Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived in an era when the law placed a "burden of sex" on women, denying them property ownership, employment, and suffrage, as well as rights in marriage and over their children. For much of her adult life, she led the woman's movement in America, advocating woman's rights issues; she set the movement's agenda, developed and presented its philosophy, and articulated its demands. Cady Stanton believed that women had been placed in a subordinate position by a society based upon Judeo-Christian traditions, English common law, and a patriarchal social system--all of which were wrong in their basic tenets. Her rhetoric was marked by impassioned zeal, innovative thinking, and advocacy for change.

Born in Johnstown, New York, Elizabeth Cady was the daughter of Margaret Livingston Cady and Daniel Cady, a distinguished lawyer, state judge, and congressman. Of her birth she wrote later, "With several generations of vigorous...