Women`s Suffrage

american History
Iron Jawed
Angels
In 1917, the U.S. went to war to save democracy in
Europe. But in America, women could not vote.
Alice Paul and other courageous suffragists
campaigned to change that.
Characters
*Reporter
Alice Paul, suffrage activist
Lucy Burns, suffrage activist
Ruza Wenclawska, an immigrant
garment worker
*Emily Leighton, wife of Senator
Leighton
*Thomas Leighton, a U.S. Senator
Carrie Chapman Catt, former president
of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association
Woodrow Wilson, president of the
United States
Mabel Vernon, suffrage activist
Whittaker, prison warden
*Judge
Dr. White, prison doctor
Harry Burn, a Tennessee Representative
Narrators A-E
*Indicates a fictional character.
Adapted by Jonathan Blum from the HBO
screenplay of the same name.
Words to Know
• restitution (n): the act of giving
something equivalent for causing
an injury
• suffrage (n): the right to vote
PROLOGUE
Narrator A: It’s 1913. Women have
been organizing for the right to
vote since the 1840s, but they’ve
won that right in only nine states.
Some suffrage leaders believe the
right to vote can be gradually won
state-by-state. But Alice Paul and
Lucy Burns aren’t willing to wait.
They want a constitutional
amendment giving women the vote
throughout the United States. They
go to Washington, D.C., to build
support for their cause.
SCENE 1
Narrator B: Paul and Burns plan a
protest parade for the weekend of
Woodrow Wilson’s presidential
inauguration. Paul talks with a
reporter to publicize the event.
Reporter: What do you think
women will do when they can
vote? Reform politics?
Alice Paul: They’ll do good and
bad things, just like men. The
point is that women are called
citizens, and yet they are taxed
without representation. They’re not
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allowed to serve on juries, so
they’re not tried by their peers.
They don’t make the laws, yet they
have to obey them, like children.
Narrator C: That same day, Paul
and Burns urge workers at a
clothing factory to take part in the
parade.
Lucy Burns: A thousand women
marching means more than
10,000 signatures on a piece of
paper. Marching shows the
politicians that women are united
in their demand for political
equality—
Narrator D: A worker interrupts.
Ruza Wenclawska: If we take off
from work on Sunday to march
with you, we’ll get fired on
Monday! You got kids, ma’am?
They don’t eat ballots.
Paul: If you want a voice, you
need the right to vote.
Narrator E: Wenclawska and the
other workers agree to march. That
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Library of Congress (2); Bettmann/CORBIS
Lucy Burns and Alice Paul (right)
campaigned for women’s suffrage.
Below: Suffragists celebrate ratification
of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
week at a social gathering, Burns
meets Emily Leighton, wife of a
U.S. senator.
Burns: Have you heard about our
parade?
Emily Leighton (smiling
apologetically): I don’t really
follow politics, Miss Burns. I
haven’t the head for it.
Burns: Either we’re citizens or
we’re property. You don’t need a
college degree to understand that.
Narrator A: Inauguration weekend
arrives. Protesters carry banners
along Pennsylvania Avenue. As
President Wilson’s car drives by, a
minor riot breaks out. Police do not
protect the protesters. One hundred
women are injured. News coverage
increases public sympathy for the
suffrage movement.
SCENE 2
Narrator B: One year later, the
U.S. Senate votes on a suffrage
amendment—and rejects it.
Senator Thomas Leighton goes
home to his family.
Emily Leighton (hesitantly): Why
did the Senate reject the
amendment?
Thomas Leighton (teasing):
Because we know you ladies have
your hands full with the kids
already.
Narrator C: Soon after the vote,
Paul starts a weekly magazine,
The Suffragist. Her editorials
attack the Democratic Party for
turning its back on women.
Paul (reading her writing out loud
to herself): Rarely in the history of
the country has a party been more
powerful than the Democratic
Party is today. It controls the
Executive Office, the Senate, and
the House of Representatives. It is
in a position to give us effective
and immediate help, but President
Wilson does nothing.
Narrator D: The editorials upset
continued on p. 3 ➜
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The
1848
Women’s
Rights
Movement
Women in the United States have been
fighting for equality since before—
and after—they could vote. Here’s a
look at some important milestones
in women’s rights history.
SCENE 3
Narrator A: With war raging in
Europe, President Wilson wins
re-election in 1916. He says that
now is not the time to fight for a
constitutional amendment. During
the winter of 1917, NWP members
1890
Wyoming
becomes the
first state to
grant women
the right to
vote when it is
admitted to the
Union in 1890.
1920
The 19th
Amendment to
the Constitution
is ratified by
three quarters
of the states,
giving women
the right to vote.
Suffragists stand outside
the U.S. Capitol in 1913.
picket the White House every day.
That April, President Wilson asks
Congress to declare war against
Germany.
