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Who really said it

I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man

Spoken by Susan B. Anthony 1820–1906 · American suffragist & women’s-rights leader
Verified Free to reuse

Anthony spoke this during her 1871 lecture tour of the Pacific Coast. Wikiquote’s sourced section ties the line to her “Speech in San Francisco (July 1871),” where the documented wording runs “Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.” The widely circulated fuller form — “I declare to you … and there I take my stand” — adds a rhetorical preface and coda but preserves the same statement.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man” Susan B. Anthony, speech in San Francisco, July 1871

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In context

Evoking the world of Susan B. Anthony — American suffragist and women's-rights leader. Theme: "I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Provenance

The source

Speaker
Susan B. Anthony
Source
Speech in San Francisco (July 1871)
Documented in
Wikiquote, sourced section

I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand.

The wording documented in Wikiquote’s sourced section is the trimmer “Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself”; the “I declare to you … and there I take my stand” frame is how the line is most often reproduced.

Susan B. Anthony — Wikiquote (sourced quotes)

How we traced it

  • Wikiquote lists the line in its Sourced section as coming from Anthony’s “Speech in San Francisco (July 1871),” not among its misattributed or disputed entries.
  • Quote aggregators such as Goodreads circulate the fuller “I declare to you … and there I take my stand” wording but attach no primary source.
  • The sentiment matches Anthony’s documented 1871 Pacific Coast lectures on women’s independence, recounted in Ida Husted Harper’s Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony.
Public domain

The line was spoken and reported in 1871 and is long in the public domain in the United States; Anthony died in 1906, and no 1931-or-later edition or translation governs this English-language text.

Fact-check

A note on wording

This one is correctly credited — the issue is wording, not authorship. The version that spreads online is a fuller rendering than the form documented from Anthony’s speech.

Quote sites (Goodreads, BrainyQuote, quote-image shops) expanded rendering

circulate “I declare to you … and there I take my stand” with no citation, while the sourced form recorded in Wikiquote is the shorter “Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.”

The thought and the words are genuinely Anthony’s, tied to her July 1871 San Francisco speech — Wikiquote, sourced section.

Context

Why it mattered

Self-reliance was the spine of Anthony’s argument for suffrage: she held that women’s subordination flowed from economic and legal dependence on men, and that the ballot — not male chivalry — was the real guarantee of a woman’s safety and standing. This line, delivered on her 1871 Pacific Coast tour, compresses that whole case into a single declaration.

Its endurance on posters, mugs, and social feeds comes from that portability: it reads as a crisp mission statement for independence, which is also why it now circulates in a punchier, source-stripped form.

Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Freedom Justice Courage

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Susan B. Anthony — sourced quotesen.wikiquote.org

Lists the line in its Sourced section, citing the July 1871 San Francisco speech.
Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Vol. Igutenberg.org

Ida Husted Harper’s authorized biography, covering Anthony’s 1871 Pacific Coast lecture tour.
Susan B. Anthony Collectionloc.gov

Library of Congress holdings of Anthony’s papers and printed speeches.
Susan B. Anthony (biography)en.wikipedia.org

Overview of her life, suffrage work, and 1872 voting trial.
The circulated quotegoodreads.com

Shows the fuller ‘I declare to you … and there I take my stand’ form attributed to Anthony without a source.

The true author

About Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony

1820–1906 · American suffragist and women's-rights leader

Susan Brownell Anthony was a leading American suffragist and social reformer who, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and campaigned for decades for women’s right to vote and for women’s economic and legal independence. In 1872 she was arrested, tried, and fined for casting a ballot in the presidential election. She did not live to see the Nineteenth Amendment (1920), often called the “Anthony Amendment,” which secured women’s suffrage nationally.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Susan B. Anthony, speech in San Francisco, July 1871; documented in Wikiquote, “Susan B. Anthony” (sourced section), and in the context of her 1871 Pacific Coast tour recounted in Ida Husted Harper, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1898).

MLA (9th ed.)

Anthony, Susan B. Speech. San Francisco, July 1871.

APA (7th ed.)

Anthony, S. B. (1871, July). Speech. Address delivered in San Francisco.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-declare-to-you-that-woman-must-not-depend-upon-the

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