Susan B. Anthony was born in 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts, to a Hicksite Quaker family. They resettled twice, first to Battenville, New York, and then to Rochester, the city Anthony called home for most of her life. The Anthony’s were involved in anti-slavery reform, hosting meetings at their farmhouse and attending conventions. Anthony also worked in the temperance movement, giving speeches on the temperance circuit.

Through her work as a teacher, Anthony quickly became aware of the wage gap between men and women in the profession. Susan’s mother, Lucy Anthony, and sister, Mary Anthony, attended the Rochester women’s right’s convention in 1848, but Susan did not attend. She became involved in women’s rights soon after meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851, and eventually put her other reform work to the side to devote her life to the fight for women’s suffrage.