vote for alice.

Women's Equality Day was two weeks ago, August 26th, the 88th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But it was a forwarded e-message I received from a girlfriend yesterday (thank you, Di!) that prompted me to explore the history of how American women gained the right to vote.

And I'm writing about that story today because there has never been a more important time for women to exercise their right to vote than the upcoming historic-no-matter-which-way-you-slice-it Presidential election.

It all began with a little Quaker girl named Alice. Well, actually, it began well before her, way back in 1869, when another Quaker, Susan B. Anthony, created the National Women's Suffrage Association (which eventually became the National American Woman Suffrage Association, or NAWSA) with friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton. But it was Alice Paul (above, at age 16), born in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, in 1885, who eventually led the charge that won us the right to vote.

Devoted Quakers, Alice's parents raised her with a belief in gender equality and the necessity of working to improve society. Her mother, Tacie, was a NAWSA member and often toted young Alice along to meetings. Alice's faith not only provided her with her belief in equality, but also gave her a rich legacy of activism and service to country.

Alice graduated first in her class from the Moorestown Friends School, and eventually earned six (!!) college degrees: a Bachelor's degree in Biology at Swarthmore College (1905); a Master's in Sociology (1907) and a Doctorate in Economics (1912) at the University of Pennsylvania; a law degree at Washington College of Law (1922); and two advanced law degrees at American University (1927, 1928).

But it was a 1908 trip to England that really determined Alice's life direction － there, she met fellow American Lucy Burns, and the two became involved in a militant faction of suffragists whose motto was "Deeds, not words." Their deeds were rather dastardly, like throwing rocks and smashing windows (Alice reportedly smashed dozens herself), fully intended to garner media coverage and public attention. Alice's antics got her arrested and imprisoned several times, where they protested with hunger strikes and were brutally force-fed.

But the abuse only steeled Alice's determination to reshape and re-energize the American campaign for women's empowerment. In 1912, Alice and Lucy joined NAWSA, which was putting almost all of its suffrage efforts into a state-by-state campaign. The pair took over the organization's federal suffrage amendment efforts, putting together a show-stopping publicity event － a massive parade of women marching up Pennsylvania Avenue, coinciding with Woodrow Wilson's Presidential inauguration. The parade definitely got media coverage － mostly because scores of male onlookers attacked the suffragists, both verbally and physically, while police looked on.

By 1916, Alice and Lucy had left NAWSA － which endorsed President Wilson － and created their own political party, the National Woman's Party (NWP). The NWP organized "Silent Sentinels," women who stood out in front of the White House holding anti-Wilson banners. When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, the women's Presidential protests were deemed unpatriotic; they were regularly attacked by angry mobs, and eventually jailed for "obstructing sidewalk traffic."

The convicted suffragists were incarcerated at Occoquan Workhouse, a Virginia prison. The women insisted they be treated as political prisoners, and staged a hunger strike. They were beaten and tossed into cells with the worst conditions imaginable. Alice and several other hunger strikers were repeatedly force-fed raw eggs through a tube until they vomited. Prison officials tried to have Alice declared insane and committed to an asylum.

But the women's strength and courage paid off. When the prison abuse of the suffragists was brought to light, the press, the public and some politicians began calling for not only their freedom, but also their right to vote. Woodrow Wilson reversed his position, too, announcing women's suffrage was urgently needed as a "war measure." Within two years, both the House and Senate passed the 19th Amendment.

Three-fourths of the states had to ratify the amendment in order to enact it; amazingly, it all came down to the vote of one man, 24-year-old Harry Burn, the youngest member of the Tennessee state assembly. Burn originally intended to vote against ratification, but changed his mind after receiving a telegram from his mother, urging his support of women's suffrage.

Alice's father, William, summed up his eldest daughter succinctly while she was still a teenager, saying, "Well, when there is a job to be done, I bank on Alice."

What might Alice and the brave women she led think of the way we use － or don't use － our right to vote? Regardless of whether you've got carpool duties or you've got to get to work or it's raining, regardless of whom you're voting for, honor these women, their sacrifices, their suffering, and this hard-fought battle. VOTE.

Alice Paul died, at the age of 92, in 1977 － I was just about to turn ten, which illustrates exactly how recently these awe-inspiring events happened. I wonder whether she ever got to see the Schoolhouse Rock gem, "Sufferin' 'til Suffrage" － my first exposure to the story of how American women fought for and got the right to vote? Enjoy.