Alice Paul was an American lawyer, organizer, women's rights activist.
Background
Alice Paul was born on January 11, 1885 in Moorestown, Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. She was the eldest of four children of William Mickle Paul and Tacy Parry. Her father was the founder and president of Burlington County Trust Company, a real estate investor, and the owner of a working farm. Paul's mother attended Swarthmore College. Accompanying her mother to a suffrage meeting was one of Paul's earliest recollections.
Education
Alice Paul attended Quaker schools in Moorestown and matriculated to Swarthmore, where she earned a B. S. in biology in 1905. During her last year at Swarthmore, Paul developed what was to become a lifelong interest in political science and economics. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Gamma Mu in recognition of her academic excellence. In 1906, Paul completed a College Settlement Association Fellowship at the New York School of Philanthropy. She earned an M. A. degree in sociology in 1907 from the University of Pennsylvania and began research on the legal status of women.
In the fall of 1907 Alice Paul continued her studies in social work on a Quaker Fellowship at Woodbridge, England. While working as a London caseworker, Paul became involved in the British suffrage movement as a protégé of the militant Pankhursts: Christabel, Emmeline, and Sylvia. With American suffragist Lucy Burns, Paul learned the more defiant tactics of the Women's Social and Political Union that the two later employed to secure passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Paul returned to the United States in 1910 and resumed her graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1912 she completed a Ph. D. in sociology with her dissertation, "The Legal Position of Women in Pennsylvania. "
Paul continued her education. She earned three law degrees: an LL. B. from Washington College of Law (1922) and an LL. M. (1927) and D. C. L. (1928) from American University
Career
Alice Paul continued suffrage work within the ranks of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). After a disagreement on strategy with Carrie Chapman Catt and other NAWSA leaders, Paul and Burns founded the Congressional Union of the NAWSA in 1913, which became an independent organization the following year. The "New Suffragists" decided to employ the more strident tactics of British feminists, but, because of Paul's Quaker beliefs, without the violence. The focus to obtain woman suffrage shifted from a states' rights, state-by-state battle to one that utilized the vote of women in western states and declared war on President Woodrow Wilson and the Democratic party. Paul founded the National Woman's Party (NWP) in 1916, serving as chairperson until 1921, and was instrumental in gaining women's voting rights in 1920. Actively involved in protests, Paul served time in jail for her participation in demonstrations. Like many suffragists, Paul was charged with disturbing the peace and unlawful assembly.
After the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, Paul, with characteristic single-mindedness, decided to press on for equal rights for women in all areas of life. Beginning in 1921 she served the NWP on the executive committee and as chair of the international relations committee. From 1927 to 1937 she chaired the Woman's Research Foundation. In the midst of harsh criticism from those who favored protective legislation for women, Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1923 and saw it introduced in Congress for the first time that December.
A small income from her father's estate allowed Paul to devote all of her time and legal expertise to women's rights. In the 1930's, Paul chaired the nationality committee of the Inter-American Commission of Women, representing the Women's Consultative Committee on Nationality of the League of Nations. She also served on the executive committee of Equal Rights International. Her goal was to obtain an international equal rights treaty. By the late 1930's, Paul had garnered enough support to found the World Party for Equal Rights for Women, or the World Women's Party. After serving for two years as chair of the WWP in Geneva, Paul returned to the United States in 1941. Paul was elected national chair of the NWP in 1942. The remainder of her career with the NWP was marked by disagreement among its members, some brought on by normal personality conflicts and internal politics, some by a perception that Paul sought the limelight for personal gratification.
Because of her resolve, Paul was instrumental in the placement of a passage on gender equality in the preamble of the United Nations Charter. Paul's work for equality allowed little time for intimate, long-term relationships. After returning to the United States in 1941, she resided with her sister Helen. When Helen passed away, Paul and her closest friend, feminist Elsie Hill, shared a home until Elsie's death in the late 1960's. Paul's intensity and the ranks of the NWP would not allow the ERA to die; it was repeatedly introduced in Congress until it passed in 1972 and was sent to the states for ratification. As late as 1969, Paul still protested on the front lines, both for women's equality and against the Vietnam War.
Paul continued to lobby for the ERA until a stroke disabled her in 1974. She died in Moorestown on July 9, 1977, erroneously believing that, with only three additional states needed for ratification, the Equal Rights Amendment would soon become a reality.
Achievements
Politics
Alice Paulwas a member of National Woman's Party. She took part in the women's suffrage movement in Britain and was arrested on several occasions, serving time in jail and going on a hunger strike.
Views
Quotations:
"I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality. "
"We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote. "
"There will never be a new world order until women are a part of it. "
"This world crisis came about without women having anything to do with it. If the women of the world had not been excluded from world affairs, things today might have been different. "
"The Woman's Party is made up of women of all races, creeds and nationalities who are united on the one program of working to raise the status of women. "
Membership
Alice Paul was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
Personality
Alice Paul was a perfectionist and demanded dedication and loyalty from those around her, but no more than she was willing to give.
Connections
There is no evidence that Alice Paul ever considered marriage.