When I first pulled my topic out of the bowl, I was lost.  I had no clue what Women’s Suffrage Hunger Strikes were.  I first typed in “women’s suffrage hunger strikes wwi”.  There was one hit, which only led me to images of my search.  I immediately decided to break down the milti-termed phrase.  My next search was “hunger strikes.”  I had no clue what they were and my search led me to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary which gave me the definition of a hunger strike: “refusal (as by a prisoner) to eat enough to sustain life”.

Now that I finally figured out what a hunger strike was, I decided I needed to figure out what women’s suffrage was like during the First World War; I searched around on a couple of websites till I found one that seemed legit, due to the organization that supported the website.  I found out that the National Women’s Party had a lot to do with Women’s suffrage.  Founder Alice Paul and president Carrie Chapman Catt played a huge role in supporting women’s suffrage.  During this time in my research I also went to another website, which listed the same two women, but under the organization by the name of National American Women’s Suffrage Association.  In my confusion, I reread these sections of the articles to conclude that these two groups were basically the same thing.

Once I learned a little more about women’s suffrage, I realized the key role Carrie Chapman Catt played.  Though Paul had started the successful association, she had to step down early in the process, so Catt ended up doing most of the promotion.  Soon younger women realized, once men started to receive their voting rights, they should helped Paul, but mostly Catt, on the road to fighting for women’s suffrage, stated by the next website.  New Zealand along with some other countries had granted women the right to vote, and according to this site, in 1890 Wyoming became the first state in America to allow women to vote.

Women became more eager than ever.  They wanted the right to vote!!!!!!! (these are seven of my exclamation points!...eight)  Catt, who previously had gone against supporting the war, came to a conclusion.  As this YouTube (along with the viedeo the past four websidtes I listed is where I learned/ backed up the video’s facts because I am aware that it is not an acceptable source.) video shows, Catt decided to completely do a 180, and in 1917she started rooting for the war.  She realized that, in order to get the necessary support from the government officials that were needed in order to get an amendment passed allowing women’s suffrage; she would need to support the war.  She started promoting the war, and listed off many opportunities for women in order to help war efforts. 

There were jobs like laboring in factories, sales in bonds, and Red Cross volunteer hours.  There was even a picture of her being depicted on a war poster supporting women’s involvement.  This exposure and support allowed for a higher rate of popularity among the officials and even president Wilson.  Within three years of Catt’s hard work she had gained Wilson, Wilson’s followers, and government official’s support.  It had all finally paid off; on August 26, 1920 the 19^th Amendment was passed, allowing women to vote in all states of America.

Though I had thought my research was complete at this stage, I figured out that all I had really done was researched women’s suffrage and hunger strikes, but nothing ever linked them together.  I finally came to a website that talked about the Women’s Social and Political Union.  It was started in 1903, says the site I was on, and throughout the years of promotion of suffrage for women, had used various methods.  Being the more violent group, in 1912 they organized a rampage of mass scale where women smashed in store’s window fronts.  Finally I found that hunger strikes were a form of rebellion.  When women were jailed for their actions of protesting, they would refuse to eat in jail.  The jail came up with an act called the Cat and Mouse Act, which permitted women to return on house arrest till the started eating again.  Once they were healthy again, they were escorted back to jail where they finished their sentencing.  I was so relieved to finally find somewhere where they actually connected the two terms.  With this, I completed my research.

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Newspaper clipping of WSA                               Newspaper clipping women's suffrage

head quarters opposed to women's suffrage                                        women protesting

We Can Do It! poster