Woodrow Wilson: We shall fight for
democracy, for the right of those
who submit to authority to have a
voice in their own governments.
Narrator B: At NWP headquarters,
Ruza Wenclawska snorts.
Wenclawska: Wilson’s going to
fight for democracy in Europe?
Burns: He can’t fight for
democracy abroad and deny it
here at home.
Narrator C: Mabel Vernon, an
NWP member, weighs in.
Mabel Vernon: We can’t picket a
wartime president. It’s treason.
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Burns: Treason is betraying your
country. Petitioning isn’t treason.
Vernon: This is my country, and
I’m going to do everything I can to
support it.
Wenclawska: Do everything you
want to. Roll bandages for the soldiers. But do it on the picket line!
Vernon (agreeing): I’ll join you.
Narrator D: Outside the White
House, the women carry a banner
quoting Wilson: “We shall fight for
democracy, for the right of those
who submit to authority to have a
voice in their own governments.”
SCENE 4
Narrator E: A few days later,
police arrest the picketers,
Library of Congress
Carrie Chapman Catt, an
influential leader of the National
American Woman Suffrage
Association (NAWSA). She visits
Paul and Burns.
Carrie Chapman Catt: You may
not fund a Democratic Party boycott with NAWSA contributions!
The Democrats have always
­supported us.
Burns: Then let them show it.
Catt: Unity and loyalty—that’s
where we women get our strength.
The opposition would like nothing
more than to see us divided. But
President Wilson is not the
opposition.
Paul (quietly): Then who is? If he
were on our side, we could get an
amendment past Congress.
Narrator E: Paul forms what will
become the National Woman’s
Party (NWP), devoted solely to
passing a suffrage amendment.
Emily Leighton sends monthly
contributions, but when her
husband finds out, he commands
her to stop.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Lucretia Mott organize
the first women’s rights
convention, in Seneca Falls,
New York. Participants
adopt 12 resolutions calling
for equal treatment of
women and men.
1963
1972
Library of Congress
Congress passes
the Equal Pay Act,
making it illegal for
employers to pay
a woman less than
they’d pay a man for
the same job.
charging them with
obstructing traffic. Dozens of
women, including Burns, are sent
to a prison workhouse. Burns tells
the warden, Whittaker, that she
has the right to see a lawyer.
Whittaker: No visitors.
Burns: Watch how you treat us.
This is America. You don’t make
the laws.
Whittaker: In here, I do make the
laws.
Narrator A: Guards drag Burns
and others into tiny brick cells.
They are fed cereal with maggots
in it. Meanwhile, Paul continues
to picket the White House. One
day, suffrage opponents shout and
spit at the marchers. A banner is
pulled down. Rioting breaks out.
Paul and other picketers appear
before a judge in court.
Paul: I am not here because I
obstructed traffic, but because I
pointed out to the president that
he is obstructing democracy.
Judge (banging his gavel): To
prison with you! Six months!
Title IX of the Education
Amendments of 1972 bans sex
discrimination in education
programs or activities that
receive federal assistance. As
a result, athletics programs
and professional schools admit
more women.
Narrator B: In prison, Paul
refuses to eat. She is locked in
a psychiatric ward. The prison’s
physician, Dr. White, pays her
a visit.
Dr. White: Why do you refuse
to eat?
Paul: The hunger strike was a
tradition in old Ireland. You would
starve yourself on someone’s
doorstep until restitution was
made and justice was done.
White: So you think the president
has treated you that badly?
Paul: It’s the law that treats
women badly.
White: Explain the suffragist
cause.
Paul: 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.
Narrator C: Dr. White reports that
Paul is not insane and that she is
prepared to die for her cause.
Thirty other female prisoners join
in her hunger strike. Prison
officials force-feed them raw eggs
by shoving tubes down their
throats. The women struggle,
nearly choking.
EPILOGUE
Narrator D: A short while later,
New York gives women the vote.
Publicity for the movement is
stronger than ever. The
imprisoned women are released.
At last, in 1919, at President
Wilson’s urging, Congress passes
a constitutional amendment giving
women the right to vote. But
three fourths of the states must
ratify the amendment for it to
become law.
Narrator E: On August 18,
1920, NWP volunteers wait
to learn if the last required state—
Tennessee—will vote for or
against the amend­ment.
Representative Harry Burn, who
is wearing a red rose as a symbol
of the amendment’s opponents,
receives a telegram from his
mother.
Harry Burn (reads the telegram
under his breath): “Don’t forget to
be a good boy, Harry . . . and do
the right thing.”
Narrator A: Burn removes the
rose, then announces . . .
Burn: I vote yea.
Narrator B: On August 26, 1920,
the 19th Amendment becomes
law. The right to vote is
guaranteed for 20 million
American women—and for
countless generations to come.
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