Iron Jawed Angels Film Analysis - 1302 Words

Iron Jawed Angels is the moving 2004 film that highlights how Alice Paul and Lucy Burns fought for womens suffrage. In the film, director Katja von Garnier, follows these women and the efforts they put forth as members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and later the work they did as founders of the National Womans Party (NWP). The film showcases the trials that Alice Paul and Lucy Burns had to overcome, not just from opposition found within NAWSA, but also among society and in politics. The film begins with Alice Paul, played by Hilary Swank, and Lucy Burns, played by Frances OConner, arriving from England where they had formerly been involved in the womens suffrage movement. They arrive in the United States with the goal of using what they learned in England and applying similar strategic techniques to their campaigns. Initially, the duo are active members of NAWSA, led by Carrie Chapman Catt played by Angelica Huston, however, as their approach and tactics become more aggressive, and they become independently successful as a branch of the organization, Catt voices her displeasure with Paul and Burns approach, which leads them to separate from the organization in order to establish their own, politically aggressive party, the National Womens Party, whose sole agenda is to focus on making womens suffrage an issue within politics and society and getting an amendment passed that guarantees people the right to vote regardless of sex (IronShow MoreRelatedWomen Of The American Revolution1960 Words   |  8 PagesIn the past, women would be unable to do things for themselves without the permission of their husbands. Also, since women were not the breadwinners they would have to ask their husbands for funds in order to spend money. We see this in the film Iron-Jawed Angels where the senator takes away his wife’s money when she starts investing to help women’s rights. She had become unhappy when she was dependent on her husband who had taken her kids away, so she left and joined the women’s rights movement.