The initiation of the campaign for the women’s suffrage movement in the United States
dates back to the decades before the American Civil war in 1861. During that time, most states
extended the franchise to all white men, regardless of how much money or property they had1.
American women were begging to challenge the “cult of true womanhood”2, the idea that a true
woman was a worshipful, submissive wife and mother concerned only with home and family.
There was a general belief at the time was that the female mind was inferior. The argument for
women’s suffrage was that women did not make the laws, but still had to obey them like
children. In 1948 a group of abolitionist activists – mostly women but some men, gathered to
discuss the problem of women’s rights in Seneca Falls, New York3. The Seneca Falls
Convention was perhaps the first big step in the social movement as the first formal demand was
issued by American women. Suffragists became active in every state and territory, but were most
successful in the west as they were trying to attract white settlers4. Wyoming would become the
first state to grant suffrage in December of 1890 but the most significant progress occurred
between the years of 1912 and 1920 with some inspirational women leading the way.
The Seneca Fall Convention was the first step of the suffrage movement that took just
over seven decades before the United States Congress passed the 19th amendment - granting
women the right to vote. War and anti-suffragist movements were the biggest obstacles, but the
fight would be led by educated women and inspirational women – one of them being Alice Paul.
She was born in Moorestown, New Jersey in 1885 and received a degree from Swarthmore
1
History.com Staff, “The Fight for Women’s Suffrage,” A+E Networks (2009),
http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage
2
History.com Staff, “The Fight for Women’s Suffrage”.
3
History.com Staff, “The Fight for Women’s Suffrage”.
4
Zecker, Robert M., “Women’s Suffrage”, Lecture, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, January 14,
2014.
College before living in England while attending the University of Birmingham where she
pushed for women's voting rights5. She returned to America in 1910 and received a PhD from the
University of Pennsylvania in 1912. Alice Paul began her fight for women’s suffrage in America
as a member of the “National American Women Suffrage Association” where she served as the
chair of its congressional committee; however she criticized their policies6. As a result of her
frustration, Paul left the NAWSA and formed the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage with
a women from Brooklyn, New York – Lucy Burns.
Lucy Burns was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1879. She was a very educated woman
attending schools like Columbia University, Vassar College, and Yale University before moving
to the United Kingdom to study English at Oxford University7. Lucy Burns met Alice Paul at a
London police station after both women had been arrested for demonstrating. They discussed
their suffrage experiences in the UK and America and bonded over their frustration with the
inactivity and ineffective leadership of the American suffrage movement by Anna Howard
Shaw8. The two women became good friends as they had similar passions and fearlessness in the
face of opposition. Feminist struggle for equality in the UK inspired Burns and Paul to continue
the fight in the United States in 1912.
Upon their return to America, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns met a labor lawyer from
Brooklyn, New York by the name of Inez Milholland. She was blessed with all the advantages a
5
"Alice Paul," The Biography Channel website (2014), http://www.biography.com/people/alice-paul-9435021
"Alice Paul," The Biography Channel website.
7
Bland, S.R. “‘Never Quite as Committed as We’d Like’: The Suffrage Militancy of Lucy Burns’”, Journal of Long
Island History (1981).
8
Bland, S.R. “‘Never Quite as Committed as We’d Like’: The Suffrage Militancy of Lucy Burns’”.
6
woman born in 1886 could ever desire; intelligence, wealth, and beauty9. Her father, John
Milholland was a religious man who supported equal rights for women and African Americans
and was a founder of the “National Association for the Advancement of Colored People”10. Inez
Milholland received her BA in 1909 and applied to law school at Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia
and Harvard – all whom denied her because she was female. She attended law school at New
York University11. Leaders of the suffragist movement like Alice Paul and Harriot Stanton
Blatch appropriated the dominant gender ideology of the early 20th century and provided a
symbol of beauty, elegance, and grace in the face of the negative imagery the anti-suffrage
movement generated. They used Inez Milholland’s image to the movement’s advantage. She
provided the movement with a representation that undermined the association of female political
participation with masculine women and gender transgression12. Milholland was closely allied to
Harriot Stanton Blatch and the New York Wing but she was most often associated with Alice
Paul and the Congressional Union13. She became one of the movement’s most effective
promoters and made her most memorable appearance leading the 1913 suffrage parade in
Washington D.C., wearing a crown and a long white cape while riding atop a large white horse14.
Description: The picture to the left shows Inez
Milholland wearing a white cape seated on a
white horse as she leads the National American
Woman Suffrage Association parade on March 3,
1913, in Washington, D.C.
