Troublemaker

To borrow a phrase from Oprah – This I know for sure: I am not a radical feminist. But I can’t decide if it’s because I don’t have the guts to act out or if it’s because there is no nationally organized venue, protest, march, parade in which I can take part. Would I step up to the radical plate if the cause was good enough? Would I use money from my own pocket, leave the comfort of my home and my children to join in – to take a stand? Would I be willing to be arrested?

Here’s the extent of my radical gestures thus far: I have four bumper stickers on my van – two are in support of Obama. The others state that I did not vote for Bush. I attribute the key scratch down the side of my vehicle to the latter.

The truth is that without radical leaders, it would have taken longer than the 88+ years for women to win the right to vote. I’m speaking of one in particular – Alice Paul. If you’re wondering if our “an-sisters” did more than march in their dresses and purple sashes – yes.

Alice Paul and her cohort, Lucy Burns, spun off from the National American Women Suffrage Association and created a more radical group – the National Woman’s Party. They had the audacity to petition a war-time president (Woodrow Wilson). It was the first political protest to picket the White House. For their act of free speech, they and others were arrested on charges of obstructing traffic and thrown into the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia.

Alice Paul was tortured. She went on a hunger strike. She was moved to the psychiatric ward and force-fed raw eggs through a tube jammed down her throat.

In January, 1918, after pressure from the press about the treatment of Paul and others, Wilson announced that women's suffrage was urgently needed as a "war measure" and urged Congress to pass the legislation.

It worked – barely. It came down to one vote from 24-year-old Harry Burns, a Republican Legislator from the state of Tennessee, but the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed on August 18, 1920, and secured the vote for women.

Alice Paul and her followers’ radical approach (demonstrations, parades, mass meetings, picketing, suffrage watch, fires, and hunger strikes) is documented in the HBO movie, Iron Jawed Angels, which features Hilary Swank and Anjelica Huston. It’s a must see in my book (even though some of the torture scenes are hard to watch). If you can’t get to it, then check out these photographs on HBO’s site at http://www.hbo.com/films/ironjawedangels/history/.

Based on the recent Prop 8 initiatives, it appears the protests du jour are for gay and lesbian rights. But I wouldn’t let the absence of women’s rights parades fool us into believing we’re on equal footing with our male counterparts. Far from it. Earning 76 cents on the dollar might not make us angry enough to pour into the streets, arm-and-arm with banners held high. But we do need to find something to rally around.

I know that Alice Paul would not want us to give up.