Iron-Jawed Angels inspires iron-willed women

Megan Kawa

In the beginning there was a dream

Which rose to the sky

Full of falling leaves

Angels just waiting to spread their wings

Suffragist Alice Paul once said, “When you put your hand to the plow, you can’t put it down until you get to the end of the row.” In the recent HBO original film Iron-Jawed Angels, a group of women show the world how far they can push a plow, a plow of masculine ideas flooding American society in the early 1900s.

The question remains however: is there still a need to push the plows of today’s society or in other words, is there still a place for women’s liberation today?

It is my deepest hope that all of you would be screaming a resounding, “Yes!” as you read this, however, I fear that is probably not the case for most of you. Now I ask you why not?

In a world of birth control, domestic abuse awareness, “free-spirited” clothing and more education and opportunities being realized by women, one has to recognize that women had to fight for these freedoms.

So-called inalienable rights granted by the Declaration of Independence were not a birthright for many citizens of the past. These rights can easily be taken away. People had to fight for and define just exactly what they believed to be inalienable rights.

If you are wondering what needs to be improved by women’s liberation movements, there is specifically one thing that sticks out in my mind. The injustice that I find most relevant to today’s society is the women’s place in the workforce.

In the time of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, hundreds of factory fires occurred, however, most factories had no fire escape. As a result, many workers were suffocated from the smoldering smoke and flames. A great number of these deaths could have been prevented if only a fire escape were available for the workers. However, in order to have a fire escape, voices needed to heard, but those voices were silent because they couldn’t vote.

After women were given the right to vote in 1920, you would think women would still spring at the chance to make a difference in our country’s laws. However, women make up the majority of the population, but are the minority when it comes to voting. Men are mostly the ones making the decisions in this country because they are the ones that vote.

Women not only have the power to speak their minds, but we now also have the right to and sometimes women forget this right. Can we prove to ourselves and to others that our beliefs count? Can we once again be a role model to all the world? Can we once again embrace the power of the vote? It is my deepest hope that you are screaming a resounding, “Yes!”

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