“T here is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or Heaven. That word is Liberty,” wrote American pioneer suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage in 1898.

Throughout most of human history, women have been considered second-class citizens, if they were deemed to be citizens at all. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t resist the patriarchal rule they lived under.

Susan B. Anthony summarized women’s struggle when she said, “Suffrage is the pivotal right.”

With the power to vote, women could—and now do—change the world.

Here are just a few of the women whose bravery and tenacity helped American women win their right to vote:

Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Sarah Moore Grimké, Angelina Grimké, Amelia Bloomer, Harriot Stanton Blatch, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Julia Ward Howe, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, Carrie Chapman Catt, Harriet Tubman, Anna Howard Shaw, Frances E. Willard, Mary Burnett Talbert, Alice Stone Blackwell, Gertrude Bustille Mossell, Maud Wood Park, Blanche Ames Ames, Mary Church Terrell, and Alva Vanderbilt Belmont.