Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, New York, on November 12, 1815. Raised in a strict Presbyterian home, she was given a special admission to the Johnston Academy, which normally was open only to boys. There being no colleges for women, she attended Emma Willard's academy in Troy, New York, and later studied law with her father, Judge Daniel Cady. The profession of law, however, was at that time closed to women.
Becoming interested in temperance, women's rights and Abolitionism, she married Henry Brewster Stanton, a prominent Abolitionist and accompanied him to the world anti-slavery conference in London in 1840. There she and Lucretia Mott were denied the right to speak because they were women.
Returning to the United States, the Stanton's moved to Boston where Mr. Stanton practiced law, and then to Seneca Falls, New York. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized a conference in support of women's right, held on July 19 and 20, which is generally considered the first public meeting in the women's rights movement.
In 1851, Stanton met Susan B. Anthony and persuaded her to become involved in women's rights. She was given the opportunity to address the New York state legislature in 1860, on which occasion she In 1868, she, along with Anthony and Parker Pillsbury, founded the magazine, The Revolution, to which she was a frequent contributor. She was elected first president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890.
Although regarded as a radical for her opinions on women's rights, Stanton was the mother of seven children and a led a model domestic life. She died in New York on October 26, 1902.