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    Reaction Paper: Iron Jawed Angels Administrative Law

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    Pierre Alvizo
    The document is a reaction paper about the film "Iron Jawed Angels" which follows the story of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns' fight for women's suffrage in the early 1900s. It analyzes whether women at that time were qualified to vote based on Black's legal definition of a qualified elector. The paper argues that women were educated, citizens, could own property, and work, so they should have been considered qualified electors and had the right to vote. It highlights how Alice Paul pushed to change the social view that women were property rather than people deserving of full rights.

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    Reaction Paper: Iron Jawed Angels Administrative Law

    Uploaded by

    Pierre Alvizo
    82 views4 pages
    The document is a reaction paper about the film "Iron Jawed Angels" which follows the story of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns' fight for women's suffrage in the early 1900s. It analyzes whether women at that time were qualified to vote based on Black's legal definition of a qualified elector. The paper argues that women were educated, citizens, could own property, and work, so they should have been considered qualified electors and had the right to vote. It highlights how Alice Paul pushed to change the social view that women were property rather than people deserving of full rights.

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    Alvizo, Pierre Judd B. M3

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    The document is a reaction paper about the film "Iron Jawed Angels" which follows the story of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns' fight for women's suffrage in the early 1900s. It analyzes whether women at that time were qualified to vote based on Black's legal definition of a qualified elector. The paper argues that women were educated, citizens, could own property, and work, so they should have been considered qualified electors and had the right to vote. It highlights how Alice Paul pushed to change the social view that women were property rather than people deserving of full rights.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    82 views4 pages

    Reaction Paper: Iron Jawed Angels Administrative Law

    Uploaded by

    Pierre Alvizo
    The document is a reaction paper about the film "Iron Jawed Angels" which follows the story of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns' fight for women's suffrage in the early 1900s. It analyzes whether women at that time were qualified to vote based on Black's legal definition of a qualified elector. The paper argues that women were educated, citizens, could own property, and work, so they should have been considered qualified electors and had the right to vote. It highlights how Alice Paul pushed to change the social view that women were property rather than people deserving of full rights.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    Reaction Paper: Iron Jawed Angels

    Administrative Law

    Submitted to:

    Atty. Judiel Pareja

    Submitted by:

    Pierre Judd B. Alvizo

    Section M3

    March 22, 2020


    Abstract

    A reaction paper that tries to connect Black’s legal definition of the word vote and the social
    conditions of that time, to reinforce the idea of why women should be allowed to vote.

    Synopsis

    Iron Jawed Angels follows the story of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns in their unwavering pursuit of
    women’s right to vote in the early 1900s.

    The story begins with Paul and Burns trying to convince the National American Woman Suffrage
    Association (NAWSA) to allow them to hold a parade in order to rally people together for a constitutional
    amendment that guarantees women’s suffrage. Although the more conservative members of NAWSA
    preferred the state by state approach, they still allowed Paul and Burns to organize the parade anyway
    provided they fund it themselves.

    While soliciting funds for the parade Paul meets labor lawyer Inez Mulholland who the former
    convinces to be the figure head for their movement. The parade ends with a riot but pleases Paul
    nonetheless for the publicity it garnered.

    With Paul’s next project being a newspaper publication to boycott Woodrow Wilson who refuses
    to grant women suffrage rights in the next election, she decides to raise funds on her own and not through
    NAWSA much to the dismay of the organization. As a result, Paul decides to create the National
    Women’s Party.

    Inez Mulholland later dies from exhaustion and anemia in the middle of a speech and Paul
    blames herself for the incident. She distances herself from the movement until Burns snaps Paul out of
    her lethargy. The first world war begins and despite the American Government’s call for solidarity under
    wartime president Roosevelt, Paul continues the protest with a picket line right outside the Whitehouse
    where they are arrested for obstructing traffic even while on the sidewalk.

