Alice Paul

As an apology for my hiatus, I'm going to give you all a very special treat. I'm finally going to write about the woman this whole blog is named after . Alice Paul. It's a little scary, but I had to do it sometime.


“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.” – Alice Paul

Alice Paul was a suffragette who helped pass the 19th Amendment (allowing women to vote). She believed (much like me) that the Constitution did not just apply to Christian white dudes. (Though I doubt she ever used the word “dude”.) At the time (here’s a shocker) women weren’t allowed to vote. Twenty million women were expected to obey laws they couldn’t make. America was not a democracy, but a gerontocracy (if you don’t know the word, see meaning of “old white dude”). If the Constitution says, “We the People”, why were women not part of that? Were we people or chattel?

After earning her PhD, Paul first protested in violent British suffrage campaigns involving brutal tactics, then moved on to America after Britain conceded. She originally joined NAWSA (National American Woman Suffrage Association) with “General” Carrie Catt (read: totally un-fun martinet), and planned awesome parades and such, but moved on when they forbade her to use, shall we say. . . unladylike, forceful tactics. Paul and her sidekick formed the National Women’s Party (NWP) in 1916 (“The Woman's Party is made up of women of all races, creeds and nationalities who are united on the one program of working to raise the status of women.”) and used tactics such as hunger strikes (“Food simply isn't important to me.”) and picketing the White House. She even lived at the Party HQ! After World War One began, the picketers were arrested on trumped-up charges of OBSTRUCTING TRAFFIC in front of the White House (read: WTF?) They were jailed at the not-so-nice Occoquan Workhouse (read: woeful palace of despair and dreamkillings). She was force-fed raw eggs through plastic tubes (probably not BPH-free) and endured the Night of Terror alongside her friend Lucy (read: a night of terror).

Eventually, word on the street said the suffragettes weren’t being treated right, and (gasp!) made President Wilson look bad. With a one-vote margin (thanks, Tennessee!) the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote (what did you think it was going to do? Let cows become air traffic controllers?).

Alice Paul also authored the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923, but it didn’t make it into Senate (where it passed) into 1973, and wasn’t ratified by the states (Boooo!). However, the amendment is in many state constitutions (YEA!). Alice Paul grew old (the good don’t always die young) and died in 1977, at the age of 92. She is honored on both British and American postage stamps (hope her image is better than my passport picture).

For More Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Paul
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/alice_paul/

Also, a move (Iron Jawed Angels, best movie EVER) was made about Paul by Katja Von Garnier. The entire video is available (in 12 ten-minute increments) on YouTube, and the first minute (my favorite) is at the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96JifSnHhaY

And here’s the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StF3_Mj0tBg