'Iron Jawed Angels': Film Analysis

Before the Suffragettes, women were not able to vote and the move for women to have the right to vote really started in 1897 when Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage. Fawcett strongly believed that women should have the right to vote but also believed in peaceful protests, patience and logical arguments. She felt that if any violence occurred then men would believe that women could not be trusted and therefore should not have the right to vote. She also made the argument that if women were made responsible for sitting on school boards and paying taxes that they should be part of the process to make the laws and should have the same rights as men. A main argument of hers was that even though some women who were wealthy mistresses of large manors and estates employed gardeners, workmen and labourers who were able to vote but women still could not, regardless of their wealth and social class. However, the progress of Fawcett was very slow and although she converted some of the members of the Labour Representation Committee (The Labour Party) but the majority of men felt that women would not understand how parliament functioned and therefore should not take part in the electoral

Iron Jawed Angels is a film which portrays the women's suffrage movement during the 1920's. The film is a documentary and a drama which uses live action and music to deliver the sympathetic and distressful mood the film creates. An example of the distressful mood is when the suffragists refuse to eat when they go to prison. This shows how passionate and distressed the suffragists are to get the 19th amendment passed, which would give women the right to vote. The films message, which is the hardships and adversity women had to withstand to get the 19th amendment passed, is effectively portrayed because the struggle the suffragists faced is accurately and beautifully depicted. As a tool of communication, the strengths

In order for women to be taken seriously the NWP’s leaders Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, who were the party’s main leaders, produced many creative forms of campaigning for the public. The first idea that they developed was on March 3, 1913, and was an organized parade in Washington D.C, purposely the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. Washington was filled with visitors due to this occasion so it was a perfect opportunity. The parade consisted of about eight thousand willing women marching onto Pennsylvania Avenue convincing bystanders to take consideration. They wore sashes and banners, one of the banners in the march said, “WE DEMAND AN AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION ENFRANCHISING WOMEN” (Behring). These demanding banners angered the people, men began to hang outside their windows and come out of their cars to yell at the women which turned into a violent riot. Many women were injured and police officers didn’t bother to protect the women or stop the riot, it looked more like they were enforcing the situation. This caused the super

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

To this day the women’s suffrage movement ignites women in the present to keep those right burning. Alice Paul and her fellow women suffrages demonstrated through speeches, lobbying and petitioning Congressional Committees, with parades, picketing and demonstrations, and with arrest that lead to imprisonment. These women express courage that women still uphold for years after their legacy has passed on, such as the article “Women’s Strike for Equality,” by Linda Napikoski, in the demonstration that was held on August 26, 1970 on the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage. As well as an article “Women to Protest For Equality Today,” by United Press that talks about on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the women’s suffrage and “declared war on firms that Damage the Image,” of the fair sex. Alice Paul, set the stage for inspiring women to fight for their rights everywhere across the world.

Remember your Ladies” (Revolutionary Changes and Limitations) is what Abigale Adams told to her husband John Adams when he was signing a new federal document. She was one of the earliest woman suffrage activists and her words towards her husband would eventually snowball into one of the most remembered suffrage movements in the history of the United States (Revolutionary Changes and Limitations). The women’s suffrage movement picked up speed in the 1840-1920 when women such as Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Alice Paul came into the spot light. These women spearheaded the women suffrage movement by forming parties, parading, debating, and protesting. The most renowned women suffrage parties that were created during the 1840-1920 was the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The parties not only had similar names but similar goals: women will one day receive the right to vote. Each party had its own unique agenda of how women will receive the right to vote, the NWSA had Susan B. Anthony’s dedication, the NAWSA had Catt’s “Winning Plan” (Carrie Chapman Catt) and the NWP had Alice Paul’s perseverance to go to extremes by captivating people’s attention. Eventually the goal of the parties was reached when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. The Amendment granted women the right to vote, granting them all the same rights that were held by men. Women would have never

In 1869 Staton, Mott, and Anthony created the “NWSA” also known as the National Women’s Suffrage Association. This group did not allow male figures in and focused around the right to vote in national elections and passing the constitutional amendment. Soon after the other suffragist Lucy Stone founded her own organization. Stone started the “NAWSA” also known as the National American Women’s Suffrage Association. This group focused on getting votes state by state for suffrage. The only difference with this organization was that men were allowed to join, which caused many problems. 20 years later in 1890 Lucy Stone had become very ill and had passed away, since no one was there to run her organization (NAWSA) the NWSA group connected together. It was now fully known as The National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) but this time men were not allowed to join.

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

The rivalry between the National Women’s Suffrage Association lead by Carrie Chapman Catt, and the National Women’s Party lead by Alice Paul was only intensified by each group’s intense desire to as quickly as possible get the vote for American women. Progress having been stalled and stagnated after the Civil War, ignited by this halt in momentum the two groups to give no ground or tolerance for anything that might stall their progress.

Iron Jawed Angels is the story of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns and their part in the fight to get women the right to vote. They originally began their fight as part of the NAWSA (the National American Women Suffrage Association) which was founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Paul and Burns meet with Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw in 1912 after returning from London together. During their meeting, Burns and Paul try to take Catt and Shaw into pushing President Wilson for a constitutional amendment for women to have the right to vote, Catt and Shaw refuse.

The National Woman Suffrage Association was founded in 1869, one of the main suffrage organizations in the US during the 19th century. It was a unification of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). The (NAWSA) became the parent that combined all of women’s suffrage small and stated organizations. It was one of the largest and most important suffrage organizations as well as being the primary promoter to woman's right to vote. Women during the gilded age, progressive Era received many injustices and suffered from inequality. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) main goal is to pursue the right to vote in different ways. The organization was established in 1890. In 1890 it became necessary to combine the efforts to try to pursue their goals. Their strategy is to pressure federal government to offer women the same constitutional protections in the Fifteenth Amendment (Keyssar,2009). After establishing (NAWSA) it became the mainstream and the most nationally visible women suffrage organization. NAWSA was the largest women's organization established to help pass woman suffrage legislation. For decades the woman suffrage movement story has been written as national stories. It’s a story that has been written through individuals and collective biography (Sneider, 2010).

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.

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.”

“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”

A plethora of women wanted the right to vote. They were sick of men basically controlling them. In order to get the right to vote, they had to do crazy things like go on a hunger strike and hold a parade the day of the president’s inauguration. When the women went to prison, they decided to go on a hunger strike. They were in prison because they were protesting at the White House. Going on a hunger strike, they said, was a tradition in old Ireland. The women wanted to put dead bodies on Woodrow Wilson’s doorstep. None of them will eat any food. It started with Alice Paul and the rest of the women who wanted the right to vote decided to go on a hunger strike with her. The prison wardens could not afford to let them die, so they strapped them