Iron Jawed Angels

I have to start by saying that the movie was so much better than I thought it was going to be. I was expecting some boring, documentary style film that would drag on with a monotonous narrator and dusty newsclips. Obviously, it was nothing of the sort.
What I found most compelling about the movie was the sub-plot concerning Senator Clayton's wife. It starts with her ignoring the feminist movement, then she volunteers an hour for them, then she donates money, and eventually ends up picketing and going to prison for the suffrage cause. What makes her such a powerul figure to me was that her husband, a senator, did not support the movement in his home or on the senate and even once threatens to divorce her. And yet, she perseveres depsite the fact that the man she loves openly opposes her views. I feel it is one thing to stand up for something you believe in and quite another to stand up for it when your partner is on the other side. can you imagine how hard that would be? What I couldnt understand was how plainly he could see how she felt and still wanted to keep her down by not allowing her to have a vote and therefore to have any rights of her own. I'm pretty sure he came around in the end, but how any man could deny a woman he loves any of the privelages he has, how he could watch her suffer under her oppression and not feel moved to change things is absolutely beyond me. Before this movie I did not fully understand how callously women were treated before they were granted their full rights as citizens.