A Woman's Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot

by Mary Walton

Alice Paul began her life as a studious girl from a strict Quaker family in New Jersey. In 1907, a scholarship took her to England, where she developed a passionate devotion to the suffrage movement. Upon her return to the United States, Alice became the leader of the militant wing of the American suffrage movement. Calling themselves "Silent Sentinels," she and her followers were the first protestors to picket the White House. Arrested and jailed, they went on hunger strikes and were force-fed and brutalized. Years before Gandhi's campaign of nonviolent resistance, and decades before civil rights demonstrations, Alice Paul practiced peaceful civil disobedience in the pursuit of equal rights for women.

With her daring and unconventional tactics, Alice Paul eventually succeeded in forcing President Woodrow Wilson and a reluctant U.S. Congress to pass the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote. Here at last is the inspiring story of the young woman whose dedication to women's rights made that long-held dream a reality.

"Alice Paul was a visionary and a pioneer. Her struggle for women's rights was built on the premise that no society or nation can reach its full potential if half of the population is left behind." -- Hillary Rodham Clinton

Genres: History, Feminism, Nonfiction, Biography, American History, Womens, Politics

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 17, 2010

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

After watching the HBO movie "Iron-Jawed Angels," I read this book to learn more about Alice Paul and the women's suffrage movement. I thoroughly enjoyed both the book and the movie. The movie captures the drama of the events and the bravery of the women involved very well. But in compressing the story to fit a two-hour time frame, it sometimes creates an oversimplified impression of cause and effect. So I appreciated the more nuanced version told by the book. But if you don't have the patience for so much detail, at least rent the movie. It'll make you appreciate the vote and the women who worked so hard for it.

[Jennifer Mangler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice Paul has long been one of my heroes, and I find it incredibly frustrating how few people know anything about her. We all owe her so much. Walton has written a wonderful book about her and the fight to get women the right to vote. We have forgotten just how difficult it was for Alice and her sister suffragists to finally attain what we now too often take for granted. This is a story everyone should know.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

About a year or so ago I visited the Sewell Belmont House and Museum. I had had no idea it existed until I read a small blurb about it in the Washington Post. While visiting the museum, I realized how little I really knew about who fought for women's right to vote and what it took to get the constitutional amendment passed. I was aware of Susan B. Anthony and Elisabeth Cady Stanton but hadn't heard of Alice Paul until then.

Mary Walton's easy to read book fleshed out the museum exhibits and made the people involved real to me. I never would have imagined that a Quaker woman would get involved with the "militant" Pankhursts in England and then bring what she learned from the British women's suffrage movement back to the U.S. Ms. Paul never encouraged the violence that was happening across the Atlantic, but she did promote more "in your face" activities than the more "ladylike" American Woman's Suffrage Association. Without Alice Paul, women's national right to vote would have taken a lot longer to pass through congress.

[Connie Lacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating read about the final years before women were finally granted the right to vote in the United States. Alice Paul was a force of nature as she led the charge of the more radical wing of the American woman’s suffrage movement in the 1910s. I was riveted by how she organized the Women’s March of 1913 and maintained pressure on President Woodrow Wilson and Congress until the 19th Amendment was passed. Ms. Paul devoted herself to the cause, eschewing marriage which would have divided her time and energies. Like so many other brave activists, she was jailed repeatedly. She was also brutally force-fed by her jailers.

Good insight into the competition between the radical and conservative branches of the woman’s rights movement. Highly recommended for readers interested in the American suffrage movement and women’s rights history.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

My major reason for liking this book, is that Alice Paul is my hero. One of my regrets is that I never met the woman who got all women the right to vote in this country and the author of the ERA. She was living about 3 blocks from my house and I never knew she was there. I am so sorry that that opportunity passed me by.

This book is fine. It is mostly the story of Alice Paul's actions that got women the right to vote in the United States. Walton does a good job telling her readers about Paul's early years and a terrific job writing about the years in the early 20th century where Paul laid it all on the line for suffrage.

My regret is that after 1920, the book comes to an end. There is a bit on Alice Paul's later life, but not much. Given that Paul wrote the ERA, there has to be more to the story. Hopefully that is another book for another author.

I am very grateful to Mary Walton for writing this book. Anything to keep Alice Paul's memory alive. She deserves to be remembered by all women. For a wonderful column, written in 2004 by Connie Schultz, go here:
http://www.progressiveavenues.org/Wom...

