Susan B. Anthony

Susan Brownell Anthony was born to a Massachusetts Quaker family in 1820. Her parents were very progressive for the time, and ensured that she would be educated properly; even changing her school when a teacher refused to teach Susan long division. Her first profession was that of a teacher, although she was incensed that women earned only a quarter the pay of male teachers. By 1849 she had given up on teaching for activism. In 1872 she was arrested for the crime of voting, and her defense that the Constitution stated that any citizen could vote was ignored. She was fined $100, but refused to pay. She also helped found the National Woman Suffrage Association, and served with it and its successor the National American Woman Suffrage Association until her retirement in 1900. She died of heart disease in 1906, fourteen years before women gained the vote.