She was one of the leading figures responsible for the passage of the 19th Amendment (woman suffrage) to the U.S. Constitution.
"There will never be a new world order until women are a part of it. "
Alice Paul was raised as a Quaker, attended Swarthmore College, and worked at the New York College Settlement while attending the New York School of Social Work. Alice Paul left for England in 1906 to work in the settlement house movement there for three years. She studied at university in England, and returned to get her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (1912).
National Woman’s Party:
Alice Paul was chair of a major committee (congressional) of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) within a year, in her mid-twenties, but a year later (1913) Alice Paul and others withdrew from the NAWSA to form the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. This organization evolved into the National Woman’s Party in 1917, and Alice Paul’s leadership was key to this organization’s founding and future.
Alice Paul and Militancy:In England, Alice Paul had taken part in more radical protests for woman suffrage, including participating in the hunger strikes. She brought back this sense of militancy, and back in the U.S. she organized protests and rallies and ended up imprisoned three times.
NWP versus NAWSA:Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party emphasized working for a federal constitutional amendment for suffrage. Their position was at odds with the position of the NAWSA, headed by Carrie Chapman Catt, which was to work state-by-state as well as at the federal level.
NWP and NAWSA Synergy:
Despite the often strong acrimony between the National Woman’s Party and the National American Woman Suffrage Association, it’s probably fair to say (in retrospect) that the two groups’ tactics complemented each other: the NAWSA’s taking more deliberate action to win suffrage in elections meant that more politicians at the federal level had a stake in keeping women voters happy, and the NWP’s militant stands kept the issue at the forefront of the political world.
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA):
After the 1920 victory for the federal amendment, Paul became involved in the struggle to introduce and pass an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The Equal Rights Amendment was finally passed in Congress in 1970 and sent to the states to ratify. However, the number of states necessary never ratified within the specified time limit and the Amendment failed.
Alice Paul and Peace:
Paul also was active in the Peace movement, stating at the outbreak of World War II that if women had helped to end World War I, the second war would not have been necessary.
Alice Paul Dies in 1977:
Alice Paul died in 1977 in New Jersey, after the heated battle for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) brought her once more to the forefront of the American political scene.
Information from: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/paulalice/p/alice_paul.htmRead more about Alice Paul at: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/paulalice/Alice_Paul.htm
It’s amazing how were reminded of this lesson that was on the banner that Alice Paul is holding in the photo above:
“No Self Respecting Woman Should Wish or Work for the Success of a Party That Ignores Her Sex.” (Susan B. Anthony 1872)
We need to start marching, shouting and singing once again. Here are Joan Baez and Mimi Farina singing a standard from the suffrage movement: Bread & Roses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbtHlxGK5fA&feature=related
Iron Jawed Angels
Iron Jawed Angels is a 2004 film about the American women's suffrage movement during the early 1900s. It was filmed in Virginia, produced by HBO Films, and released in 2004. It received a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival, The film, directed by Katja von Garnier follows political activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns as they revolutionize the American feminist movement to grant women the right to vote.
he film opens as Alice Paul (Hilary Swank (pictured above) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor) return to the United States from England where they have been actively involved in the suffrage movement. As the duo becomes more active within the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), they begin to realize that their ideas were much too radical for the established activists, particularly Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston). Both women eventually leave NAWSA and create the National Woman's Party (NWP), a much more radical organization dedicated to the fight for women's rights.
Over time, tension between the NWP and NAWSA grows as NAWSA leaders criticize NWP tactics such as direct protesting of a wartime President and picketing directly outside the White House with their Silent Sentinels. Relations between the American government and the NWP protesters also intensify, as hundreds of women are arrested for their actions, though the official charge is "obstructing traffic." They are sent to Occoquan Workhouse for 60-day terms where they suffer poor conditions. During this time, Alice Paul and other women undergo a hunger strike during which prison authorities force feed them milk and raw eggs through a tube. News of their treatment leaks to the media through the husband of one of the imprisoned women who had been able to lobby for a visit (the suffragists are depicted as otherwise unable to see visitors or lawyers). The media dubs these women 'Iron Jawed Angels.' Pressure is put on President Wilson as NAWSA seizes the opportunity to lobby tirelessly for the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution.
Paul, Burns and all of the other women are eventually pardoned by the President. The Supreme Court rules that their arrests were, in fact, unconstitutional.
If you have never seen this excellent film about the fight for women's suffrage, consider renting it this week to celebrate Alice Paul's birthday and the accomplishments of our foremothers.
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