Alice Paul Essay -- essays research papers

Alice Paul was born on January 11,1885,in Moorestown, New Jersey. Her father, whodied when Alice was sixteen, was a businessman,banker, and property owner. The Pauls lived in the weeny Quaker community of Moorestown. One ofthe beliefs of the Quakers was equality of the sexes.As a young girl, Alice helped the Quaker suffr advancemeetings with her mother.     Alice Pauls father left them enough money so she could attend the exclusive SwarthmoreCollege in Pennsylvania. She graduated in 1905 asa biology major, but after discovering politics in hersenior year, she went on to attend the New York School of Philanthropy. She majored in sociology,and spent all of her spare time working for thewoman suffrage in New York.      In 1907, Paul pull in a masters degreein sociolgy. She went to England to continue herwork toward her doctorate degree. She was begin-ning to realize that she couldnt variety show the situation by social work alone, but needed t o change the actual laws. Women had no voice ineither England or America to change any law.     The suffrage movement was differentin England than in the States. British suffragistshad begun wild women protests in 1905. They would sneak into male political meetings, anddisrupt the meetings by shouting questions, wavebanners and be arrested.      As Alice Paul became more involvedwith the Womens kind and Political Union, shewas warned of possible imprisonment. This threatdid not prevent her from sneaking into politicalevents. She was arrested ten times in England,three of which ended in prison time. tour inprison, she continued to protest the governmentsrefusal to let women vote or speak publicly, bynot eating. She was force-fed for four weeks.     She returned to America in 1910, whereshe continued her studies and her suffrage work.She brought corroborate from England with her the sametactics used to get the attention of the newspapersand the government. She brought the wild suffragettemovement back to the United States.     She teamed up with Lucy Burns, whoshe spent prison time with in England. They went... ...egan goading membersof the House and Senate to vote for the nineteenthamendment, but kept losing. Then in October 1918,he pleaded for woman suffrage as part of thewar effort. The amendment was passed in 1920, enceinte women the rights of citizens, including theright to vote.     She did not stop there. In 1922, shereceived her Law degree and in 1928 formedthe World Party for Equal Rights for Women.Pauls equal rights amendment was "Equality ofrights under the law shall not be denied or abridgedby the United States or by any State on accountof sex."     Living in Switzerland, she encouragedan Equal Rights Treaty and a World code of Law.Equality was then written into the United NationsCharter.     Paul f ought for equal rights the rest ofher life, nationaly and internationally. In1977, atthe age of 93, she died in her childhood town of Moorestown.     Alice Paul was a remarkable, unstop-pable feminist and social reformer, who paved theroad we now walk.