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Women's libbers

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have paved the way for

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enormous change—sometimes by

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literally getting out there and laying [woman driving bulldozer]

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asphalt. There was Elizabeth

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Cady Stanton and pals, who

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helped to get the Women's Movement

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rolling in 1848 with the

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Seneca Falls Convention. [women's rights convention doc]

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There was Susan B. Anthony and

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Stanton—what, she didn't like to be

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left out—who kept the ball rolling in

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1878, first drafted the amendment

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giving the women the right to vote.

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For some reason, though, it took

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the Congress full of men

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years to give up a shred of power to

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women. Shocker. Well, even

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though Anthony and Stanton had already done

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the heavy lifting on the writing front, [women lift large pen together]

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it was a long time before that amendment got the

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a-okay from the boys on

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Capitol Hill. It wasn't until

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1919 that the amendment which gave women

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the right to vote was finally passed,

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becoming the 19th Amendment

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to the Constitution. Of [old newspaper]

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course, it took a lot of intense political maneuvering

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to get it there. We imagine it

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was like House of Cards, only

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the goal was equality, not evil

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world domination. And nobody spoke [Kevin Spacey with cards]

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with ridiculous fake Southern accents.

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Sorry, Kevin Spacey, we're just keeping

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it real. One of the main gals in

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the women's suffrage movement of the Progressive Era

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was a lady named Alice Paul.

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She took center stage as one of the most

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militant and effective leaders [Alice Paul making her way across America]

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the movement had seen. In

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the 1910s, Paul decided the previous

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Women's Movement needed to toughen up

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and formed an organization

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that eventually came the

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National Women's Party. Which,

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if Lizzy Stanton had still been alive

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for, well, we're sure she would have barged in

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gift in hand. Alice Paul was

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seriously not messing around.

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She started a protest group called The

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Silent Sentinels, who stood

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in front of the White House every day with signs

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crying for suffrage. [old picture of Silent Sentinels]

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At first President Wilson was cool with

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it and even asked them to come inside on a

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rainy day, but, uh, the ladies

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were like, "no thanks, we'll

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enter the White House when we can actually

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vote for the person who's sitting there."

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Yeah. Well, things got hairier when

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WWI started.

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Paul and her crusaders refused

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to stop protesting, even though

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there were cries that the nation should

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be united in the time of war.

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Well, instead the Sentinel signs got

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even more aggressive, and eventually

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anti-suffrage crowds formed around

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the ladies. Eventually, Paul

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and her followers were arrested by the

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police and some were thrown into prison.

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The charge? Obstructing

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traffic. If you think prison

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intimidated Paul, not a chance.

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There, she and her followers

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insisted that they were political

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prisoners, and resisted by refusing

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to do prison work and engaging in a

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hunger strike. Well, the powers that [women in prison on hunger strike]

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be were having none of it, so they said, uh,

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"Oh yeah? Well, we'll just

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force-feed you and throw you

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into the general population. How about

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that?" Well, with this harsh crackdown,

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Paul's enemies played right into

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her hands. Next thing you know, the papers

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are reporting all the terrible

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treatment they were receiving.

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It was one thing to tell a middle-class white

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lady who was getting too mouthy to move on down

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off the sidewalk. It was a totally

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different thing to manhandle her and chuck

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her into prison with lower-class criminals

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and prostitutes. Proving

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once again that sometimes, playing on peoples'

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classicism can, uh, get

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good things done. Yes, politics is

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sticky business. Paul's tactics

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ended up working like a charm, and before long

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ol' Woody Wilson cracked.

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He changed his tune and threw his support behind

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the Constitutional amendment. Suddenly,

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he was saying that he'd always been for women's

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suffrage. He'd just thought it should be

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left for the states to decide. [Wilson with a cracked face]

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But now with the war on, it was important that

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women be allowed to contribute equally

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beside men. Yeah, Paul and her

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followers probably didn't quite buy it either, but

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uh, nothing's black and white. Except

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Oreos. And Zebras. Okay, a lot

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of things are black and white. Uh, guess we need

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to develop a course about colors. [lots of black and white animals and objects]

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