After seeing “Iron Jawed Angels” by Katja von Garnier, I was truly moved by the extraordinary and little-known story of a group of passionate suffragettes, led by Alice Paul and her best friend Lucy Burns, who put their lives on the line to fight for the right of American women to vote. We learned about women suffragettes over the years in school, but seeing the struggles that Paul and his group of "bandits" had to go through just to be heard made me realize how sexist people were up until the 1920s. What Paul and his young suffragette activists endured for those eight or so years will never be forgotten. Modern women have the suffragettes of a hundred years ago to thank for their place in government and that is phenomenal. "Iron Jawed Angels" begins in 1912 in Philadelphia, when Alice Paul and Lucy Burns meet Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw of the NAWSA (National American Woman Suffrage Association, founded in 1890 by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton). Although Paul and Burns generally have the same intentions as Catt and Shaw, the rebellious spirits of the two younger women clash with the more conservative older women and the meeting is unsuccessful. Paul and Burns want to “go big,” so to speak, and aim for a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, but Catt and Shaw are partial to the state-by-state approach. However, Paul is allowed to take over the NAWSA's Washington, D.C. committee, provided that she and Burns raise their own funds. They begin planning their first big event, a parade to promote women's suffrage, and recruit a team of volunteers during which Paul meets a woman from Washington. the paper's political cartoonist, Ben Weissman, who makes romantic sparks fly. Unfortunately, the pa...... middle of paper ...... released from prison spoke out in his favor in a speech to Congress. By 1920, 35 states had ratified the amendment, but one more state was needed. Tennessee becomes that state where a recalcitrant legislator casts the deciding vote after receiving a telegram from his mother (a real-life event). On August 26, 1920, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment becomes law and 20 million American women gain the right to vote. After watching “Iron Jawed Angels” a second time, it never ceases to amaze me how long it took President Wilson to support women's right to vote and it took even longer to legally give women the right to vote. Watching “Iron Jawed Angels” gave me a real-life example of what a suffragist truly was and what her determination did for our country. I say shame on our government for waiting until it absolutely had to give American women a say in politics.