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Alice Paul was not only a feminist, she was also a suffragist, women’s rights activist and key leader in the 19th Amendment campaigns. So, yeah, you can say she’s a Woman That Does.

But she doesn’t get enough credit for all her work.

So, here’s a breakdown of five interesting facts about Alice Paul that you might not already know.

1 Alice Paul’s parents raised her to fight for women’s rights.

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Photo via Instagram/19thamendment

Paul grew up as a Quaker and, as Hicksite Quakers, she grew up believing in gender equality. According to the Alice Paul website, this was her first introduction in fighting for women’s rights.

Paul was born in Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey on a farm named Paulsdale in January 11, 1885. This farm had a major impact on Paul’s future as a feminist. Paul’s mother, Tacie, would drag Paul to National American Woman Suffrage Association meetings or her mother would hold meetings at the farm.

When a Newsweek interviewer asked her why she invested so much of herself to women’s rights, she shared a proverb her mother told her while working on the farm: “When you put your hand to the plow, you can’t put it down until you get to the end of the row.”

After being exposed to women’s rights at such a young age, she was committed to fighting for to “the end of the row.”

2 Alice Paul became a militant suffragist in England.

Paul graduated from Swarthmore College in 1905 with a degree in biology. After college, she moved to Birmingham, England to study social work at the Woodbrooke Settlement. She delved deeper into her life as an activist when she met Christabel Pankhurst, a radical suffragette.

After seeing Pankhurst speak to a crowd about women’s suffrage, Paul introduced herself. Pankhurst was the daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, and these women didn’t believe in peaceful protests. The Pankhursts believed that only heckling, smashing windows and rock throwing could bring public awareness to their issue of disenfranchisement.

Paul joined the Pankhurst women and ended up smashing over 40 windows and was arrested and imprisoned multiple times.

When she returned to America in 1910, she noted England suffragettes’ impact on the movement:

“The militant policy is bringing success … the agitation has brought England out of her lethargy, and women of England are now talking of the time when they will vote, instead of the time when their children would vote, as was the custom a year or two back.”

3 Alice Paul organized the first Women’s March.

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Photo via Instagram/libertylorton

Paul moved back to America to reinvigorate the American women’s suffrage movement.

She started studying at the University of Pennsylvania and joined the National American Women’s Suffrage Association. She was named head of the Congressional Committee and was in charge of working for a federal suffrage amendment.

With suffragists Lucy Burns and Crystal Eastman in tow, Paul led her fellow suffragists to Washington D.C. to organize for women’s suffrage, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Paul put together a massive parade led by women to march up Pennsylvania Avenue. This coincided with Woodrow Wilson’s presidential inauguration on March 13, 1913.

But this march didn’t go the way Paul planned. Men started to attack suffragists with insults and obscenities and eventually, physical violence. Afterwards, the event made major headlines across the nation. Women’s suffrage then became a popular topic of discussion.

4 Alice Paul picketed President Wilson.

Paul eventually left the NAWSA due to differing views. According to PBS, the NAWSA wanted to ally with the Democrats to help their efforts, but Paul wanted to hold President Wilson accountable for women’s continued disenfranchisement. Since they couldn’t agree, Paul left the NAWSA and formed the National Woman’s Party in 1916.

The group organized a protest against the president. They stood outside of the White House with banners that read, “Mr. President – What will you do for woman suffrage?” During this, President Wilson would tip their hat to them as he walked by them, entertaining their protest.

But once America entered World War I, no one thought she would continue to picket him. But, Paul didn’t let their doubts get in the way of her movement. She picketed the White House, calling the president, “Kaiser Wilson.”

People saw this as unpatriotic and an angry mob attacked Paul’s group. They were then arrested and imprisoned for “obstructing traffic.” They were thrown into a prison in Virginia and the suffragists were beaten and thrown into cold, unsanitary and rat infested cells. When the suffragists went on a hunger strike, they were forcibly fed.

But, when news of these conditions were exposed, the press and politicians demanded the women’s release. This gained sympathy for the woman suffrage movement. This was Paul’s last fight that forced the nation to support women’s suffrage.

5 Paul inspired the passing of the 19th Amendment.

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Photo via Instagram/restonsenveil

Although a lot of suffragists fought for Wilson to support their movement, it wasn’t until Paul’s treatment in prison when Wilson finally supported women’s suffrage. He even called the movement a “war measure.” The amendment passed and suffragists ended their fight, but Paul didn’t see this as the last stop to gender equality.

In 1923, Paul proposed a new amendment called the “Lucretia Mott Amendment,” which demanded complete equality between men and women. The amendment passed in 1972, but the amendment was rewritten and renamed to the “Alice Paul Amendment.” This amendment said that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

In an interview, Paul said, “I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.”

Paul died on July 9, 1977 but she lived to see her life’s work become a reality. She was a woman raised to believe in gender equality and never stopped fighting until the rest of the world also believed it. And to that, we tip our hats.

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