Started by Alice Paul in 1916, the National Woman's Party (NWP) took the more European and militant approach towards the fight for women's suffrage. It originally broke off from the major organization of the time, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, who had begun focusing more on suffrage at the state level rather than at the federal level. It's main purpose was go guarantee an amendment to the constitution allowing women the right to vote.
Though strictly a non-partisan association, the NWP attacked the Democratic part and President Wilson for their failure to pass a constitutional amendment.
During WWI, while the women of Europe stopped their protests in 1914 due to the war, the NWP started a campaign when the U.S. entered it. The movement began on January 10, 1917 and ended in June 1919. The campaign was widely criticized by the public for ignoring the war and attracting those against it. As a result of their neutral opinion towards the war, socialists and anti-war radicals were attracted to the organization, weakening it's appeal to mainstream women.
Originally the movement was tolerated, but when the U.S. declared war and became involved in WWI police began arresting the women for such things as traffic obstruction. Taking note from the more extreme European movement, many of those arrested went on hunger strikes as soon as they were arrested. They would be force fed, contrary to the image that had been given to America as being an international leader in human rights. This bad publicity was designed to force Wilson to publicly call on congress to pass an amendment for women to be able to vote.
Wilson came out in favor of the amendment in 1918, but it wasn't until 1920 that it was passed through both the House and the Senate and ratified by enough states to make it official.
Sources:
"National Woman's Party." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Oct. 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
This post was a really good read. It helped me understand more about how the women's suffrage movement was going besides the war, the League of Nations and Wilson presidency.
ReplyDeleteThis post was extremely interesting - offering a concise view to the evolution of women's rights. I thought it was fascinating that a movement originally designed to gain women the right to vote became drastically unpopular, but that unpopularity was what allowed them to be oppressed by the United States Federal Government. As a result, this oppression lead to rights being guaranteed - a process that I think no one would have predicted. I thought the idea that such radical change to society, specifically benign change, can result from war time is always one to be amazed at. Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteIt was very good how you talked about the change in the governments mindset towards suffrage from before the war to after. It made you really think about how they were treated and how strong they were to stand up for it.
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