Her Unladylike Tactics

Alice Paul was a woman ahead of her time.  She was a radical suffragette and did hesitate to push the status quo even if that meant stepping on the toes of senior activists that had been fighting the fight for women’s rights since before she was born.

Paul was educated at Swarthmore and the University of Pennsylvania.  Like Susan B. Anthony and earlier activists that challenged the idea of equality for women she was also a Quaker.  But the similarities between Paul and the earlier activists end with their socio-economic backgrounds and religious upbringings.

Alice Paul felt that Carrie Chapman Catt’s National American Woman Suffrage Association was too pedestrian in their approach and sought a more radical and aggressive reaction to the fight for women’s rights. While Catt sought a more passive approach to their issue, Paul recognized the power of the new media, moving pictures and the growing popularity of the national press.  She sought big events that provoked the authorities and would shed much needed light on the cause.  She formed the National Woman’s Party and decided to focus all of her attention of Woodrow Wilson who did not support the women’s suffrage amendment.

She continually sought out ways to annoy Wilson, to publically shame the president and to make his life uncomfortable.  If you have read any other KillerHistory blog posts we have no known examples of Alice Paul driving her car fast, which would have really pissed off Wilson.

Of course she often found herself in direct conflict with the authorities.  On the eve of President Wilson’s first inaugural parade, Paul organized a suffrage parade with 5000 women marchers.  The parade drew large crowds, and as it progressed some in the crowd grew violent.  Many of the marchers were injured, while the police stood by and did nothing to stop the attacks.  Nonetheless, the event was covered by every national newspaper and put a damper of Wilson’s inaugural activities.

Paul’s next step was to ensure the White House was constantly picketed with banners and posters calling on the president to support the vote for women.  These women were at first ignored, then harassed and finally arrested. Some chained themselves to the White House fence.  The suffragettes were thrown into jail and many of them took up hunger strikes in order to publicize their cause.  Alice Paul herself was force fed and threatened with being committed to an asylum.  Of course the conservative media found it shocking that these educated girls from good families could do these types of things. Conversely other media outlets publicized the mistreatment of the young ladies at the hands of the government. 

Alice Paul and the suffragettes were a distraction for President Wilson.  He described Alice Paul’s’ tactics as unlady like and if he actually agreed with her not, politically he no other choice but to support the 19^th Amendment in 1917.  The amendment was passed and in 1920 American women had the opportunity to express their citizenship rights and vote.

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