Iron Jawed Angels

A while ago, I watched the HBO movie Iron Jawed Angels, which premiered Sunday, Feb. 15. I had to write a review for it! This movie tells of the triumphs and defeats of the suffragists' movement and what happened along the way. It is truly inspirational and moving!

Just 80 years ago, most women didn't have the right to vote. They couldn't serve on juries, and because of that they couldn't be tried by their peers. They were taxed without representation. They were supposed to be respected citizens, but they still didn't have those rights.

And the reason for this, you ask? Because some men thought women had their hands too full with raising the children and such that they couldn't possibly have the time to know or understand what was going on in the country, and therefore they shouldn't vote on anything that mattered.

In 1913, women could only vote in 9 states, and suffragists had been fighting for the right since the 1840s! Some suffragist groups, like NAWSA (National American Women's Suffragist Association), thought that they could wait until, state by state, the right for women to vote would become law in the entire United States. But some suffragists in NAWSA disagreed. They made another group called the NWP (National Women's Party). The NWP wanted a constitutional amendment for the right for women to vote. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns started this party.

NAWSA and the NWP clashed because NAWSA supported Democrats and President Woodrow Wilson, while the NWP did not support Wilson because he did not want to give them the right to vote. Both presidents of the groups (Alice Paul was the leader of NWP and Carrie Chapman Catt was the leader of NAWSA) wanted the right, but their means of getting that right were quite different.

In the winter of 1913, when WWI had just started, suffragists from the NWP picketed in front of the gates to the White House on strike. They carried banners quoting the president. One banner read, "We shall fight for the things which we have always held closest to our hearts. For democracy. For the right for the people to have a voice in their government." Suffragists asked the question, "How can we fight for democracy overseas and deny it here at home?"

A riot broke out because men were in favor of President Wilson, and also because most people thought it was wrong to not support a wartime president. The men attacked the suffragists and the suffragists, including Lucy Burns, were arrested and charged with obstruction of traffic. The women said that it was wrong that they were being charged because they stood up against the government. They were sentenced to spend 60 days in the Occoquan Workhouse or to pay a $10 fine. Lucy Burns said that if they paid the fine they would be admitting guilt, but they had done nothing wrong. Therefore, they refused to pay and were sent to Occoquan.

Alice Paul had not participated at the picket line that was arrested because she was planning other things, but the day after the other suffragists were arrested, she picketed, was arrested and was sent to Occoquan as well.

When Alice got to the prison she refused to eat. It was an old Irish tradition to starve yourself until 'restitution', that is, getting your rights or property or freedom back from someone who took it. When the other suffragist prisoners found out that Alice was doing a hunger strike, they followed her example. The prison wards had to force-feed the women raw eggs shoved down tubes, so they couldn't refuse to eat it.

Alice Paul was put in the psychiatric ward and a psychiatrist saw her. He asked her to explain the suffrage cause. Paul responded, "Look into your own heart. I swear, mine's no different. You want a place in the trades and the professions, where you can earn your bread? So do I. You want some way of satisfying your personal ambitions? So do I. You want a voice in your government? So do I."

When the psychiatrist made his report on Alice Paul he said that, like the patriot Patrick Henry, she was willing to die for her cause.

Alice Paul got out the word about the way the prison people were treating her and the other suffragists through another suffragist's husband (she was the wife of a Democratic senator), and it was soon in all the papers. The government let out the suffragists because of the abuse.

President Woodrow Wilson was finally forced to start the ball rolling on the Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. Congress passed it in 1920, but three-fourths of the states were still required to approve an amendment to the Constitution before it's ratified.

On August 18, 1920, suffragists waited anxiously to see if the amendment would become law. Harry Burn, the Tennessee representative, was wearing a red rose that morning, which meant he was against the amendment. If he voted for the amendment it would become law, and if he didn't it wouldn't. It was all in his hands now. He was handed a telegram just before he has to give his decision. It was from his mother, and read, "Don't forget to be a good boy, Harry... and do the right thing."