to vote. Shortly after, Stanton met Susan B. Anthony and begin a partnership that would become pivotal to the women’s suffrage movement. Their work would help pave the way for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Sadly, Stanton would not live to see women receive the right to vote. She died on October 26, 1902 at the age of 86.

Explore Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s family tree on Geni and share how you’re connected!

View Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Geni Profile