Let's Talk Women's Suffrage!

Forums: History, Voting, Feminism, Suffrage, Girl Power
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Okay so today was a pretty awesome day at school. Yay! Very Happy

But anyway, we were on Chapter 11: The Progressive Era in AP American History this week and we just finished (our test is on Monday) section 4: Suffrage At Last.

So we got to watch a really great movie called "Iron Jawed Angels" yesterday and today in class. Its about women fighting for suffrage (the right to vote) in America and everything. The two main women in the movie are Alice Paul and Lucy Burns and they are awesome! I really loved learning about the Progressive Era and stuff this week. It's really interesting and I LOVED this movie.

Iron Jawed Angels is AMAZING!! It's a true story too! I think that Alice Paul and Lucy Burns are soo freaking awesome. They went through a ton of crap fighting for women's rights and some parts of the movie we're just soo sad. (I get really emotional watching movies sometimes LOL) Like, I cried on the part when, After they force fed Alice Paul when she was trying to do the hunger strike and her mouth was bleeding and she was soo weak and on the part when all the women at the jail stop eating and start singing and Lucy Burns tries hard not to cry when they take Alice away and on the part when they had Alice admitted to the crazy hospital and the therapists/psychologist (whatever) was asking her questions and stuff. And on the part when Emily's husband (I dont remember her last name) threatened to take her kids away.

Gosh, It just made me wanna slap those guys in the face! LOL
I look at people like Alice Paul and Lucy Burns and I just think 'Gosh, I wanna be like them someday!' You know, strong and smart and I wanna fight for what I believe in no matter what and make a big difference in the world somehow. That movie and those girls were incredible! I'm really glad that I was born female after seeing that movie. LoL Laughing

I think that since women back then fought so hard for us to have rights and get a vote that ALLwomen should vote at least once for God's sake. I definitely wanna vote when Im 18.

But yeah guys, that movie was AMAZINGGGGGG!!! Check it out if you havent already! It's on Youtube, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96JifSnHhaY

Comments anyone? Mr. Green

What do you think of the movie? Favorite Part? Least favorite part? Got any other information or opinions on women suffrage? I'd love to hear it guys! Mr. Green

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Type: Question • Score: 12 • Views: 5,759 • Replies: 73

Oh! And I HATE president Woodrow Wilson!!!! Ugh! Evil or Very Mad

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EVERY citizen who is legally required to obay the law
has a natural right to VOTE (the same as every citizen
has the natural right to keep and bear arms).
If he cannot vote, then he has no moral responsibility
to conform to the law and over him, government has ONLY
the moral authority + brutality of a schoolyard bully.

David

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@OmSigDAVID,

Ditto!

Have you seen the movie OSD?

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@GracieGirl,

If you'd like to see the movie again, or for the first time, it is on youtube in a 12-part series starting here:

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@Butrflynet,

Oh, Thanks Butrflynet but I already posted a link to the movie on the thread. Haha! That's awesome though, now we have too!

And the other 2 vids are great! I can totally use them to help study some extra info for the test Monday. Mr. Green

Thanks a ton! Wink

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@GracieGirl,

Actually, we posted the same link. I didn't notice the duplication until you mentioned it.

Was hoping the other two videos would help you get some extra studying and maybe an extra credit or two on your grade.

My mom's aunt grew up in that era and had many stories to tell of her own experiences with it. I'll see if I can get BBB to post about it here.

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@Butrflynet,

Butrflynet wrote:

My mom's aunt grew up in that era and had many stories to tell of her own experiences with it. I'll see if I can get BBB to post about it here.

Thanks Butrflynet!

And that would be AWESOME! I'd love to hear more stories about it! She's you're mom right?

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@GracieGirl,

Listening. Will probably post later.

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@GracieGirl,

My daughter did a big project on Alice Paul when she was in 3rd grade -- she's hovering and I tried to shoo her away but she'd already seen the title and what I wrote before the "--" and she said in full drama mode "OH BUT THIS IS MY THING!"

So.

This is her thing. She loves Alice Paul and loves the whole women's suffrage fight and can tell you alllll kinds of things about it.

Hey she's only about two years younger than you come to think of it. (She's 10 now but will be 11 soon.)

