This is my response to Iron Jawed Angels from a Women's Lit Course perspective.
Iron Jawed Angels: A Readers Response
The film Iron Jawed Angels was set in the early 1900’s, during the uprising of women’s suffrage in America. Hilary Swank plays the lead role of Alice Paul, a progressive suffragette returning from England. Paul, along with her companion Lucy Burns, return from leading women’s rights movements in England to join the suffrage movement in their home in the United States. The women meet many challenges along the way, including challenges from their fellow suffragettes who are concerned that Paul and her associates could be radicals that would diminish their cause. This film outlines the struggles, heartache, and rejoicing that takes place during this influential fight to achieve equality for women.
Women fighting to procure the vote had many obstacles to overcome before any progress could be made. They had the men who didn’t believe that women were intelligent enough to have the vote; President Woodrow Wilson was included in this group. He is quoted in the film saying that “votes for women would constitute political danger” and that he did not believe that the suffrage movement was a cause that mattered to the whole nation as opposed to tariff reform. The suffragettes evoked fear in powerful men; men in power believed that if women were allowed to vote, then they would lose power in the home and in the workplace. Yet, it was not only men who caused trouble for the suffragettes. There was always the issue of other women who were not committed to attaining equality for women. Many women were content with their lives and did not want to make waves or upset their husbands. If the women’s rights leaders could not convince every woman that she deserved the vote, then it was damn near impossible to convince men in power.
During the women’s rights movement, racism also played a role in discrimination. In the film, Alice Paul organizes a parade to support suffrage, and is informed that many of the white women marching refuse to march next to African-American women. Racism was deeply ingrained in white society, but it is hypocritical that women would discriminate on the basis of skin color when they are trying to reach a common goal. The saying divided we fall comes to mind. Women were fighting a common enemy in discrimination and by refusing to march next to women of a different race they were facilitating the same ideology which holds them down.
In Iron Jawed Angels, Alice Paul was feared by the established National Suffrage Association for her radicalism, yet a form radicalism was the only thing that got through to the American government. She organized rallies, protests, and even picketed a war-time president, which was completely unheard of. President Wilson was embarrassed by these picket lines that were formed outside of the White House, using his own quotes against him. The women broke no laws, yet they were arrested and charged with outrageous crimes. The women refused to plead guilty to any crime and were forced into workhouses. In these workhouses, they were treated cruelly because of their beliefs. They were considered traitors by many for not supporting a president who did not support them. These women were treated as animals, as nothing more than common criminals when all they did was demand the same democracy that President Wilson was defending in Germany. Alice Paul’s hunger strike may have been seen as a radical move but it served its purpose by getting the attention of all those who had been ignoring her. It is sad to realize that the only reason her hunger strike had any influence is because the men in power were afraid of a martyr. They were afraid that with a body on their conscience, they would lose supporters. Powerful men were afraid of having to take responsibility for their sins against women. It’s a sad truth that President Wilson only felt the need to give women the vote because he felt smothered and was beginning to fear for his own political seat. Once Alice Paul began her hunger strike, there was no longer any way that Wilson could tell women to “wait their turn”.
The character Mrs. Layton, wife of Democratic Senator Layton, was a perfect example of what real women were going through. She didn’t want to make waves with her husband, yet she had a mind of her own and eventually her husband’s grip was just too tight, and she was able to slip through his fingers and stand up for what she believed in. She was the epitome of the suffrage movement to me, because she stood for the idea that times were changing, and women were willing to give up living in comfort with no freedom for a tortuous life with cause and meaning.
This film truly moved me and gave an excellent view into the struggles that women had to struggle through to achieve equality. Even today, no one is truly equal, but I believe the suffragettes showed men that women were no longer going to bow to their every will and bend to serve. The suffragettes opened up an entirely new world and showed that women were every bit as strong, as intelligent, and as determined to achieve their desired goals.
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