    Paul is sentenced to 60 days of incarceration where she subjects herself to a hunger strike. The
    prison’s ill treatment of Paul gets worse when its management decides to force feed Paul. Word of the
    abuse of the protesters leak out and public opinion shifts in favor of the constitutional amendment. The
    film concludes with Paul and the NWP celebrating after the senate votes for the amendment although
    only by a hair.
    Discussion

    “The expression of his will…formally manifested…by a body of qualified electors, in regard to the
    decision to be made by the body as a whole…”1, the very definition of the word vote limits its exercise to a
    body of qualified electors. The composition of which has varied from one era to another.

    In Ancient Athens votes were granted to every citizen in the city, however the Athenian definition
    of citizen was very different with our modern take on it since only men who owned land in Greece were
    granted the right. Neither women, children, or slaves (who could not own land) could vote. The idea was
    that suffrage should be limited to the males who unlike their female counterparts were provided the
    education and support of the government in the field of politics and administration.

    But even that questionable logic shouldn’t have held true in the 1910 setting of the film. In fact,
    Alice Paul had a Political science master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an Economics’
    degree from England2. Yet, despite access to education women were still not able to vote. The question
    now is what women were still considered unqualified electors.

    Were women citizens back then? They were, the US constitution defining what a citizen is has
    remained unchanged since the 14th amendment in 18683. Were women property owners back then?
    Although it was unusual for a married woman to work, they were not forbidden from doing so. There were
    even laws set up in 1914 to make it clear that women were allowed to be police officers, civil servant, and
    lawyers. Neither were they ever forbidden from acquiring real property 4. Were they educated? They
    certainly were, even as far back in 1850 where Lucy Session became the first woman in the US to get a
    college degree5. Besides the physical differences and the social norms society placed on women back
    then, I’d daresay that women were exactly same as men.

    Alice Paul in the movie even describes it as a situation where women are treated as ornaments to
    be owned and fawned over instead of actual people. Which was why she pushed for the amendment
    regardless of what women decided to do with their vote, she didn’t care what they did with it so long as
    they had it, a symbol perhaps that women were people too.

    1
    Black's Law Dictionary 11th ed. (West Group, 2019), Bryan A. Garner, editor, ISBN 978-1-5392-2975-9
    2
    Michals, D. (2015). Alice Paul. Retrieved from Women's History: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-
    resources/biographies/alice-paul
    3
    Editors, H. (2020, February 21). 14th ammendment. Retrieved from History:
    https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fourteenth-amendment
    4
    Alison Woodeson (1993) The first women police: a force for equality or infringement? Women's History Review,
    2:2, 217-232
    5
    Editors, O. C. (n.d.). Lucy Sessions. Retrieved from Ohio Hisory Central:
    https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Lucy_Sessions
    Even today not all states allow suffrage for women (although most do). Saudi Arabia for example
    only legally allows women to vote in municipal elections6. However, most states like the Philippines now
    include women as qualified electors. A testament to the efforts of people like Alice Paul who had to break
    social norms for people to realize that women are people too.

    Conclusion

    In conclusion, women in the US even during the 1910’s were educated, defined as citizens in
    their constitution, were allowed to work, and even own real property. They should have been qualified
    electors even before then and that their right to vote is tied to whether society views them as people or
    ornaments.

    References

    Editors, B. (2015, December 12). Saudi Arabia's women vote in election for first time. Retrieved from
    BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35075702

    Editors, H. (2020, February 21). 14th ammendment. Retrieved from History:


    https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fourteenth-amendment

    Editors, O. C. (n.d.). Lucy Sessions. Retrieved from Ohio Hisory Central:


    https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Lucy_Sessions

    Michals, D. (2015). Alice Paul. Retrieved from Women's History:


    https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/alice-paul

    Black's Law Dictionary 11th ed. (West Group, 2019), Bryan A. Garner, editor, ISBN 978-1-5392-2975-9

    Alison Woodeson (1993) The first women police: a force for equality or infringement? Women's History
    Review, 2:2, 217-232

    6
    Editors, B. (2015, December 12). Saudi Arabia's women vote in election for first time. Retrieved from BBC:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35075702

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