Self Actualization Of Susan B Anthony

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Throughout history, few people out of the spectrum of the seven billion souls that roam the planet have ever reached the goal of self-actualization. According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the need to live up to one’s fullest and unique potential can only be accomplished after having quenched the psychological needs for hunger and thirst or fulfilling the needs for safety. Female leaders such as Susan B. Anthony not only contribute new ideals and reforms that break through the conventional norms of society, but they also create the social and political foundation the 21st century civilization revolves around. In broader terms, she is the definition of self-actualization.
Born on February 15, 1820 amidst a patriarchal society, Anthony devoted her entire life to fight for women’s suffrage movement in the late 19th century. An American civil rights leader who believed in the equal power between men and women, she not only fought against gender discrimination, but also propelled the world to acknowledge women’s rights (Wikipedia, “Susan B. Anthony”). Anthony demonstrated many characteristics of self-actualization throughout her life. Raised with a religious upbringing in a Quaker family, she and her family lived the controversial eras of slavery, worker’s unions, and temperance movements. Unlike many other slaves or lower class citizens of her time, her biological and safety/security needs had been fulfilled, allowing her to devote herself to broad social problems as her mission in life. After attending the Seneca Falls Convention (women’s rights convention) and joining the National Women’s Rights Convention in 1851, Anthony never stopped challenging institutions and dogmatic thinking (National Park Service. “Women’s Right...

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...ible to fight for what she believed in. In her novel relating to the life and work of Susan B. Anthony, Ida Husted Harper quotes the great leader herself on the matter of women suffrage, “It will come, but I shall not see it...It is inevitable. We can no more deny forever the right of self-government to one-half our people than we could keep the Negro forever in bondage.”
The cycle of life continues as great mentors leave their thrones for new apprentices to take their place. Through a lifetime of courage, bravery, persistence, Anthony lived to her fullest and most unique potential, leaving the world with a reformed society that placed less weight on the discrimination between sexes. Her fight against the conventional norms and hypocritical customs 19th century women had been forced to withstand would pave the way for future female natural born leaders.

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