Alice Paul: A Mastermind Behind the Women’s Rights Movement

Women’s equality has been a heavy debate topic for a long period of time. It all started with voting rights, then moved to gender equality, and has now become more about defying stereotypes of the female gender. These aspects created the women’s rights movements to change the way society views women and to also fight for equality, but who created these movements? We often associate them with popular historical figures such as Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who were both two figures that played a huge role in fighting for voting rights, but not so much for equality. Alice Paul was one of the many women who stood up for both voting rights and equality as a young college graduate.

In 1916 Alice created the National Women’s Party whose main goal was to obtain voting rights for women. After women gained this right in 1920 under the 19th amendment, Alice and the National Women’s Party changed their focus to then fight for equal rights among genders. It was during this period that Alice created and proposed the Equal Rights Amendment, which has never been passed to this day. Unfortunately, Alice died before she was able to see any legislation passed in favor of equality, but her determination did lead to the second wave of feminism that was designed to fight against discrimination and for equality. Alice Paul may not be a well-known women’s rights activist, but she ended up being the one to create a movement far greater than anything this country’s history had seen. Her actions, determination, and passion for equality amongst genders motivated other women to fight for the same causes. Even though Alice wasn’t here to see the results, that spark of motivation she created among women ended up creating a number of changes in the social system towards genders. The equality between men and women is definitely not where women pictured it would be today, but we are all one huge step closer due to the determination of Alice Paul. Today, women are more inclined to stand up for themselves and really push for what they desire in their lives. While we are all still subject to discrimination and judgment, that shouldn’t stop us from reaching for the stars. We are all powerful, smart, talented women who are capable of doing anything we set our minds to, just like Alice Paul did. Don’t let judgments stop you, you are capable to do whatever you truly desire. 

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• Women’s Empowerment
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