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@sozobe,

If you're interested, here's the topic where A2K'ers suggested Alice Paul to her, which includes various resources (including her 3rd-grade report! Smile

):

http://able2know.org/topic/140430-1

1 Reply

@sozobe,

Haha!!!

Well, she's AWESOME!! Mr. Green

I wish I knew about Alice Paul when I was in 3rd grade. The whole thing is really amazing and soo interesting. I LOVVVVVEEEEE IT! Mr. Green

Your daughter's 10? Cool! Has she seen the movie? Its really great, you should check it out! Mr. Green

Hi Sozobe's daughter!! LOL I'm Gracie (obviously) Nice to sorta/kinda meet you! Laughing

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@sozobe,

Oh cool! I'm TOTALLY interested! Thanks a ton sozobe!!! Mr. Green

Haha!! I LOVE the title of your thread! Nice! Laughing

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@GracieGirl,

We watched most of the movie, there were some points at which eyes were covered but overall she liked it a lot.

I was happy that A2K'ers brought her up, sozlet really got into that project. She's always been feminist but that kind of brought things to another level. (She was shocked and appalled at what women of the time had to endure.)

She says Hi back!

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@sozobe,

Quote:

She's always been feminist but that kind of brought things to another level. (She was shocked and appalled at what women of the time had to endure.)

Oh yeah, me too! It was crazy. I was frustrated just watching it. Alice Paul is like my idol now (even though that happened a century ago LoL) . It's just soo amazing how hard they fought and how smart and determined and courageous she was. Gosh, the guys back then were idiotic jerks.

But yeah, the movie was great. I loved the actors too! Especially the guy who liked Alice in the movie. Haha!! Very Happy

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@sozobe,

Quote:

"Votes for women! Votes for women! Oh, sorry, I was just picketing. My name is Alice Paul and I thought every person should have rights to speak and be listened to.

For a long time, women had none of those rights. Now, we do. Why? Many people wanted what I did. Finally, we did achieve that goal. Many things happened along the way, here are some of them.

Let me tell you a bit about my early life.

I was born on January 11th, 1885 on Paulsdale, my family's farm, in New Jersey.

My mom and dad raised me right. They brought me up with the belief that men and women are equal. I spent most of my spare time half-reading-half-thinking.

My family was Quaker. We didn't have slaves, though most of our neighbors did.

[ed. note: in New Jersey? anyway]

After I graduated from Quaker school I went to college and traveled to England.

I worked very hard to change the constitution for women. Finally, along with some help, I did. Here are some things that happened along the way.

To draw attention to women's suffrage, we put the headquarters of the NWP (the National Women's Party) across from the White House.

I planned the D.C. Parade. While parading many women were attacked by men. Many young men protected us, but not enough. The police threw us in jail for the fall of 1917.

Quite a few crazy things happened that fall in jail, including something we ended up calling the Night of Terror. The police decided that the women they arrested needed to be taught a lesson, and hurled one of my friends into her cell. Her cellmate had a heart attack because she thought my friend was dead. Events like that kept going on all through the night.

Once we were out of jail, we unfurled banners saying, "How long must women wait for liberty" and "Mr. President, what will you do for suffrage?" in front of the White House.

I worked diligently to change the Constitution. Finally, with quite a bit of help, I did change it. Well, it takes the vote "yes" from 36 states to change the Constitution or, in our case, get women the right to vote. On August 18th, 1920, the 36th state, Tennessee, voted yes.

Everyone thought I had an uncanny ability to make people want to work. So I got lots of women to join together and win the rights to vote.

Now you understand how little rights women had way back when I was a girl. Try your hardest to change the world. Goodbye!

Wow. That's pretty fantastic! Especially for 8th grade. Cool! Very Happy

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There are still a handful of countries that women cannot vote. This Wiki list might give you a bit of perspective on the history of women's suffrage world wide. Women in the early days were highly inspired by each other and the progress in other nations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women's_suffrage

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@Ceili,

Yes, it is especially surprising that Switzerland held out until 1971 and one
canton (state) of Switzerland was forced by the federal supreme court in 1990s to accept women's suffrage.

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@CalamityJane,

That is simply amazing, CJ, that it has taken so long in many places.
Growing up as I did, or maybe it's just me, inequality of any sort just boggles my mind.
This thread got me to thinking, though, I wonder how much different political issues would be without the voting equality of today. I would guess things were pretty cut and dried in the days when only white males voted in America.

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