Existing comment:
Confrontations, Sacrifice, and the Struggle for Democracy
1916–1917
By late 1916, leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) acknowledged that the group's state-by-state strategy was taking too long. They unveiled their "winning plan," a two-pronged attack that paired the careful coordination of state work with more aggressive nonpartisan lobbying in Washington, D.C., for a federal amendment. By year's end, both NAWSA and the National Woman's Party (NWP) were working toward a federal amendment but differences remained. In January 1917, the NWP instituted the controversial and "unladylike" practice of picketing the White House. At first, President Wilson was tolerant of the pickets, but when the United States entered World War I in April, any criticism of the government was considered treasonous.
As World War I progressed, many suffragists, including longtime pacifists, stopped campaigning for the vote and devoted themselves to war work. The NWP, however, did not support the war and did not halt its agitation. Using Wilson's own speeches against him, the NWP highlighted the government's hypocrisy of supporting democracy abroad while denying its women citizens at home the right to vote. Beginning in June 1917 suffragists were arrested for picketing, imprisoned, and subjected to brutal treatment. Women from all social classes risked their health and reputations by continuing to protest for the vote. |