Alice Paul's Equality In The Film, Iron-Jawed Angels

The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.

Women’s rights activists in the late 19th century objected an amendment proposing a “man’s government” in America. The amendment faced strong opposition because suffragists believed there was already excessive executive power given to men. So, these women demanded equal representation and access to the same civil liberties as men had by exposing the gender inequality they met through a series of persuasive tactics demonstrated in the article: “Manhood Suffrage.”

Alice Paul spent her childhood in luxury, with a life of fortune already granted to her, but she humbly decided to risk it all for the equality of women. The achievements of Alice contributed greatly in the outcome of the Women’s Rights Movement. She demanded to be heard, from England to America, and would not settle for anything less than equality of genders. To this day, Alice Paul is known as the “architect of the 20th century’s outstanding political achievements on behalf of women” and will always be remembered as one of the most impactful Woman’s Suffrage Activist.

It was not until after the Civil War that these ideas started to change in America. “Dozens of women’s colleges were founded after the Civil War, and many formerly all-male colleges began admitting women.” (Shi and Tindall, pg. 569) By 1900 nearly one-third of college students were women (pg.569) In the early 1900’s women began to liberate themselves from the home, their social roles, and even some of their character traits. New public venues for female interaction were created, from charitable associations to women’s clubs. The increase of female interaction brought a means to change the lack of female influence in government. In 1869 the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, which not only campaigned for woman suffrage, but also for new laws to make an abused wife get a divorce easier and for female workers to get higher pay (pg. 712-714) It was not until the spring of 1919 after WWI that the Nineteenth Amendment was passed giving women a Constitutional guarantee of their right to vote (pg. 775). Women gaining the right to vote was one of the greatest social developments that happened in America because since women made up forty percent of the electorate they had the capability to change the course of politics (pg.

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.

“I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality." These wise words were once spoken by a very intelligent and determined women named Alice Paul. Alice Paul was a girl with a mission to change society and bring equality to women. Alice was a Feminist, women’s right activist and American suffragist. One of her most well known accomplishments is being a main leader of the campaign for the nineteenth amendment. With Alice’s hard work and dedication women were given the right to vote. Alice was a powerful and influential woman figure, she worked her hardest and fought for what she believed in and was the most important person in

In 1921, women were granted suffrage, but suffragists were still hungry for more. Knowing that the right to vote would not eliminate sex discrimination in America, Alice Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment to step closer to equality. After half a century of struggle, women in America are still fighting for rights that men were given to when they were born. Even though women are just as intelligent, capable and hardworking as men, if not more, they are not considered an equal under the U.S. Constitution. Can you believe that today, in the 21st century, we still degrade women and treat them as inferiors to men? Can you believe that just because you are a woman, you are less than equal to the male population? Look around you, all those boys and girls are not equal to each other under our “just” country’s laws. As it is long overdue, the Equal Rights Amendment should be ratified because there is no other amendment that talks about sex discrimination, it would eliminate any inequality in regards to sex, and it would make the judicial stance on sex discrimination cases much clearer.

The women's rights activists in the film Iron Jawed Angels had to endure mistreatment from others during their campaign. For example, the idea that a women was a man's property was still relevant in this society, as shown at the parade. Men told these suffragists that if they were their wife, they would bash their head in. In addition, a man could take a woman’s child without question from anyone else, as shown when Senator Leighton takes his wife, Emily, kids away,without consulting her. Secondly, men think that women aren’t suited for politics, as it’s a “dirty game”, and it will corrupt women. This was shown in the scene when Alice Paul and Lucy Burns are on the train, and anti-Women’s Rights speeches are played in the background. Finally,

July 13, 1848 marked the beginning of a movement that would shape the beliefs and rights of today’s society. It was on this day that the fight for social and political equality among America’s women began to develop. This renowned movement, the Women’s Rights Movement, had many goals in which mighty-powerful women would achieve with a mind-set to push them through any barrier or obstacle obstructing their path to equality. Lasting until 1920, the Women’s Rights Movement had a target towards changing how women were treated and looked upon within their “stereotypical” societies. Women advocated their rights through organizations and campaigns, as well as educating others of the unfair justice. With the help of the Women 's Rights Movement and the brave, fearless women who supported this reformation, the fight for women 's liberation was on the move towards success. This historic

Generations of women fought courageously for equality for decades. The ratification of the Nineteenth amendment was vindication for so many women across the country. After having spent so many years oppressed and unable to make way for themselves, women everywhere were growing tired of being unable to own property, keep their wages and the independence that an academic education gave them. The decades that ensued brought with them various female activists, men that supported them and a division of its own within the movement. The women’s suffrage movement lasted 71 years and cam with great discourse to the lives of many women who fought for the cause.