Source: George Grantham Bain Collection, Library
of Congress.
9
Nicolosi, Anne Marie, “’The Most Beautiful Suffragette’: Inez Milholland and the Political Currency of Beauty”, The
Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, (2007).
10
Nicolosi, Anne Marie, “’The Most Beautiful Suffragette’: Inez Milholland and the Political Currency of Beauty”.
11
Nicolosi, Anne Marie, “’The Most Beautiful Suffragette’: Inez Milholland and the Political Currency of Beauty”.
12
Nicolosi, Anne Marie, “’The Most Beautiful Suffragette’: Inez Milholland and the Political Currency of Beauty”.
13
Nicolosi, Anne Marie, “’The Most Beautiful Suffragette’: Inez Milholland and the Political Currency of Beauty”.
14
Perry, Marilyn Elizabeth, “Boissevain, Inez Milholland” American National Biography, (2000).
On March 3, 1913, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, the National
American Women Suffrage Association sponsored the first national women’s suffrage parade15.
Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organized thousands of women from across the United States and of
all ages and social classes to march down Pennsylvania Avenue through the capitol city
demanding the right to vote. African-American women were asked to march separately at the
end of the march, because white suffragists were concerned about losing the support of southern
voters. The date of the parade was strategic as the official program stated that the march was in a
spirit of protest against the present political organization of society, from which women were
excluded. Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive Party became the first major political party to pledge
itself to the task of securing equal suffrage to men and women alike, but the Progressives lost the
election16. After a good beginning, the marchers encountered mostly male crowds on the street
that should have been cleared for the parade. The marchers were harassed while attempting to
squeeze through, and the police were sometimes of little help, or even participated in the
harassment. After the parade, over 200 people were treated for injuries at local hospitals17.
Senate hearings, started three days after the march, and lasted until March 17, which resulted in
the replacement of the District's superintendent of police18. NAWSA praised the parade and
Alice Paul's work on it, saying "the whole movement in the country has been wonderfully
Moore, Sarah J., “Making a Spectacle of Suffrage: The National Women Suffrage Pageant,
1913”, Journal of American Culture
16
Harvey, Sheridan., “Marching for the Vote: Remembering The Woman Suffrage Parade of
1913”, Library of Congress, (2001).
17
The Washington Post, March 5, 1913.
18
Suffrage Parade: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on the District of
Columbia, Government Printing Office, (1913).
15
furthered by the series of important events which have taken place in Washington, beginning
with the great parade the day before the inauguration of the president"19.
The 1913 Washington march came at a time when the suffrage movement badly needed
new way to capture public and press interest – an infusion of strength. Women had been
struggling for the right to vote for more than sixty years, and although progress had been made in
recent years on the state level with six western states granting women suffrage, the movement
had stalled on the national level20. About two weeks after President Wilson’s inauguration, the
President received a suffrage delegation led by Alice Paul, who chose to make the case for
suffrage verbally. President Wilson replied that he had never given the subject any thought, but
that it “will receive my most careful consideration.21”Anna Howard Shaw, president of NAWSA
had no knowledge of the meeting and complained to Alice Paul for not including her. The reason
for Anna Howard Shaw’s absence was because the leadership of the NAWSA was not interested
in changing their state-by-state strategy and rejected the idea of holding a campaign that would
hold the Democratic Party responsible. Alice Paul and her Washington supporters soon
established their own, independent suffrage party, the National Woman's Party, to work solely on
the passage of a constitutional amendment22.
Harvey, Sheridan., “Marching for the Vote: Remembering The Woman Suffrage Parade of
1913”, Library of Congress, (2001).
20
Harvey, Sheridan., “Marching for the Vote: Remembering The Woman Suffrage Parade of
1913”.
21
Harvey, Sheridan., “Marching for the Vote: Remembering The Woman Suffrage Parade of
1913”.
22
Lunardini, Christine A, “From Equal Suffrage to Equal Rights: Alice Paul and the National
Woman's Party, 1910-1928”. New York: New York University Press, (1986).
19
https://socialstudiesdiscussion.wikispaces.com/file/view/Alice+Paul+50+facts.pdf
Making a Spectacle of Suffrage:
The National Woman Suffrage Pageant, 1913
Sarah J. Moore
the idea that the only “true” woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned
exclusively with home and family. Put together, all of these contributed to a new way of thinking
about what it meant to be a woman and a citizen in the United States.