Iron Jawed Angels Analysis

“Women, we might as well be dogs baying the moon as petitioners without the right to vote!” These were the famous words of a key leader in the women’s Suffrage Movement, Susan B. Anthony. In the past, the rights guaranteed to men were not applied to women, and therefore caused great injustice. It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that women started to take a stand and fight for their voting rights. As a result, these actions caused a positive impact in our country and now, women have equal rights as men, as it should. There are some that say that it is just another part of history and that there is no importance behind it, in other words, it is irrelevant compared to the Civil Rights Movement for example. Women’s suffrage was a positive impact through the leadership of Susan B. Anthony, their hard work and contributions, and their succession in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

In the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s, women were not given the rights they have today and were being mistreated, but because of a few brave women who gave up their lives to fight for what they knew was right, this all changed. Many of these women were educated and brave, but were still denied their rights. Women have suffered through this long battle to get what they knew they deserved and took time out of their lives to fight for what they believed in, which was to have a voice. Women wanted to get the same respect that men were given. The women’s suffrage movement was not only in the United States, but it was all over the world. It took the women’s suffrage movement many years to work and come through, but women were finally able to vote and have the same rights as men. Through their work in the suffrage movement, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony and many more changed the role of women in society.

Revised Thesis: The women’s suffrage movement opened many doors for the women of America and allowed them to achieve many objects they had never before thought of including: economic roles, political positions, and a place in social society.

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.

The film Iron Jawed Angels tells the viewer about the women?s suffrage movement in the 1920s. It also tells the viewer that the United States, mostly men, was strongly opposed to women?s suffrage. The disturbing violence geared towards the women suffragists also shows the discontent of American men towards the movement. Unfortunately the women suffragists were thrown in prison for blocking traffic (an excuse because they were protesting outside of the White House) and were forced to work. The hatred and animosity which suffragists faced during the 1920s is also an accurate depiction of United States life during this time period. Some questions which were left unanswered by the film Iron Jawed Angels are who started the women?s suffrage movement and where the movement started.

The fight for women suffrage was one of the largest reform movements of the Progressive era. In the twentieth century, it was hard for American’s to understand why the right to vote was a big disagreement. Alan Brinkley, an American historian, wrote, “that woman

The battle for suffrage was a long and slow process. Many women tried to initiate the fight for suffrage, like Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. “These were the New Suffragists: women who were better educated, more career-oriented, younger, less apt to be married and more cosmopolitan than their previous generation.” (pg 17) Eventually, in 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified; allowing women to vote, but it was not any one person or event that achieved this great feat. It was the confluence of certain necessary factors, the picketing and parades led by Alice Paul, militaristic suffrage parties and the influence of the media that caused the suffrage amendment to be passed and ratified in 1920. But most importantly, they successfully moved both

In the cartoon, it states “20,000,000 American Women Are Not Self-Governed” (Doc 7). This cartoon establishes the idea of women not taking part in the process of developing their own government. This is a necessary part to uphold as the equality of women leads to the right to vote, a key point in basic American rights. Two major women that fronted women's suffrage movement were Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Lucretia Mott initially started this movement with Elizabeth Stanton, in Seneca Falls, NY. In the letter to Elizabeth Stanton from Susan B. Anthony, she asks the question, “If only now--all the women suffrage women would work to this end of enforcing the existing constitution--supremacy of national law over state law over state law” (Doc 2). The idea of women's suffrage is not a simple task, as enforcing this law is a difficult task to continually maintain within both the national and state

“Remember the ladies,” wrote boldly by the soon to be First Lady Abigail Adams to her husband John Adams in March 1776. Abigail Adams’s words were one of the first noted mentions in the United States foreshadowing the beginning of an extensive suppressed battle towards women’s suffrage. The fight for women suffrage was a movement in which women, and some men included, pleaded for equal rights regarding voting and women’s voice within the political realm. Women’s suffrage was not a matter of instant success; it endured a prolonged time to achieve. It was not until August 1920, about 14 decades subsequent after Abigail Adam’s words that the 19th amendment which had provided everyone the right to vote regardless of a person’s “sex”, had passed. Although the 19th amendment nationalized equal voting rights throughout the country in 1920, many states ratified this amendment in even later years. The lengthy period and long complex battles towards victory were the result of many obstacles between suffragists and anti-suffragists; obstacles which hindered the movement’s progress and which are not limited to: traditionally accustomed values, religion, split arguments within the movement, and other national political setbacks. If these setbacks were handled differently in a more urgent manner, women suffrage might have achieved earlier than 1920 or in a shorter amount of a gruesome activism period.

Ignorant women are not so ignorant after all. Women in the United States fought for over twenty years, from 1895 to 1915, for women’s suffrage. Women never gave up and showed their strength by overcoming any obstacle that tried to stop them from voting. Anna Howard Shaw was a one of the leaders of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States. On June 21, 1915 Shaw was the voice of the American woman and gave a speech to the men of New York before Election Day in November. In “The Fundamental Principle of a Republic” the rhetorical principles of ethos, anecdote, and hypophora are utilized to persuade the men of New York that women have the right to vote.

Women’s suffrage was a major discussion point in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and many people had very strong feelings about whether or not women should be allowed to vote. People for women’s suffrage believed that allowing women to vote would open new doors for the government and lead countries in the right direction. However, the people who fought against women’s suffrage believed that women were too weak, emotional and irrational to make beneficial decisions that had their government and country’s best interest in

“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

Watching Iron Jawed Angels was shocking, infuriating, inspiring, and incredibly humbling all at the same time. The whole time “this is why we NEED feminism” was repeating in my head on a loop. The amount of social injustice that women have been subjected to simply for fighting for equal rights is staggering. Even now, almost 100 years since women gained the right to vote, there is still a gender gap in politics. Women are still fighting for equal pay. Women are still fighting for reproductive rights. Why, in 2016, should we have to explain why we are demanding equality?

Iron Jawed Angels is the moving 2004 film that highlights how Alice Paul and Lucy Burns fought for women's suffrage. In the film, director Katja von Garnier, follows these women and the efforts they put forth as members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and later the work they did as founders of the National Woman's Party (NWP). The film showcases the trials that Alice Paul and Lucy Burns had to overcome, not just from opposition found within NAWSA, but also among society and in politics.

     Throughout the history, women were being discriminated against by ignoring or not paying much attention to them when it comes to dealing with political issues. One in particular, was the controversial issue regarding women’s right to vote. By the end of the 1880’s feminist movements did not meet their expectations due to lack of support from women themselves. “ If by the end of the 1880’s the suffragists had reached something of a stalemate, by the end of 1890’s and early 1900’s the movement had entered a completely new phase. This was largely the result of new factors in the situation: the growth of support for women’s suffrage amongst women themselves, and the increasing importance of the labour movement in British politics” (Banks, p.121). For these women, voting was becoming more like a powerful tool to be recognized in the society and understand the importance of voting and to also participate actively in the campaign. Women suffragists finally reached their goal, in which women at the present are getting more involved in politics by running for office and being leaders of the society. One good example is present senator Hillary Clinton. This former first lady is one of the top senators in the United States today. She fought