This second audio podcast of “Playing Politics with the President” is a provocative look at the determination of women to press the issue of their rights in 1913. I love the description of the first deputation to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson –and then the second and the third. We’re not hearing this account from people a hundred years after the fact. We’re fortunate to be able to hear Doris Steven’s own words published in 1920 in “Jailed for Freedom.”
I loved the description of the womens’ reaction to being led into President Wilson’s office and being asked to sit in rows of chairs, like a school room, with the Woodrow Wilson’s chair in front. Everyone in the women’s delegation admitted to being frightened by the formality. And Alice Paul’s questioning of the President is classic. No one would accept Wilson’s excuses. The women’s reactions are enough to bring a smile of support to our faces today. Essentially he told the women of the delegation that he had more important things to do besides caring about their rights. After suffragists gathered petitions from around the nation, they presented them to Congress and the Susan B. Anthony amendment was introduced, but the battle wasn’t over yet.