[Ashuri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a Women's History class on how we obtained the vote. The teacher had us read this biography on Alice Paul, a women who greatly advocated for women's voting rights in the 1910s through militant strategies. Ultimately, she and her followers succeeded. This novel explains the life of this woman's efforts to become a feminist and social activist in women's rights. There were some amusing moments in this book about this woman I found amazing, such as how she and others would infiltrate government houses and hide there, only to barge into important meetings between politicians and demand women's voting rights. She was definitely an amazing woman, and I respect and admire her and her fellow activists for giving women the right to vote. I do recommend this book if you're looking to read about an important women in US and American women history that won't bore you and provides interesting facets of the American woman activist life during this time period.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well written and researched biography about an important subject. Very focused on Alice Paul, it gives a good overview of her circle of activists and their strategy for pushing the President and congress to pass the 19th Amendment. It describes major milestones like the women's march in Washington in 1913 for suffrage, and the picketing of the White House during WWI and finally the arrests and hunger strikes of some of the core group of activists, and the final push in state legislatures for ratification of the amendment. If you know nothing about how women finally got the vote in the USA, this is a good book to read.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the very well researched story of Alice Paul and how she managed to finally win the vote for women in 1920. I had heard her name at one point in reading about feminism but it has been lost in the greater picture. She and the women who joined her were some of the first to use techniques of nonviolent civil disobedience. It was an amazing struggle directed by Paul with single minded perseverance. Mary Walton has turned it into a very readable history and one that made me realize how much I owe to this remarkable individual.

[David Platt · Rating 5 out of 5]

When people think of the heroes of the women's rights movement they think of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. But when I have asked my friends if they have heard of Alice Paul, I get blank stares.
Alice Paul is one of the most important people in the struggle for women to get the vote in the United States. President Obama should be commended for designating the Sewall-Belmont House, near the Capitol and the Supreme Court, as the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument.
Mary Walton does an excellent job of telling this vital woman's life story.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I never realized just how much these women went through to to get us the right to vote. I am sure that Alice Paul and her cohorts would be disgusted if they knew how many women stayed home this election. I would also like to think that they would also shake their heads at the quality of a few of the female candidates this year too.

[Sarah Handley-Cousins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good first read on the NWP and Alice Paul, but I found myself just wanting more. I did not get the feeling, much, for Paul's personality. Perhaps I was imagining it more as a biography than a story about the quest for the vote in the 1910s. I certainly wanted more on the ERA. I also disliked some of the odd stylistic choices - lots of exclamation points.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was about a subject which each and everyone of us should know. Unfortunately, it was written more like a thesis or term paper than an engaging historical novel. I read the entire thing but wanted to give up many times.

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing, amazing woman! We are eternally indebted to her.

[Jadyn]

Alice Paul began her life from a Quaker family in New Jersey. A scholarship and graduate work brought Alice to England, there she found she had a strong devotion to the suffrage movement. She began practicing peaceful civil disobedience and became politically active. There she learned and became unafraid to use dramatic tactics to support a cause. She was apprenticed with the Miliant Sufferage Movement, at the time led by Emmeline Paiilchurst and her daughters. Alice Paul then returned to the United States and created and led her own suffrage movement. She called her movement the "Silent Sentinels". Alice Pauls movement was the first to have protesters picket the White House in effort to pressure President Woodrow Wilson to support the proposed “Anthony amendment” to the Constitution that would guarantee women the right to vote. On November 14, 1917, the "Night of Terror", Alice Paul and 10 other suffragists were thrown behind bars at the Occoquan Prison. W.H. Whittaker, the superintendent of the Occoquan Workhouse, had almost forty guards brutalize the suffragists. Later Alice Paul and the rest of the suffragists were later moved to the District Jail because of the National Woman's Party who went to court to protest the treatment of the suffragists in the Occoquan Prison. Behind bars Alice Paul went on hunger strikes which caused her to be sent t0 the prisons psychiatric ward and prison doctors force fed her raw eggs through feeding tubes. Alice led no details out when an interviewer from American Heritage asked about the forced feeding. In January 1918, President Wilson lent his support to the suffrage amendment. Then Congress approved it, and on August 18, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was signed and a woman's right to vote became a law.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great portrait of a very determined, dedicated, and single-minded woman and her cause. I picked up this book with some knowledge of Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party, but I found all sorts of engaging stories and details that were new to me in this text. I especially enjoyed reading about Alice's early involvement with the militant English suffragettes led by the Pankhursts. Their bold techniques influenced Alice Paul greatly when she took up the suffrage fight in the United States. Another highlight for me was the image of their card index of congressmen. They turned lobbying into a science in order to have the greatest impact possible when confronting congressmen directly. These women (and men) deserve a greater place in history for their sacrifices and successes. If you're unfamiliar with this part of American history or just looking for a general history of the suffrage battle this might not be the best book for you. The author really focuses on Alice Paul and those working with her, so you get a limited amount of information on NAWSA (National American Woman Suffrage Association) and those associated with that rival organization.

[SoCal Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written biography of Alice Paul and her contribution to women's suffrage in the United States and her start in the British suffrage movement. I liked how much detail it went into - it was almost a blow by blow description of the suffrage movement under Alice Paul's influence and leadership. Since it is a biography and not strictly speaking a history of the movement not much space was given to the other major players, except on how they impacted Alice.
Fortunately the author did not sugarcoat Alice Paul's strong personality. I ended up agreeing with one of her co-workers when she said that while she didn't dislike Alice, she didn't really like her either. Like most leaders she was single-minded which made her less than lovable, but that is what was necessary to get the job done. I've always greatly admired Alice Paul and this biography makes me admire her more.
Sometimes the details felt like too much, but I think that just emphasizes the tedium that was the woman's suffrage movement. It wasn't all excitement but took many years of hard work and an exhaustive attention to detail.

