The suffragists
“IRON JAWED ANGELS”
The suffrage movement was about women’s right
to vote and
about challenging Victorian traditions and
ideology of “proper” place, modernizing, and
occupying a new place in the public domain.
IRON JAWED ANGELS recounts for the struggle of suffragists who fought for the
passage of the
AMENDMENT XIX
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 1920.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Two defiant women, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns show how these activists broke from
the mainstream women's-rights movement and created a more radical wing, to push
the boundaries of political protest to secure women's voting rights in 1920.
The film tells the true story of Paul, Burns and others.
Although the protagonists have different personalities and backgrounds they are
united in their fierce devotion to women's suffrage.
The women were thrown in jail, and then went on a hunger strike making headline news. The
women's resistance to being force-fed earns them the nickname "The Iron Jawed Angels."
Some people spoke out in favour of the vote and a large number spoke out against forcible
feeding. However, it is truly their wills that are made of iron, and their courage inspires a
nation and changes it forever.
Alice Paul
Lucy Burns
Inez Milholland
Their statement
Some vocabulary
Hold a parade
Suffragist
Citizen
Picket
Civil rights
Leader
Issue
Bill
Tariff reform
Hunger strike
Psychopathic ward
Constitutional amendment
Pass an amendment
Senate
NASA – National American Women Suffrage Association
NWP – National Woman’s Party
Suffragism in Britain
Emmeline and Christabel Panhurst