While Alice Paul is widely recognized for her pivotal role in securing women's right to vote through the Nineteenth Amendment, her commitment to women's equality extended far beyond suffrage. After this monumental achievement in 1920, Paul dedicated her life to advocating for comprehensive legal equality for women, both within the United States and on the international stage. Her most significant post-suffrage contribution was the authorship of the Equal
Rights Amendment (ERA), a testament to her belief that true equality required constitutional guarantees.
Crafting the Equal Rights Amendment
Once suffrage was achieved in 1920, Alice Paul and some members of the National Woman's Party (NWP) immediately shifted their focus to constitutional guarantees of equality. Paul, along with Crystal Eastman, drafted the Equal Rights Amendment. Introduced to Congress in 1923, the original text, which Paul and the NWP dubbed the "Lucretia Mott Amendment" in honor of the antislavery and suffrage activist, stated: "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction." For Paul, the ERA held the same appeal as suffrage: it was a constitutional amendment and a single-issue campaign that she believed could unite women around a common core goal. She understood the value of single-issue politics for building coalitions and securing success.
In 1943, the amendment was renamed the "Alice Paul Amendment," and its wording was updated to the version that exists today: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Paul saw the ERA as the most efficient way to ensure legal equality, believing that women should be treated under the law like men, not as a class requiring special protection. She viewed protective legislation, such as laws about working conditions or maximum hours for women, as a form of "legalized inequality" that restricted women's ability to compete for jobs and earn good wages. She was surprised when some of her earlier allies, like Florence Kelley, Ethel Smith, and Jane Addams, parted ways with her to align with protective legislation, as Paul saw a contradiction between such protections and true equality.
International Advocacy and Citizenship Rights
Paul's vision for women's equality was not confined to the United States. She actively worked on behalf of similar efforts in state legislation and international contexts. She played a crucial role in ensuring that the United Nations proclamations included equality for women, hoping this would encourage the United States to follow suit. Just after the founding of the United Nations in 1945, Paul wanted to ensure that women's equality was a part of the organization's charter and that its Commission on Human Rights focused on women's equality in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She succeeded, and the final version of the Declaration in 1948 opened with a reference to "equal rights of men and women."
Beyond the ERA, Paul also worked to change laws that altered a woman's citizenship status based on her husband's. In the U.S., women who married foreign men often lost their U.S. citizenship and were considered citizens of their husbands' countries. Paul viewed this as a violation of equal rights. She successfully advocated for the international Equal Nationality Treaty in 1933 and, in the U.S., for the passage of the Equal Nationality Act in 1934, which allowed women to retain their citizenship upon marriage. These efforts demonstrated her comprehensive approach to achieving full legal equality for women across various aspects of life.
The ERA's Long Road and Paul's Legacy
The ERA was introduced in Congress in 1923 and faced a long and challenging path. Support for it fluctuated, with favorable committee reports in the late 1930s and increased public backing during World War II when more women entered traditionally male jobs. In 1946, it passed the Senate by three votes but failed to advance. Four years later, it garnered enough Senate votes but failed in the House. Paul remained steadfastly committed to women's equality as her singular mission, even serving as NWP president again in the 1940s.
Paul was encouraged by the resurgence of women's movement activism in the 1960s and 1970s, hoping it would finally lead to the ERA's victory. However, when the bill finally passed Congress in 1972, Paul was unhappy with changes to its wording, particularly the inclusion of a seven-year deadline for ratification in the states. She accurately predicted that this time limit would compromise the ERA's chances for success. Furthermore, this version placed enforcement power solely with the federal government, whereas Paul's original and 1943 versions required both states and the federal government to oversee its provisions. Paul's strategic insight proved correct, as the ERA, despite a three-year extension, remained three states short of ratification. Her tireless work, both for suffrage and for the ERA, cemented her legacy as a relentless advocate for women's full legal equality.
