DOUGLAS GINSBURG, Federal Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit:
The women’s rights movement arose in the middle of the 1800s – led by Americans ahead of their time.

Sojourner Truth was a former slave who advocated abolition as well as women’s rights. Her speech "Ain't I A Woman?" is still read in classrooms.
Harriet Tubman is one of history’s most famous Black women. Like Sojourner Truth, she championed both the abolition of slavery and the rights of women.
At that time, even many anti-slavery groups barred women as members, so Lucretia Mott formed her own anti-slavery group. A Quaker minister, Mott organized a pivotal event in the history of liberty: The Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in New York.
Fellow activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton helped Mott draft a Declaration of Sentiments: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal."

Sound familiar? Stanton championed the reform of divorce laws to save women from abusive marriages. And, of course, she campaigned for suffrage: The right to vote.
Lucy Stone was the first American woman not to take her husbands’ last name. One of her major achievements was delivering a speech that recruited another warrior for suffrage, Susan B. Anthony.
Anthony advocated full rights for women – including equal pay. In her words: "Men – their rights, and nothing more. Women – their rights, and nothing less."