Mr. President, Why Not Make America Safe for Democracy?

Abstract

Part 3 demonstrates that the entry of the United States into World War I changed the political landscape once again as suffrage activists balanced their demands for greater democracy at home with the war abroad. During the fall of 1916, suffrage speakers and organizers fanned out across the western states where women could vote to stump against Democrats. Having failed to keep President Wilson out of office, Alice Paul and her colleagues in the National Woman’s Party turned to publicly shaming him, organizing a vigil in front of the White House in 1917. But with the declaration of war, Washington D.C. immediately changed. America’s entry into the Great War shifted suffragists’ calculations as they reassessed their political strategies in light of the conflict in which their nation was now enmeshed. Despite the new demands on their time from aid or support work, and, for some, the emotional toll of having loved ones in the military, the women remained engaged in their political activism and continued to fight for suffrage and women’s rights.