Society has long since considered women the lessor gender and one of the most highly debated topics in society through the years has been that of women’s equality. The debates began over the meaning between a man and woman’s morality and a woman’s rights and obligations in society. After the 19th Amendment was sanctioned around 1920, the ball started rolling on women’s suffrage. Modern times have brought about the union of these causes, but due to the differences between the genetic makeup and socio demographics, the battle over women’s equality issue still continues to exist. While men have always held the covenant role of the dominant sex, it was only since the end of the 19th century that the movement for women’s equality and the

During the 20th century, male and females were not being treated equally a lot of women started getting mad because they weren’t getting jobs or the right to vote as men, so it led to the Civil Rights Movement, the Equal Rights Amendment was involved, because women weren’t treated equally or given the same rights as males. The Civil RIghts Movement was when there was a lot of racism and black and white people weren’t given the same rights, it was unfair to the black because they couldn’t do so many things like vote and also there was sex discrimination. In 1923, Alice Paul, leader and founder of the National Woman’s Party, considered that ERA should be the next step in the 19th Amendment in granting equal justice under the law to both sexes, male and female, in the U.S. Alice Paul said “ We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote.” A text from the amendment said “Equal of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

The film Iron Jawed Angels is mostly accurate. The film goes in chronological order of what happened in history. The filmmakers did a great job of portraying the historic events. From the parade, to the White House Picketing, to the women's imprisonment, the historical timeline of the movie was pretty accurate with some small deviations here and there.  The costumes were pretty close to being accurate. Alice Paul's and Lucy Burn's outfits were pretty identical to what the women suffragists wore back in the day.  Long, draping skirts, coats, and big flamboyant hats.  For example, Inez Milholland is portrayed on the white horse, looking powerful and majestic while opening the suffrage parade. The costuming is very similar to the pictures we have of her.  The other women's outfits in the parade was extremely accurate as well.  They asked women with a college degree to wear their gowns, and in the movie, you see women like Alice Paul wear a graduation gown. The White House Picketing and the Imprisonment were also scenes in the movie that were depicted quite well.  In history, the women picketed for close to a year, and the movie does a good job of letting the audience know the changing of seasons.  The movie does a fine job of depicting the women picketing in silence.  Although the scene when Alice Paul is outraged while in front of the White House is fictional, for the most part, the movie depicts the women as silent and peaceful which is extremely accurate to history.  Alice

This new generation of activists fought with this new agenda for almost 20 years until a few states in the West began to extend the vote to women. The Eastern and Southern states still refused to give in, but this didn’t stop the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1916, Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the NAWSA, worked vigorously to get women’s organizations from all over the country together and fight side by side. “One group of activists, led by Alice Paul and her National Woman’s Party, lobbied for full quality for women under the law” (Divine). She used mass marches and hunger strikes as strategies, but she was eventually forced to resign because of her insistence on the use of militant direct-action tactics (Grolier). Finally, during World War 1, women were given more opportunities to work, and were able to show that they were just as deserving as men when it came to the right to vote. On August 18th, 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified, allowing women to vote. This drawn-out and arduous battle opened a new window of opportunity for women all over the country. Significant changes in both social life and job availability began to create what is now referred to as the “new women.”

Between the late 1700’s and the early 1900’s many American women struggled to obtain the same rights as men. The society of women as a whole had pushed for equality constantly throughout the years. Women especially obtained more equality by publicizing their reasoning and demands for equality. This, is first and foremost proven by the way women had advocated greatly for improved academics for women. Women used another good tactical approach to achieve equality by speaking out strongly against inequalities between the genders.A third example of a great leap for equality, would be the religious movement, the upsurge in religious enthusiasm allowed women to demonstrate their piety and even to found new sects; and this in turn led to change in the way the world viewed women.