Iron Jawed Angels- Strategies Used by Suffragists

In the movie, Iron Jawed Angles, women suffragists, led by feminists and advocates Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, were relentless in their fight to have a constitutional amendment for women to have the right and privilege to vote. Paul and Burns were young feminists’ leaders and united in their approach for the passage of the 19th Amendment. The activists were defiant and fearless, focusing solely on getting the amendment passed; they would not allow anything to stand in their way.

Paul and Burns had been in England and were deeply influenced by the British radical feminist, Emmeline Pankhurst. When they returned to the states to join the fight for women’s equality, they did so with the same radical tactics they had learned in England. This did not go over well with the older, more conservative feminists like Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw, whose approach was to go state-by-state and build a consensus for each state allow women to vote. This was in stark contrast to Paul and Burn’s strategy. Paul and Burns felt there were no guarantees by going state-by-state; it would take too much time.

While political courage cost Alice a great deal, especially in her relationship with Ben Weissman, she sacrificed and put the cause ahead of him, which was unusual at the time. From planning parades, handing out fliers, speaking in streets, recruiting volunteers, speaking to the President, creating a newspaper, organizing the NWP, campaigning all over the country, picketing in front of the White House, to starting a hunger strike in jail, Alice Paul and other suffragists never gave up and did everything in their power to pass a constitutional amendment so women would have to right to vote.