Barbie Adds Susan B. Anthony To Its 'Inspiring Women' Doll Line

The new Barbie hits shelves on Monday

More than 100 years after her death, Mattel announced the Susan B. Anthony Barbie will be hitting shelves Monday as a part of its Inspiring Women doll line, which also includes Sally Ride, Rosa Parks, Billie Jean King, Ella Fitzgerald, and Florence Nightingale.

Toward the end of her life, Anthony explained that she never married because she wanted to avoid becoming a man’s “drudge or a doll.” While that may have been her wish for marriage, becoming an actual doll that could inspire millions of young girls would probably sit just fine with her.

What’s special about this Barbie is that Rochester’s National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House had a hand in helping create the doll. More specifically, Victoria Brzustowicz, director of marketing and communications, helped shape the doll’s look and packaging, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Her dresses “were made from beautiful, ornamental material, but it wasn’t ostentatious,” Brzustowicz said, stating that Anthony knew she was representing a movement. “She knew that people were looking at her, and she didn’t want them to get hung up on the fact that she wasn’t dressed appropriately. She was quite the clothes horse. She really loved clothes.”

Anthony was an American social reformer and women’s rights activist who played a critical role in the women’s suffrage movement. The Barbie’s release coincides with the 200th anniversary of Anthony’s birth, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote, and the 75th anniversary of the museum, its president and CEO Deborah L. Hughes said in a statement.

“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,” Anthony famously once said. “There shall never be another season of silence until women have the same rights men have on this green earth.”

When asked what Brzustowicz thinks Anthony would make of all this, she said, “I would never put words in Susan B. Anthony’s mouth. But knowing that she had a great sense of humor and how funny she was, I would think she would find this pretty amusing.”

Mattel’s line “pays tribute to incredible heroines of their time — courageous women who took risks, changed rules and paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before,” according to its website.

The Susan B. Anthony doll can be ordered now on the Mattel site and on Target’s website for $29.99.