Alice Paul Essay

Alice was taught about the importance of equality from a young age. First of all, she was born into a family of Quakers who were descended from William Penn. Most Quakers at the time believed in equality between the sexes. On top of this, her mother, Tacie Perrie, was one of the first women to attend Swarthmore College. Tacie would often take her daughter to suffragette meetings in order to better educate her. Alices upbringing made her into a strong, independent young woman who was ready to take on many challenges. Alice Paul's roots are important because they set her up to be a fearless leader.

Alice Paul was a leader in the suffragist movement, and she left a legacy for more women in the future. She was born in New Jersey and had a social work and law degree. She founded the Congressional Union for Woman Association, and continued to founding many things after that. She founded the World Women’s Party, which gave women equal rights, and that left a legacy for women all over the world. Some of the things that she did to gain this right were controversial, and many people disagreed and she was punished for things on more than one occasion. Alice Paul was an influential leader in women’s rights. She was able to gain them the right to vote, but she had to go through many punishments in order to accomplish and gain that right, but when it happened, she became known as an influential leader for women’s rights.

“On May 1913, in an unseasonable hot Washington spring, a determined young women was building a woman suffrage organization, whose sole pressure congress to pass a federal amendment giving woman to vote” (azlibrary.com). “In 1920, while showing how Paul had became a suffragist and the battles that defined a generation of fractious feminist activism, the book leaves the rest of her long life” (azlibrary.com). Alice had ended that the 23 year old National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) never was effective because this wasn’t enough at the federal level. (Source 3 page 1 and

Therefore, she enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received a Master of Arts degree in 1907. Upon graduation, Alice moved to Birmingham, England to continue her

Alice Paul died on July 9, 1977, almost sixty years after the fight for Women’s Suffrage ended with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. In her ninety-two year life Alice Paul experienced times of financial well-being, accomplishments in schooling, radical activism, and the fulfillment of one of her political aims – Women’s Suffrage. Even though she never saw the passage of her ultimate objective of an Equal Rights Amendment, she could be recognized as a woman who could have independently terminated the seventy year battle for Women’s Suffrage. Alice Paul’s extremism played one of the most vital parts in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were two of the key cornerstones of the American Suffragist Movement. Paul and Burns led to the creation of the 19th amendment that called for equal voting rights for men and women in the United States and the Alice Paul amendment that called for total equality between men and woman in the United States. The American Suffrage Movement took place in the 1900’s. During the American Suffragist Movement Alice Paul and Lucy Burns the leaders of the National Woman’s Party made great headway in gaining support for the movement through their use of militant, but nonviolent approaches.

Alice Paul returned to the United States of America in 1910 where she enrolled in yet another school. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where she earned a Ph.D. in sociology. This is one piece of evidence supporting the great leadership that Alice Paul portrayed. She found a cause to identify to and then obtained the needed knowledge and education needed to achieve her goals. After graduating from the University, Paul launched herself into her vocation, becoming a “full-time” suffragist. Paul then joined National American Woman Suffrage Association which was founded by Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony among others. Paul soon realized that the leadership styles employed by these two suffragist leaders did not agree with her personality and so she broke from the group, forming her own. Another piece of evidence, Paul understood herself and so knew what methods would agree with her leadership type and personality, essentially magnifying her impact. Paul then founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage with Lucy Burns. “In 1916, NAWSA found itself on the conservative side of the movement.” (ocp.hul.harvard.edu) Paul a radical at

The first women’s right gathering in the United States was held in July 19-20, 1848. The main women to organize this convention was Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Stanton was known to have a voice that people listen to. She not only fought for women’s right but also to abolish slavery. In 1863, Stanton and Susan B. Anthony created the Women’s Loyal National League. (Women’s Right Movement) Following that, the women’s movement created its first national organization, the American Equal Rights Association. They were hoping to gain voting rights for all citizens. Stanton was a leader and a great motivational speaker. She urged women to get themselves and education and pursue their goals. Her speeches helped the women’s suffrage succeed in a few different states. Stanton received much support and help from Susan B.

In 1912 Alice Stokes Paul and Lucy Burns were appointed into the National American Woman Suffrage Association due to their hard work and active movement in search of total gender equality. Alice Paul eventually was dissatisfied with the little impact that the NAWSA had shown to women and decide to form and become the leader of the Congressional Union. The Congressional Union’s duty was to directly pressure the government into giving equal rights to both men and women. She did not only wan equality to be a law, she wanted it to become part of the US Constitution. She played a strong part in the ratification process of the 19th Amendment which granted women the

“If a creator stands in front of a man’s house, constantly demanding the amount of the bill, the debtor has either to remove the creditor or pay the bill,” according to Alice Paul’s biographer, Amelia Fry (qtd. in Butruille). Alice Paul was an activist that wanted to get women’s right to vote. Due to that, Paul never gave up even when it seemed impossible, and when nothing was in her favor. She had fought constantly for women’s suffrage by protesting day and night, rain or shine, and in cold or heat. Nonetheless, even “being jailed six times, fighting politicians, and even other suffragists” like herself, Paul continued to be forceful against the President and Congress to allow women to vote (“Suffragist and Feminist”

In 1848, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton held a meeting in New York to speak about women fighting for the same equal rights as men were given in the Constitution. This convention produced the Declaration of Sentiments therefore starting the women’s rights movement in the United States. The focal point of this movement became the right to vote. Another strong female advocate for women’s civil rights was Alice Paul whom in 1916 founded the National Women’s Party to fight for women’s suffrage. A year later, Alice and other advocates for women’s civil rights chained themselves

in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1907. In 1912, Alice Paul went on to earn a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, and by 1928 Paul had been able to successfully earn three law degrees (NWHM).

Women used many different methods to earn the right to vote in the women's suffrage movement. One of the methods they used were is they made a parade in Washington D.C . Hundreds of people came to the parade.Some men came and many men were drinking in the crowds. This drinking lead to violence. The men would push the many of the girls off their floats. The crowd gave them a lot of insults and would attack the women. The police did not do anything but watch and walk away. 100 of the girls were injured at the parade.The two method they used was they picketed the white house. The women stood outside the white house from dawn to dusk. They wanted a constitutional amendment made. They held up banners that would quote pres. Wilson. Alice would

to the single cause of establishing equal rights for all women. Her ideas of suffrage began when her mother, Tacie Paul, who was a member of the NAWSA1, brought Alice along with her to the women suffrage meetings. It was at a meeting at Paulsdale that she was first introduced to the suffrage movement. However, it was during her stay in England, in 1907, where she was transformed from a reserved Quaker girl into a militant suffragist.

Every time an election occurs, each time a woman speaks publicly, and every time equal rights are invoked, Alice Paul’s name ought to be used or at least known. This inordinate value and severe impact on both today and our past makes it evident that without Alice Paul’s extensive work on the women’s rights front, the 19th amendment would not exist today. Her leadership of each the National Women’s Party, the white house picketing, and the hunger strikes