Film Summary Of The Film 'Iron Jawed Angels'

The film “Iron Jawed Angels” portrays the events that took place between 1912 and 1913 back when women still didn’t have the right to vote. The movie setting starts off in Philadelphia, where the two young activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns have a meeting with the two main leaders of NAWSA (National American Women Suffrage Association), Carrie Chapman and Anna Howard. The young suffragists urge the women of NAWSA to try and work on passing a constitutional amendment for women to have the right to vote, however, the older women of NAWSA are persistent on taking their own route to success, preferring a state-by-state approach. They then permit Paul and Burns to take over the NAWSA committee in Washington D.C. where they gather a parade to promote …show more content…
It explains in the movie that Alice Paul and the rest of the suffragists followed many hunger strikes because of their general innocence in the matter and that they shouldn’t have been confined, however their reasons at the time were actually more specific than that. Alice Paul, who was in fact in different prison than her fellow NWP members, initially started the hunger strikes because of the improper treatment to the confined suffragists compared to 17 murderers treated better, and the overall poor eating, less air and exercise, and unwashed sheets and blankets. The other women back in Occoquan Workhouse would then hear the word that Alice Paul started hunger strikes and followed her. Another issue with the film was that it clearly depicted men as the enemy, whereas in fact, the constitutional amendment could not have been done without them; there was thousands of men dedicated to the women’s right to vote at the time, including many members of the congress. The film also does not show how the men in fact joined the Women’s Suffrage Parade, and marched in a section dedicated completely to men who supported the Women’s