Article July 13, 1998 Issue

From an interview with Susan B. Anthony

Lynn Sherr with contributions from Alphonse de Lamartine

Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony In Her Own Words

"The woman of the future will far surpass her of the present, even as the man of the future will surpass him of to-day. The ages are progressive, and I look for a far higher manhood and womanhood than we have now. I think this is to be obtained somewhat by making the sexes coequal. When women associate with men in serious matters, as they do now in frivolous society ones, both will grow better and the world's work will be better done than it is now. I look for the day when the woman who has a political or judicial brain will have as much right to sit on the Supreme Bench or in the Senate as you men have now: when women all over this country will have equal property rights, equal business rights, and equal political rights with men; when the only criterion of excellence or position shall be the ability, honor, and character of the individual without regard to whether he or she be male or female. And this time will come.... The woman of the future will be a better mother, a better wife, and a better citizen than the woman of to-day."

Lynn Sherr
Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony In Her Own Words
(New York: Times Books, 1995), p. 297.

"He is no true man who ever treats women with anything but the profoundest respect. She is no true woman who cannot inspire and does not take care to enforce this. Any real rivalry of the sexes is the sheerest folly and most unnatural nonsense."

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