Portrait of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, circa 1870

An outspoken leader of the early women's rights movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) is perhaps best remembered for her contributions to the fight for women's suffrage, or equal voting rights. Stanton was a powerful strategist, writer, and organizer. She influenced her contemporaries and later suffragists, laying the groundwork for the ratification of a constitutional amendment that guaranteed women suffrage in 1920.