Alice Paul: The First Wave Feminist Movement

Imagine watching all the presidential debates, reading all the news articles, hearing all the campaign speeches, but having to sit in the living room. Imagine living in a country heralded as the birthplace of liberty, and yet being denied the ability to vote, the ability to have a voice in politics and play a part in the democracy. That was how some women in the early twentieth century felt: cheated, vexed, and marginalized. From these women came the First Wave Feminists, a group of suffragettes who utilized protests, pamphlets, and petitions to obtain the rights they deserved. One suffragette, Alice Paul, was often at the head of these movements. Paul paraded, picketed, and protested to secure equal rights for American women. The future activist
Her actions, unique due to their Quaker and British influences, brought women’s suffrage to the front pages of newspapers nationwide, sparking a fire in American hearts that could only be extinguished through binary gender equality. The first-wave feminist movement that she led paved the way for other civil rights movements, from Martin Luther King’s in the sixties to the LGBTQ Stonewall riots, both of which opened the American people’s eyes to the discrimination and abuse that African Americans and LGBTQ+ members, like women, suffered at the hands of citizens, police, and the law. All three of these groups still suffer prejudice and discrimination today, from violence towards African Americans, to being able to fire gays, lesbians, and transgender people if they come out to their bosses (which, thanks to the failed HERO law in Houston, is legal in Lake Jackson), to the pay gap between men and women in modern-day jobs. These groups used methods similar to Alice Paul’s when their movements began, and some sects continue to use them today. Hopefully they will succeed, and bring America one step closer to the land of freedom and justice it purports to
However, Anne did not have the strong feminist upbringing that Paul received; rather, Anne was often criticized for her intelligence, looks, and headstrong personality, being told that she should be more like a girl. In the beginning to middle of the book, she opposes typical womanly activities of the time, dreading her chores and rejecting the boys who come to suit. Like Paul, Anne pursues a higher education, but the only degree available to her was a teaching certificate, unlike Paul’s biology degree. Abandoning her education in favor of caring for her unmarried adopted mother, however, is a move that Paul probably would have disagreed with. Similar in personality but different in actions and opinions, Paul and Anne were two sides of the same