Nora Stanton Barney was an English-born American civil engineer, and suffragist. Barney was among the first women to graduate with an engineering degree in the United States. Given an ultimatum to either stay a wife or practice engineering she chose engineering. She was the granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American writer and activist who was a leader of the women's rights movement in the U.S. during the mid- to late-19th century. She was the main force behind the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the first convention to be called for the sole purpose of discussing women's rights, and was the primary author of its Declaration of Sentiments. Her demand for women's right to vote generated a controversy at the convention but quickly became a central tenet of the women's movement. She was also active in other social reform activities, especially abolitionism.