Bruce G. Kauffmann
HISTORIAN
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
SPEAKER
AUTHOR
The Top Five:
Most Important Women in History
1. Elizabeth Cady Staunton. No woman in our history was more influential in gaining women equal rights than
was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Together with Susan B. Anthony she founded what became the National
American Woman Suffrage Association, and she also was a prime mover behind the Seneca Falls Conference in
Seneca Falls, N.Y., which was the first conference in American history specifically organized to advance the civil
and political rights of women. A brilliant speaker and talented journalist — she edited the first women’s
feminist magazine, Revolution — she also wrote the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, which she
modeled after Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, only her declaration specifically called for equal
rights, including voting rights, for women. Stanton did not live to see passage of the 19th Amendment giving
women the right to vote, but she, more than anyone, gets credit for its passage.
2. Eleanor Roosevelt. Her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, considered the most significant of the 20th
century, would have been very different without her. Because FDR’s polio prevented him from traveling the
country, she went instead, visiting impoverished coal miners in the East, destitute farmers in the Midwest and
poor blacks in the South, and her reports on her travels helped him shape economic and social policies toward
the underprivileged that are still in place today. Her legacy also includes civil rights, child labor protection laws
and women’s equality — and such organizations as the United Nations and the NAACP. She is our most
important First Lady.
3. Rosa Parks. In 1955, this part-time seamstress and clerk at a department store in Montgomery, Alabama,
became the central character in the galvanizing moment of the Civil Rights movement. When Rosa Parks
refused to “move to the back of the bus,” as was mandated by law for all African-American passengers of
Montgomery’s public transportation, she became the symbol of a new era in which blacks would no longer
abide by laws that were discriminatory, and therefore unjust. Her subsequent arrest presented the city’s black
leadership with a long-sought opportunity to legally challenge Montgomery’s segregated public transportation
system, and a year later the Supreme Court ruled that Montgomery’s laws requiring segregation of its public
transportation system were discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional. It was the first step toward equality
of rights under the law for all citizens, regardless of race, creed or color.
4. Clara Barton. She was living in Washington, D.C., when the Civil War broke out, and she immediately
volunteered to care for the wounded soldiers. She was at the first significant battle of the Civil War, the First
Battle of Bull Run, when she ran out of supplies to treat the wounded, so she later placed an ad in the
newspapers asking for donations. She was flooded with money and supplies, allowing her to treat soldiers on
both sides throughout the Civil War.
After it ended she traveled to Europe, eventually working for the International Red Cross, and upon
returning to America, she created an American version of that international organization, the National
Society of the Red Cross. As its first president, she led this American Red Cross for 23 years, and it is now a
global organization, caring for the victims of war, disease, weather-related catastrophes and poverty. She is
one of the great humanitarians in our history.
5. Elizabeth “Eliza” Powell. If you are going to have an “out of the blue” choice, she is mine. In the early 1790s Eliza
Powel was the charming wife of a prominent Philadelphia merchant, but also a smart, independent woman with
a head for politics, which is why President George Washington so admired her. He had met her during the
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, and afterwards the two engaged in a long correspondence in
which he would often ask her for advice, including political advice. And then, in 1792, he wrote to her saying he
was tired of being president and would not run for re-election. He had earlier shared that news with members of
his Cabinet, who were stunned. The country, they insisted, wasn’t ready for anyone other than Washington to
lead them. Only you, they pleaded with him, had the trust of all Americans, and should you depart the political
stage, the nation’s future would be in doubt. Washington was not swayed, but Eliza Powell then wrote
Washington a brilliant letter that, among other things, appealed to his very real concern for his reputation. She
wrote him that his quitting would signal to the country that he found the present governmental system
inadequate, and that he was quitting so he wouldn’t be blamed for it. But he would be blamed, she insisted,
because he was the only man in America able to put the country’s interest above partisan politics, and the people
knew it. If he quit, she implied, the Republic was doomed and so was his reputation. After reading her letter,
Washington decided to run again, and it is undoubtedly true that another four years with Washington at the
nation’s helm was necessary, even critical to the young nation’s survival.
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