Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Author. Orator. Reformer. Revolutionary. These are titles that the world has given Elizabeth Cady Stanton. You can see her full biography here: Elizabeth Cady Stanton | National Women's History Museum. But in Johnstown, New York, we see Elizabeth as our most famous daughter.
Elizabeth was not only born in Johnstown on November 12, 1815, she was inspired here, she was married here in 1840, and she became a mother here in 1842.
At age 11, as she tried to comfort her father after the death of his only son to survive to adulthood, Eleazer, he sighed and said, “Oh my daughter, I wish you were a boy.” That was the moment that Elizabeth vowed to be as good as a boy in her father’s eyes. She became an excellent horsewoman and learned Greek so well that she shared the coveted Greek prize with a boy at The Johnstown Academy. Her father’s response to her accomplishment? “Ah, you should have been a boy.”
As a girl, she learned how unfair the laws were to women in her father’s law office. When she vowed to cut those laws out of the law books her father, Judge Daniel Cady, told her she would have to go all the way to Albany to the Legislature to change a law. He certainly never imagined that she would do just that – winning married women’s property rights.
Elizabeth would return to Johnstown with her children many times, sometimes leaving them in the care of her mother while she went on the lecture circuit. In 1884, she returned for the summer to work on the third volume of The History of Woman Suffrage with her good friend, Susan B. Anthony, who was staying in town at Mrs. Henry’s Board House.
Because Elizabeth was the first woman in America to call for voting rights for women at the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, and because she was inspired in her hometown, Elizabeth has made Johnstown the home of women’s suffrage.
Follow in Elizabeth's footsteps in our one-hour, one-mile Walking Tour.
Learn how we continue her legacy of serving women at Elizabeth Gives Back.
Learn how to exercise the voting rights she fought so hard for at Elizabeth Votes.
Discover other important women’s history resources at Elizabeth Learns.
Elizabeth Gives Back
As part of our mission to help our sisters in need , we have instituted our “Elizabeth Gives Back” program. Each month, we donate 10% of our profits to a local, national, or international organization that serves women. At the end of 2024 we had donated over $9000 to organizations such as: One Church Street Food Pantry, NAMI, FINCA
Elizabeth Votes

Elizabeth Manages Money
“Woman will always be dependent until she holds a purse of her own.”
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) was a women's rights advocate who fought for legal reforms to help working women. She lobbied for the right of women to conduct business, manage their finances, and sue and be sued.
While we associate her work as primarily advocating for the right to vote, this early accomplishment greatly assisted women who were married to men who controlled women’s their wife’s earnings, had sole custody of their children and could not be required by their wives to do right by the family financially.
Women simply had no standing in the law because they were not considered citizens of New York State or the United States.
Stanton's work on these legal reforms resulted in a vital aspect of reform for women financial freedom and security. She would spend her life working for women born in the United States to obtain the same voting rights that men had in any state/local and all national elections. That goal took until 1920 with passage of the 20th amendment.
Married Women's Property Law: In 1854, Stanton began lobbying the New York State Legislature to amend this law. The amendment would give women the right to manage their own finances, conduct business, and be joint guardians of their children. She finally succeeded in 1860.
Resources
We offer the links below as a way for young and adult women, as well as their families to access free online resources to help them put their financial affairs in better order. We wanted to include those sites developed by and for women, because we are all about the empowerment of women, especially those that are already working to empower others.

The Budget Mom
The site goals are to build financial security for moms by teaching the fundamentals and more of building good family budgets. Confidence, clarity, and stability are the main cellar on which a solid family budget can be built. This site shows how to get YOU there. YOU ARE NOT ALONE
NOV. 17, 2022 — The U.S. Census Bureau today released estimates showing there were 10.9 million one-parent family groups with a child under the age of 18 in 2022. Data from the annual release of America’s Families and Living Arrangements also show that 80% of one-parent family groups were maintained by a mother.
Many American families are currently headed by single mothers, but the breakdown becomes more vivid and comprehensive when looking at the US Census Bureau data from 2022 in the table that follows:
Her Money
CEO and Founder Jean Chatzky created this “judgment-free zone for all things financial” with women in mind, knowing that we view money differently than men and “want to use money to create change.” The majority of the content on this website is about women, written by women, and for women – the gender wage gap is a topic they’re especially passionate about. (Free) website content is spread across eight categories and more gems can be found on the brand’s accompanying podcast. There is also a newsletter you can sign up to receive.
CLEVER GIRL FINANCE

Tonya Rapley’s award-winning website offers a free “Financial Success Bundle” that includes: a quick financial checklist, budgeting calendar, budget template, debt repayment tracker, daily expense tracker, and networth calculator. The FF blog also offers free advice across four categories – lifestyle, finances, debt, and credit. And don’t forget to follow My Fab Finance on Instagram, where you can smaller bites of Rap
MY FAB FINANCE

If you’re someone who wants to avoid making the mistakes commonly associated with youth – outrageous student loans, maxed-out credit cards, and way too many take-out tabs, this website should be on your everyday read list. Its founder, David Weliver, started the site as a way to document paying off almost $100K of debt. Since its 2006 inception, Weliver has parlayed his personal experience into a free resource for all. Money Under 30 also offers “MoneySchool,” a free 7-day course that “will help you make immediate progress on whatever money challenge you’re facing right now.”

Money Under 30

If you learn best by hearing the experiences of others, you will love CentSai’s library of financial advice shared through the personal stories of its writers. This is another website that offers exceptional finance 101 advice, as well as those niche topics you may not find in other places, like work-from-home scams and starting a record label. If you want to hear personal finance stories, check out the female-focused SheVentures podcast.
CentSai

For those with no specific goals in mind except to become more financially savvy, The Penny Hoarder is a great free resource for foundational money know-how. With the overall goal of empowering readers to make smart money choices so they can spend less time (and money) trying to correct those all-too-common financial missteps, you’ll find a plethora of money-saving tips and tricks in just a few clicks.
The Penny Hoarder

Free learning courses on a variety of subjects, including many financial in nature. 2300+ free courses, including computer applications required by many employers today
GCF Global