Words: “… Her Birthright To Self-Sovereignty “

The road to full inclusion, participation, and opportunity for women still lies ahead — seemingly endless and unnecessarily winding.   But, each step along the way needs to be recognized and celebrated.  For it is the individual steps each woman takes towards ” her birthright to self-sovereignty ” that strengthens the steps of all who walk beside her, becomes a backstop for all who came before her, and provides a firm toehold for all who come behind her.

Congratulations to Hillary Rodham Clinton the 2016 Democratic nominee for President of the United States…

An excerpt from Elizabeth Cady Stanton‘s “The Solitude of Self” address given at the National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1892, Washington, D.C.:

"The isolation of every human soul
[she told her audience]
and the necessity of self-dependence
must give each individual the right
to choose his own surroundings.
The strongest reason for giving women
all the opportunities for higher education,
for the full development of her faculties,
her forces of mind and body;
for giving her the most enlarged
freedom of thought and action;
a complete emancipation from
all forms of bondage,
of custom, dependence, superstition;
from all the crippling influences of fear --
is the solitude and personal responsibility
of her own individual life.
The strongest reason we ask for woman
a voice in the government under which she lives,
in the religion she is asked to believe in,
equality in social life,
where she is the chief factor;
a place in the trades and professions,
where she may earn her bread,
is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty;
because, as an individual,
she must rely on herself."

~~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton

As quoted in ELIZABETH CADY STANTON by Mary Ann Oakley, (pg.126)

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ELIZABETH CADY STANTON

(November 12, 1815 – October 26, 1902)

Wife, mother of seven, feminist
Abolitionist & American suffragist
Social and women’s rights activist
Writer, speaker, author
Professional traveling lecturer

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