Alice Paul did many things in her life in support of suffrage, the right to vote in political elections. She continued to push for equal rights for women as well. She organized many protests with the help of many other women and supporters of suffrage. She dedicated her life to the single cause of bringing upon equal rights for women
Alice Paul was born on January 11, 1885 to Quaker parents, William and Tacie Paul. Her father was a banker and businessman. She grew up in Moorestown, New Jersey on a farm. Alice Paul was the oldest of four. She was followed by her brother William in 1886, her sister Helen in 1889, and finally her youngest brother Parry in 1895. Paul’s parents instilled Quaker principles of social justice, equality, and service in their children. Her parents also supported gender equality, education for women, and working to improve society. She attended a school in Moorestown, New Jersey. Paul also went to Swarthmore College in 1905, then went on to serve a social work internship in New York City and do graduate work in England.
From the ages of 20-35, Paul accomplished many things. While in London from 1906 to 1909, she became politically active. She also joined the women’s suffrage movement in Britain. It redirected her life’s work and helped shape the history of American feminism. Tacie Paul, her mother, had taken her to suffrage meetings, but her real passion for women’s rights was actually ignited by Christabel Pankhurst and the British militants. While in England, Paul was also arrested and served time in jail three times for suffrage agitation. When she returned to the United States in 1910, she became the leader of the suffrage movement.
In 1912, she earned an M.A. in sociology and completed her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. Alice Paul was also a member of NAWSA, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and served as the chair of its congressional committee. She eventually left NAWSA out of frustration with their policies. After she left, she went on to form the more militant Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage with Lucy Burns, whom she met in England. She organized many protests that included picketing. Her largest organized protest, in support of suffrage, was in Washington D.C. on March 3, 1913. Even though she dreaded public speaking, but she was definitely not scared of confrontation.
In January 1917, Alice Paul and over 1,000 “Silent Sentinels”, who were known for using provocative visual media to make their point, began picketing and protesting the White House for 18 months. They carried signs that said “MR. PRESIDENT HOW LONG MUST WOMEN WAIT FOR LIBERTY?” and “MR. PRESIDENT WHAT WILL YOU DO FOR WOMEN SUFFRAGE?”. The police eventually arrested them when Paul refused orders to cease picketing. People were also arrested for obstructing traffic. Her militancy led to her imprisonment three more times before the ratification of the nineteenth amendment in 1920. While in jail for 7 months, Paul organized a hunger strike. She was threatened to be sent to an insane asylum. For initiating a hunger strike, Alice Paul and several other suffragists were force fed in a tortuous manner. They had tubes pushed through their noses to feed them. She was also separated from her colleagues and had a psychiatric evaluation done on her. She was diagnosed sane and was compared to Joan of Arc, one who would die for a cause without giving up, by the psychiatrist. The prisoners managed to make their bad conditions publicized, which evoked sympathy and they were eventually released at the end of November. President Wilson went on to announce his support for the amendment in January 1918.
Members of the National Woman’s Party proposed the idea of supporting birth control, peace, voting rights for black women, and other social issues. However, Paul redirected their focus to the single issue of obtaining the same rights men enjoy for women, by using her forceful personality and help from her allies. She eventually gave up leadership of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) after 1920, with the exception of a few years in the 1940s. She still was very helpful to the organization even after giving up leadership. Paul introduced the first Equal Rights Amendment in Congress in 1923.
In 1922, Paul went on to get a law degree from Washington College of Law. She also got her master’s and doctor’s degrees from American University in 1927 and 1928.
From 1927 to 1937, Alice Paul served as the chairman of the Women’s Research Foundation. She also founded and represented at the League Headquarters in Geneva the World Party for Equal Rights for Women (World Women’s Party). Alice Paul argued that many troubles of the world came from the lack of women’s political power. She declared that World War II probably would not have occurred had women been able to have their say at the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I. In 1942 she was elected chairman
of the National Woman’s Party. Paul pressured Congress to attach amendments that would prohibit sex discrimination to the civil rights bills in the 1950s. She successfully lobbied for references to gender equality in the preamble to the United Nations charter and in the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act. In 1974, Paul was debilitated by a stroke. Alice Paul eventually died on July 9, 1977 in Moorestown, New Jersey.
She had a major impact on American History. Paul’s life represented the lengthy struggle for justice in not only the United States, but all around the world. Alice Paul was a women who fought for what she believed in. She continually supported suffrage and she never stopped fighting for equal rights. She organized many protests and even went on hunger strikes in support of her cause. She accomplished many things in her life and inspired many people. For a long time, Paul was considered the elder stateswoman of the feminist movement. Although she did sometimes arouse negative feelings and opinions, Alice Paul was loved and adored by many people, especially feminists.
Bibliography
- “Alice Paul.” Biography.com. March 01, 2017. Accessed April 19, 2017. http://www.biography.com/people/alice-paul-9435021.
- http://nationalwomansparty.org/learn/who-is-alice-paul/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Paul
- The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Alice Paul.” Encyclopædia Britannica. February 23, 2017. Accessed April 21, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Paul.
- “National Women’s History Museum.” Education & Resources – National Women’s History Museum – NWHM. February 05, 2010. Accessed April 21, 2017. https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/alice-paul/.
- American National Biography Online: Paul, Alice. Accessed April 21, 2017. http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00537.html.