Alice Paul Suffragism

Alice Paul and the Suffragist Movement
Evelyn stepped up to the box, her ballot gripped tightly in her fist. Her heart was pounding. She looked at the box, took a deep breath, and dropped her vote into the box. The paper ballot landed in the bottom of the box with a soft thud. It was finished. On November 2,
1920, millions of women just like Evelyn voted in the Presidential election for the first time. It was a landmark victory for the suffragist and feminist movement, after nearly 150 years of fighting. Women such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, and
Alice Paul had been lobbying Congress for years to pass a suffragist amendment, and now their dreams had finally been achieved.
Alice Paul was born on January

Her parents were members of the
Hicksite Friends. The Friends believed in gender equality, education for women, and the need to better society. Alice’s parents raised her with these principals, shaping her feminist beliefs from an early age. Tacie Parry, Alice’s mother, was also a member of NAWSA, the National
American Woman Suffrage Association. She would often bring Alice to meetings, and would host many at Paulsdale (“Alice Paul: Feminist…”).
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In 1901, Alice graduated as Valedictorian and the top of her class from her Quaker high school in Moorestown, New Jersey. That fall, she entered as a freshman at Swarthmore College, a Quaker school that was partially founded by her grandfather. In 1905, she graduated with a
Bachelor’s degree in biology. She then went to the to the New York School of Philanthropy, now known as Columbia University, which she graduated from in 1907 with a Master of Arts degree in sociology. She then moved to England to study social work at the Woodbrooke Settlement.
When she returned, she studied at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a PhD
(Michals, Debra).
While she was in England, Alice became involved with the Pankhurst