[Ms. Online]

REVOLUTIONARY
Reviewed by Vivian Gornick

In 1976, one year short of her death at the age of 92, I interviewed Alice Paul—the only woman suffrage leader still alive—in a nursing home in Connecticut. Sitting before me in a wheel- chair, Paul gave a remarkable demon- stration of selective senility. She stared into space, wouldn’t answer when asked how she felt, couldn’t figure out where she was or what it was I wanted of her; but when, pen and notebook in hand, I asked about a strategy meeting that had taken place in June of 1913, she recalled the name of every woman who’d been in the room, how each had voted on the issues, and why she (Paul) still considered the outcome of that meeting an important setback for the Cause. Inside this frail old woman there lived a spirit of political engagement that clearly would last as long as she did.

To read the full review, check out the latest issue of Ms. on newsstands today!

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-researched and well-written, lots of personal letters and diaries as well as public record. Having grown up near Mt. Laurel (where Alice Paul grew up) and Moorestown, NJ (where she attended school), I should have learned about her a long time ago. I don't believe they taught ANY of this in school. The terroristic nature of the men opposing women's desire to vote was shocking at every turn. Among other things, Alica Paul was credited at least partially for her introduction of peaceful protest, which was continued by Dr. Martin Luther King and others. She could have done more for the black women, who were marginalized in her movement, so she was flawed in that aspect, but she continued to work her whole life toward peace and justice for disenfranchised people. Very inspirational.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reader who knows very little about the history of the women;s suffrage movement would probably enjoy this book very much. Since I have done extensive reading and research in this area, they were a few things new to me. I thought this book was more about Alice Paul. It really is a history of the suffrage movement from about 1900 until passage of the 26th amendment.(I hope I have the number right) Not a popular buy for most libraries but I would purchase it for a high school collection. I had to get my copy through ILL from Rider College.

[Andrea Dowd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Walton has done an amazing job of presenting the struggle and grit of an American hero who is little discussed outside of feminist history. Her biography of suffragette Alice Paul is well written, readable, focused, all while maintaining its place in the grand scheme of life post-Civil War and mid-WWI.

Alice Paul and her fellow suffragettes were amazing and icons of determination. I would recommend this to anyone interested in women's history or the history of early American civil rights. Alice Paul deserves a larger spot in American history with Dorothy Day and Jane Adams.

[Carolyn Fagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read about and unknown (at least to me) women's suffrage pioneer. It baffles me that we all know about Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul is an unknown. Alice Paul's story is well that should be shared...she accomplished so much for women's rights and lived until 1977! Loved this one of the list for the NY Council for the Humanities' Votes for Women! reading and discussion group!

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice Paul was passionately devoted to the suffrage movement and was instrumental in forcing President Woodrow Wilson and a reluctantUS Congress to passthe 19th amendment in 1920, guaranteeing women the right to vote. No woman today can read this historical account & not take seriously the right to vote.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting and, except for a bit in the middle, well written book of history this is! It read like a novel. Alice Paul was a ball of fire and intensely focused on getting the vote for women. At times her intensity caused a split in friendships. I didn't know much about the suffrage movement, and had never heard of Alice Paul. I highly recommend this book.

[Leilani · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of the woman who pushed voting rights for women across the finish line, told competently with revealing anecdotes about her world but leaving a bit of a veil still around the central figure. Inspiring, especially in the early use of nonviolent activism despite the disapproval of more established suffrage groups.

[David Muller · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly important story of how an intrepid woman fought for decades to procure the right to vote for women. On a personal note, I am proud of the role my grandmother played in providing a comfortable retirement for Ms Paul at the end of her life, much as Ms Paul did for my grandparents Alice and Felix Muller when they were refugees in Geneva in 1940/41.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice Paul is one of my heroes. I went to the same high school as her and have always been inspired by her work. I’m so glad someone finally took the time time to write about her and everything that she did for women. I am patiently waiting for the day that the ERA passes so that I can visit her grave and say thank you.

[Julianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging, detailed scope into the story of the struggle for women's suffrage in the early 20th century, and an inspiring narrative about Alice Paul's unwavering determination to secure the ballot through the passage of the 19th Amendment.

[Mariana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Woman’s Crusade tells about Alice Paul’s struggle to amend the US Constitution to give women the right to vote. We who want to change the status quo can learn from AP’s strategies, tactics, and endurance.

[Angela]

Heard this author speak on The Bob Edwards Show on XM public radio this morning. Adding her book to my to-read list in honor of Women's Equality Day!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the intimate backstory information that this book provided. We were never taught this stuff in school. I am so grateful for the hardships these women suffered for our right to vote!