Alice to Geri to Sarah

I have intentionally stayed away from writing while the conventions were in progress. I am so sick of listening to babbling sycophants that I'm about ready to propose we go back British-style democracy. At least there when
an election is called you only have to listen to BS for a few weeks at most. Here it never stops. The campaign for 2012 will begin shortly after election day 2008.

The biggest shocker by far was the nomination of
Sarah Palin for Vice-President. I had never heard
of her before, but I sure like what I've seen and
heard thus far. Compared to some parts of the
world we are light years ahead on equality of the
sexes, but we still haven't had a woman in either
of the two highest offices.

In case you're wondering who the young lady is, her name was Alice Paul. If you're like me, you know the name of Susan B. Anthony and the women's suffrage movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and that's about it. I became aware of her through a post in one of my Yahoo groups and decided to do a little more investigation.

She was born January 11, 1885 and passed away on July 9, 1977. She was raised as a Quaker, which explains here early interest in women's suffrage, because many of the earliest proponents of giving women the right to vote to women were Quakers. She graduated from Swathmore College, attended the New York School of Social Work, and in 1906 she made her way to England to work in the settlement house movement. While in England she became involved in the women's suffrage movement there and became quite a militant. She is credited for originating the "hunger strike" on behalf of women's suffrage.

"Each day I was wrapped in blankets and taken to another cell to be fed, the food being injected through my nostrils. During this operation the largest Wardess in Holloway (prison) sat astride my knees, holding my shoulders down to keep me from bending forward. Two other wardesses sat on either side and held my arms. Then a towel was placed around my throat, and one doctor from behind forced my head back, while another doctor put a tube in my nostril. When it reached my throat my head was pushed forward."

Upon her return to the United States she eventually split from the more moderate arm of the women's suffrage movement (National American Woman's Suffrage Association) and founded the National Woman's Party, which was to endorse a more militant approach to suffrage. They called themselves "Silent Sentinels" and stood outside the White House with signs that called President Wilson to task. Initially tolerated, they were soon being arrested for "obstructing traffic" and released. After we entered WWI, many Americans found these women to be unpatriotic and they were attached by mobs on more than one occasion.

After spending three days in jail in 1917, Alice, along with her compatriot Lucy Burns, and other suffragettes were sent to The Occoquan Workhouse. The Occoquan Workhouse was actually a prison in nearby Virgina, and on the night of November 15, 1917, it was the scene of brutality that shocked the nation.

"Under orders from W. H. Whittaker, superintendent of the Occoquan Workhouse, as many as forty guards with clubs went on a rampage, brutalizing thirty-three jailed suffragists. They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head, and left her there for the night. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed, and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate Alice Cosu, who believed Mrs. Lewis to be dead, suffered a heart attack. According to affidavits, other women were grabbed, dragged, beaten, choked, slammed, pinched, twisted, and kicked." (source: Barbara Leaming, Katherine Hepburn (New York: Crown Publishers, 1995), 182.)

President Wilson soon changed his tune and lent his support to the movement. In 1919 the House and the Senate passed the 19th Amendment and ratification was finally achieved on August 18, 1920 when the Tennessee legislature ratified the amendment.

The dedication and commitment of Alice Paul and other suffragettes made it possible for Geraldine Ferraro to be the first woman nominated for the office of Vice-President, and now we have Sarah Palin as well. Although I don't feel that militancy will get you anywhere most of the time, I am very glad that someone brought her story to my attention. I intend to share it with my daughters, even though one of them is an ardent Obama supporter. It doesn't matter who you support, what matters is that you participate by exercising your right to vote.

One of the lines credited to Alice Paul was this: "If women had been allowed to participate in the end of WWI there wouldn't have been a WWII". I don't know if that's the case, but based on the observation that women are more compassionate and forgiving, she may well have been right.


When she died in 1977, Alice still held out hope that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) would be passed. Although I found the ERA to be superfluous at the time, and I still do, I very much admire Alice Paul's efforts and dedication to bringing women to their rightful place in society - along side the men, not in back of them.

Click on the title and you'll be directed to an oral history from Alice Paul that was completed in 1976 shortly before her death.

I hope you find it as enlightening as I did.