Alice Paul (1885-1977);
Alice Paul Toasts the Ratification Banner,
August 26, 1920
Courtesy, Alice Paul Institute, Mount Laurel, NJ

Alice Paul was the architect of some of the most outstanding political achievements on behalf of women in the 20^th century. Born on January 11, 1885 to Quaker parents in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, Alice Paul dedicated her life to the single cause of securing equal rights for all women. She founded the National Woman’s Party in 1914 and led the first picketers to the White House gates in the name of women’s suffrage. When women won the right to vote in 1920, Paul turned her focus to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) which she authored in 1923. She worked for women’s rights internationally and founded the World Woman’s Party in 1938 with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Paul then succeeded in getting  a sexual discrimination clause written into Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  She lobbied  Representatives to pass the ERA from her wheelchair in a nursing home in Moorestown, until her death in 1977.  Though the ERA never passed, her legacy lives on through the work of the Alice Paul Institute. 

For more information on Alice Paul, visit the Alice Paul Institute Alice Paul biography page.

Be sure to check out Alice Paul's birthplace and home, Paulsdale, on the New Jersey Women's Heritage Trail.