Women Verses Women

Although I had watched this film at least twice before in my high school history classes, we had never had time to watch it in it's entirety, but rather focusing mainly on the picketing and jail sentences of the NWP. However one of my favorite parts was still at the end of the film as President Wilson was delivering his address endorsing the suffrage movement and Carrie Chapman Catt getting up so Alice Paul could take a seat. Now that I have seen the film the whole way through I appreciate the gesture even more.

In every text book addressing the women's suffrage movement it is always acknowledged that women had multiple activist groups that emerged such as NAWSA and the NWP however, it is rarely discussed how the two groups differed from each other. That's why one of the most interesting aspects of the movie, in my opinion, was the basis behind the split of the two groups. The fact that the women like Alice Paul and Lucy Burns associated with the NWP were considered too radical in their actions and were hindering rather than helping the movement.

On the other hand the women of NAWSA were considered too patient and determined to continue the process of gaining votes state by state, when in reality it wasn't producing the progress they were hoping for.

Yet this scene at the end I felt was important and powerful because it showed that no matter the disputes along the way women were indeed fighting for the same cause and although they had different tactics they were ultimately united under the same goal.