Student Name; Daisy Doria
Course: HIST-1302
Date: 15/10/2020
“Iron Jawed Angels” Questions
The film reflects on the issues that surrounded women in early 20th century trying to fight for their rights in the society, like the right to vote, own property and work in offices. Thus, it hindered the movement from functioning effectively towards obtaining suffrage. The major challenges pointed out in the film are the issue of gender and class, the issue of gender and marital status and lastly the challenge of gender and race.
Genders and marital status was a challenge shared among women in the movement, suffragist movement predominantly the purview of the white, married women, those at the upper-middle class and those with resources. Unmarried women and those at the low class were not involved in the movement, thus restricting them from participation. Secondly, the challenge of genders and race is said to have affected the suffrage movement where the amendments were done by the federal granting women the right to vote. Despite the of the amendments full suffrage was not obtained. Racial discrimination was common among African American women’s disqualification. Thus, women of African American descent were mobilized to face discrimination and oppression. It lobbed for universal suffrage through voluntary organizations and church groups.
Gender and marital status was also a major challenge among the women in the movement. Women had a major work of social reproduction as the culture reflected. Thus, women’s institution was not recognized and had little interaction making it a challenge for a social feminist. For example, Iron Jawed angel deals with married women location but is disadvantaged through the interaction of Emily and Alice who stands for the majority of white women and upper class that focused on the interest of loyalty during the period. Through Alice, we understand that the movement viewed those women that failed to adhere to the values of maternal feminism as the individual of no value to the movement.
To address and overcome the challenge, the suffrage movement used the feminist tactic to deal with the challenge of gender and marital status. Emily makes the tactics less disruptive using the no confrontational method of resisting conditions. Laws that committed women to exercise the moral influence over the men in their lives. Thus women slowly turned to focus on other achievements like higher education access, giving birth to fewer children as well as rights to divorce. It is demonstrated through the film where Emily was taking a stand to help herself and her sisters.
Secondly, the tactic to handle race and gender challenge is observed through the interaction of Alice Paul and Ida Wells. Their interaction gives rise to a sense of influence and power. Ida takes a role in reminding Lucy that universal suffrage does not justify the discrimination on the already existing marginalized groups. Listening to other women results in a transformative in the movement creating a more inclusive feminist community. Through the cinematic technique, Ida is observed agent instead of turning her a victim. Thus the oppression expresses what happens to negro women when they get to vote. It is turned to be a strength as it calls for unity among the individuals.
Lastly, the technique of mobilization and enhancing unity is used to end genders and class challenge that faced the movement. For example, Lucy turns out to say that the need of having one thousand women marching in the street is better than ten thousand signatures. Further, say that “suffrage is not a dead issue. It is us!” it motivates moment and calls for unity in demonstration and raising their voice they end up uniting despite the class and head their voice heard through voting. In conclusion, the strategies turned the challenges that faced women during the period into achievement by enhancing unity and limiting discrimination. As a result, women attained the right to vote, work in offices, better payment, education access and rights to make their own decisions.
Works cited
“Iron Jawed Angels” Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2020. Web. 15 Oct. 2020. <https://www.scripts.com/script/iron_jawed_angels_10960>.