Iron+Jawed+Angels

KHW ~ Catt v Paul in the Fight for Women's Rights

Iron Jawed Angels portrayed the events of Alice Paul’s fight for a national amendment for women’s rights accurately however Carrie Chapman Catt was characterized as an obstacle in that fight. In reality Carrie Chapman Catt was not against an amendment for women’s rights but rather was against the methods used by Alice Paul to reach such a goal. Catt served as president of NAWSA from 1915 until soon before her death in 1947 and achieved her goals by advocating for women’s rights at a state level believing that it would augment the likelihood of a constitutional amendment. Catt’s strategy forwarded her goals by compromising and supporting leaders like Woodrow Wilson whereas Alice Paul’s radical methods refused to do either. Instead Paul and the other members of the NWP remained publicly active like when they picketed the White House during World War I. Paul’s more militant approach resulted in her arrest but even while in prison the suffragists continued to strike. While Catt supported President Wilson Paul blamed him for the lack of a constitutional amendment and as a result women’s rights faced criticism from the public. Some argue that the poor treatment of Paul and the other suffragists in prison led to public outrage and Wilson’s change of heart while others argue it was Catt’s patience that led to Wilson’s eventual support for what would become the 19th Amendment. Others say that the two different approaches complemented each other and while NAWSA’s actions slowly built up support state by state the NWP’s actions kept the issue of women’s suffrage alive in the minds of the public and both were equally responsible for the achievements of women’s suffragist in the early twentieth century.

NMD-The Portrayal of Wilson

What is perhaps one of the most striking elements about the movie Iron Jawed Angels, is the very unfavorable representation of president Woodrow Wilson. In the movie, Wilson is portrayed as a very indifferent observer of the woman's rights movement, and is subsequently vilified for it. Yet this vilification goes to show how backwards American society was during the time period in the area of granting social rights to all those who deserved them. Even Wilson, one of the most Progressive and idealistic presidents ever to hold the office thinking that the idea of woman's suffrage was too radical of an idea shows just how far woman have come in the past 100 years or so. Of course, the strategies of these women must be commended. By quoting Wilson in their picket sections outside of the White House, they really do call into question how the United States was morally able to have her young men die for democracy abroad but not grant it to all of her citizens. Of course, the movie will need in the next part to make a remarkable turn around, since when the war began and women were called to work in the factories, Wilson became a proponent of the now crucial woman vote, and the film after brewing up all of this anger against Wilson for acting like a road bloke for equality, will have to make a decisive effort to now portray Wilson as a viable proponent for women's rights.

CHE- Female Service and Unconstitutional Arrests

When President Wilson declares war on Germany during the storyline of Iron-Jawed Angels, a few of the portrayed National Women’s Party members express concern that the United States’ entry in World War would put a halt to the women’s suffrage efforts. Similar to how involvement in World War One did not stop women from fighting for suffrage in the film, real-life women in this time period used their support for the war as another reason for their suffrage rights to be granted. In a scene during the film, the women discuss how they are always serving; they feel that they are rarely served, further demonstrated by the government’s lack of motivation to grant women voting rights. As World War One progressed along with women’s fights for suffrage, women began to pose questions that probed Wilson such as, “President Wilson, what will you do for woman suffrage?”, that would become very prominent in their campaign. Women had taken up the responsibilities of males in their absence due to the War and its military draft, further serving the United States; although women worked as hard as men, they received lower pay than men, which would add to the later pleads for Civil Rights. Eventually, Wilson recognized the wartime service of women in a letter to NAWSA leader Carrie Chapman Catt, and acknowledged women’s earned right to vote; In 1919, the House and Senate passed the Nineteenth Amendment, and a ratification followed in 1920. Iron-Jawed Angels also points out the issue in which women faced unconstitutional arrests. During a silent strike outside of the White House, NWP members are unconstitutionally arrested with a charge of “obstructing traffic”, which the women did not do. During World War One, wartime dissent was not only suppressed by law (many times unconstitutionally), but also frowned upon by the public majority (which relates to the public’s treatment of the picketers in the film). For example, a midwestern socialist organizer, Kate Richards O’Hare, faced a wartime-dissent related arrest when she said, “The women of the United States are nothing more than brood sows, to raise children to get into the army and be made into fertilizer.”

SMR- “Obstructing-Traffic” The movie Iron Jawed Angels portrays the suffragettes’ movement in Washington D.C. The politics and police force are illustrated as corrupt. Suffragettes are arrested under the false charge of obstructing traffic, even though their picket was on the sidewalk. Iron Jawed Angels shows how the senators and high officials are trying to find a basis on which to arrest these suffragettes. While the suffragettes were not breaking any laws, the police felt they had to charge them with a bogus charge in order to put a stop to the unrest. With the involvement of the United States in World War I, public opinion turned against the suffragettes; even Wilson was surprised to see pickets against a wartime president. However, the suffragettes believed that in order to get what they wanted they needed to be persistent, even in a time of crisis. The resentment from the public and the president did not put the suffragettes in a favorable situation. Iron Jawed Angels shows how the women were unfairly sentenced to spend 60 days in a women’s prison. When Alice Paul was committed, her hunger strike made the voice of the suffrage movement stronger. The prison knew that they could not have a corpse on their hands, and as a result Paul’s name and fame grew, as did the influence of her hunger strike. Ultimately, Paul and the other suffragettes persisted, even in a time of national security crisis. They were morally and physically abused, unfairly tried, and poorly represented. They were unwavering in their demands for women’s rights.

ARS- New Women with New Tactics

“New women”, like Alice Paul were born in the 1860s and 1870s. They used different tactics than women before them had used. Early suffrage movements used moral arguments, saying that women would use their vote to get the corruption out of politics and right all that is wrong in society. New women got themselves involved in the politics themselves. Women could not purify the system without having a say in it. Alice Paul and other suffragettes picketed in front of the white house even when the United Stated entered the First World War. Never before had women suffragists been as pragmatic. Before the women were picketing in front of the white house they were not receiving enough publicity. To them bad publicity is better than none at all. The women were obviously treated unfairly when they were picketing. The public got to see the injustice of the policemen’s poor protection of the women from the mob. The treatment of the women was even worse once they were in prison and out of public eye. The women were force fed because they refused to eat. President Woodrow Wilson eventually had to take action, and he did. Alice Paul and her colleagues were released from prison and the nineteenth amendment to the United States Constitution, securing the right for women to vote, was passed. The tactics used by these new women were clearly more effective then the older “moralistic” ways. 12/12 checked