Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Fight for Women’s Rights

In Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Revolutionary Life, historian Ellen Carol DuBois presents a definitive portrait of one of the most influential figures in the American struggles for women’s suffrage and rights. From the 1840s until her death in 1902, Stanton fought for women’s emancipation, advocating on issues that went far beyond the vote. Drawing on archival research and Stanton’s writings, DuBois traces her advocacy for reproductive rights, marriage reform, and challenges to religious hierarchies, while also examining Stanton’s conflicts with Black reformers and her support of nativist ideas—highlighting the contradictions that continue to complicate her legacy.

DuBois, in conversation with legal scholar Julie Suk, discusses the reformer whose words still provoke—and whose struggles helped shape contemporary feminism.