Alice Paul's Struggle For Suffrage

Alice Paul was a women’s rights activist during the 1900’s and she became the official advocate for suffrage, through the NAWSA. (Katherine H. Adams and Michael L. Keene, 1) In her young life, she had already accomplished so much then women who had fought for suffrage in the past. She was a radical figure for all women in her day. (Siegel, 1) She worked to bring suffrage or the right to vote to all women in the United States. (Siegel, 1) Alice Paul dedicated most of her life to the ratification of the 19th or suffrage amendment. (Siegel, 1) Alice Paul, a women’s activist, took a stand for woman suffrage although enduring hardships such as horrific and unjust jail conditions, riots against her beliefs, and the task of creating a new women’s
Alice Paul was unjustly sent to jail during legal protests. On July 14, 1917, Alice Paul led a march with 96 other members of the National Women’s Party. The protestors marched to the gates of the white house where the police arrested them for obstructing traffic. Since the protest was legal, the arrest shows how women were unjustly sent to jail. (Doris Stevens, 99) Even through these hardships in jail she still worked for everything she believed in. By doing so, she was able to overcome these unjust arrests. She was also treated and exposed to horrid experiences in jail. For example when Alice Paul was sent to the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia, she was painfully force fed through tubes and forcibly examined. The women were treated so badly due to their beliefs. (Lawrence Lewis, 1). Much like other experiences Paul faced she overcame this along with many other women. Some could believe that these experiences are what gave her the “push” to keep fighting even in hard times. Alice Paul’s fellow protestors also endured the same tragic events as she did in jail. For example, a woman named Lewis Lawrence writes about her experience in the jail after taking part of a protest with Alice Paul. She writes, “I was seized and laid on my back, where five people held me, a young colored woman leaping upon my knees, which seemed to break under the weight. Dr.
With little support, Alice Paul left NAWSA and created the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage. When Alice Paul first started working towards woman suffrage, she joined NAWSA. There she worked to achieve women’s suffrage. The NAWSA believed in gaining suffrage by going one state’s constitutional amendment at a time. Alice Paul realized this was a waste of time and left NAWSA. With little support, she created the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage where she worked to gain the federal suffrage amendment. (Sally Hunter Graham, 666) By ignoring what others thought was the best way to gain suffrage Alice Paul took a stand in history and made her own path by creating the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage. Another way Alice Paul worked hard with little support was in 1916 when Alice Paul created the National Woman’s Party. She had to leave the NWASA in order to do what she believed was best. The creation of a new party came from that she wanted to make woman’s suffrage a constitutional amendment. (Elizabeth Scholl, 38) This was an important descision made by Paul in order for women to have the right to vote. Alice Paul pushed through these hardships and worked for woman suffrage with little