Susan B. Anthony lived in the 1800s. Women had very few rights in those days. Everything a woman had belonged to her husband. She couldn’t work in many kinds of jobs. The money she made belonged to her husband. He chose how to spend it. Women couldn’t own a house. They couldn’t buy or sell land, either.

Women couldn’t be doctors. They couldn’t go to medical school. All doctors were men. Most colleges were for men only. There were only a few for women.

Even elementary schools were unfair. They only taught girls the basics. They learned to add and subtract. Sometimes they learned to multiply. Susan’s teacher wouldn’t teach her division. He said it was only for boys. The boys got to learn many things that the girls didn’t.

Women couldn’t be part of a jury. A jury has 12 people. A jury listens to court cases. It decides if a person is guilty or not. Women were tried in court for crimes. But everyone on the jury was male. Only men got to decide a woman’s fate. This was unfair.

Women weren’t allowed to vote. In fact, men did not want women in politics at all. Women couldn’t give speeches. Well, they could. But only to other women. But they couldn’t give speeches to men.

So what could women do? They could be wives. But they couldn’t divorce their husbands. Only the husbands could make that decision. Women could have children. They could cook. They could sew. They could be maids. They could be schoolteachers. But women made far less money than men did. Susan made $2.50 a week as a teacher. The man who had the job before her made $10 a week. Susan made $120 per year. The man made $480 per year. And he did the same amount of work. That is a big difference.

As you can see, being a woman in the 1800s was hard. It makes sense that women demanded equal rights.