It is sad commentary to discover that Susan B. Anthony died 14 years prior to womyn being granted the right to vote. It is even sadder commentary to realize that Alice Paul, the author of the Equal Rights Amendment, would also not live to see the ratification of the ERA.

Born in 1885, Alice Paul, through her leadership of the National American Women's Suffrage Association, helped commandeer passage of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, August 26th, 1920. Alice Paul and suffrage supporters suffered greatly to win passage of the 19th Amendment. The suffragettes were subject to the following:

Arrests
Mob Assaults
Imprisonment
Forced feedings
Psychiatric Hospitalizations
Solitary Confinements
 

Alice Paul, herself, was sentenced to seven months for demonstrating on behalf of Women's Suffrage outside the White House. In spite of these hardships, the suffragettes, led by Alice Paul persevered.

Many womyn's groups, following passage of the Suffrage Amendment, felt that the struggle for womyn's rights had been achieved. In 1921, Alice Paul reactivated the National Woman's Party, which passed the Declaration of Principles in 1922. The feminist agenda thereafter for Alice Paul was the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. The original version authored in 1923 read:

"Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and in every place subject to its jurisdiction."

In 1943, the ERA was reworded to read:

"Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States on account of sex."

In the year 2000, the Equal Rights Amendment has yet to be ratified into law. The spirit of Alice Paul remains our inspiration in our efforts to obtain passage of the ERA, as well as to secure equal rights for women in the United States and around the world.