National Woman's Party

12/29/2020

We have important news this morning! The closing of the Centennial year brings another action by the National Woman’s Party (NWP) to sustainably safeguard the NWP’s legacy in the years to come.

After the completion of the historic gift of its collection to the Library of Congress and to the National Park Service, the NWP’s Board of Directors has decided to dissolve the NWP as an independent nonprofit and will transfer its remaining assets to the Alice Paul Institute which shares the NWP’s heritage and mission of advancing women’s equality. You can read more about this transfer here: https://bit.ly/3o1rGnS

On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, thank you for your long support of the National Woman’s Party. We sincerely hope that you will continue your engagement through the Alice Paul Institute, which will continue to reflect the National Woman’s Party legacy and its quest for full equality.

API/NWP Joint Press Release on Trademark Transfer

10/26/2020

Today's article on the NWP collections gift to the National Park Service and Library of Congress really captures so much of what we treasure about these materials-- and why their preservation is so important.

The National Woman’s Party said it is donating a large collection of artifacts, many from the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument in D.C., to the federal government.

10/08/2020

The story of our gift to the Libary of Congress made the New York Times.

The donation, timed to the centennial of the 19th Amendment, doubles the library’s holdings relating to the party, which fought for women’s suffrage and the Equal Rights Amendment.

10/08/2020

Today, the National Woman’s Party (NWP) announced the gift of its historic collection spanning women’s suffrage and the movement for women’s equality to the Library of Congress and National Park Service. This gift comes as the country celebrates 100 years of women's constitutional right to vote and ensures public access to a trove of records about the history of the women’s rights movement in the United States. Read the full release here: http://ow.ly/DiOT50BMyFV

09/19/2020

The National Woman’s Party mourns the loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A jurist of extraordinary stature, Justice Ginsburg is a role model to generations of women and girls. A courageous champion of justice and equality for all, she has had a profound and lasting impact on the law and particularly on the rights of women.

Justice Ginsburg leaves behind a powerful and historic legacy. Legal equality for everyone is more enshrined in the law because of her brilliant and fierce advocacy. We are all better off because of her work.

A friend of the National Woman’s Party, Justice Ginsburg honored us by leading a convening of women’s rights organizations on Women’s Equality Day in 2018. We honor the work and the legacy of Justice Ginsburg and send our heartfelt condolences to her family. May her memory be a blessing.

In celebration of Women's Equality Day on August 26, 2018, the National Woman's Party hosted a conversation with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsbu...

08/26/2020

Today marks 100 years since the 19th Amendment became law, finally securing in the U.S. Constitution a woman’s right to vote after more than 70 years of struggle by generations of women across the country.

National Woman’s Party (NWP) founders Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, along with countless brave and committed people from across the country, helped accomplish this achievement. And they did so by pursuing innovative tactics and strategies—marching, organizing, lobbying, holding politicians accountable, and picketing the White House—the first organization in history to do so.

They persisted, even during World War I, when many believed it unpatriotic to criticize President Woodrow Wilson during war time. It was this commitment to purpose that led to their arrest, imprisonment, and even an effort to declare Alice Paul insane. In protest of their treatment, many went on hunger strikes and endured brutal force feedings that left them with long-term health issues.

The suffrage movement, like the country, was impelled by and tolerated racism, despite the leadership and participation of many Black women, including Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell and members of the Delta Sigma Alpha sorority. And after ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, voting rights were not evenly given. It would be decades before Black and Native American women achieved those rights. Still today, voter suppression and assaults against women’s basic rights remain a threat that disproportionately impact women of color.

The story is told at Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument in Washington, DC.

Alice Paul said that the 19th Amendment vote was a means to an end and the real goal was equality. In 1923, Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment, and for the next 50 years, the NWP worked to overturn legal discrimination at the local, state, national and international levels.

Today, activists across the country and the globe are raising their voices, working to take the next leap forward for justice and equality for all.

Our foremothers from 100 years ago would no doubt be proud.

Onward!