Alice Paul was the architect of some amazing advances on behalf of women in the 20th century. Born on January 11, 1885 to Quaker parents in New Jersey, Alice Paul dedicated her life to the cause of securing equal rights for all women.
Alice's faith established the foundation of her belief in the equality of the sexes. The Quakers had gender equality as one of their founding principles and Alice considered Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott to be her role models - both of whom were prominent Quakers. Alice was educated at a co-ed Quaker college, graduating with a degree in Biology in 1905.
Alice moved to England in 1907 to further her studies. There she joined with English women's suffragists in a movement to secure the right to vote for British women. She broke windows, was arrested, imprisoned, and participated in hunger strikes. In 1910 Alice moved back to America, enrolled at University of Pennsylvania and joined the National American Women's Suffrage Association. She led protests in Washington D.C. demanding the vote for American women.
In 1916 Alice formed the National Women's Party (NWP) to focus solely on a national amendment granting women the right to vote. The NWP organized protests in front of the White House where women picketed silently, pressuring then President Woodrow Wilson to support women's suffrage. These picketers or "Silent Sentinels" as they were called were often attacked by mobs and imprisoned on made up charges. While in prison they were beaten and force fed. Officials even attempted to have Alice declared mentally insane. Eventually the American public began to sympathize with the suffragists and called for their release. After much sacrifice, Alice saw success. In 1917, Woodrow Wilson reversed his position and supported the suffrage amendment as a "war measure". The 19th Amendment passed the House and the Senate in 1919 and was ratified by the majority of the states in 1920.
Following the passage of the 19th Amendment, Alice earned three law degrees. Alice also drafted the original version of the Equal Rights Amendment and worked tirelessly towards seeing the ERA enacted (although it was never ratified). Alice, however, opposed linking the ERA to abortion rights, as did most early feminists. It has been widely reported that Paul called abortion "the ultimate exploitation of women." Its also reported that she once said, "Abortion is just another way of exploiting women." Then she went on to explain that the National Woman's Party was organized for the benefit of women and that killing female babies was no way to benefit or protect women.
Alice also worked with the international effort to bring equality to women. She traveled to South America and Europe during the 20's through the 50's and she began the World Woman's Party (WWP), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1938. The WWP worked closely with the League of Nations for the inclusion of gender equality into the United Nations Charter and the establishment of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
Alice Paul moved back to the United States in 1941 and led a coalition that was successful in adding a sexual discrimination clause to Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Alice died in 1977 at the age of 92.
Alice has created a long legacy of women's rights. She was even featured in a movie in 2004 entitled "Iron Jawed Angels" in which she is played by Hillary Swank. (Here's the link: http://iron-jawed-angels.com/) I appreciate the sacrifices of Alice and her colleagues in securing my right to vote and I'm happy to feature her as the first woman on my blog.
