Votes for women! Local BPW members visit home of suffragette Alice Paul
Submitted photo
Masontown Business and Professional Women joined members across the state in a fall trip to visit the New Jersey home of suffragette Alice Paul. Pictured are, from left, seated: Nancy Werner, event organizer; Sharlene Lehman, Masontown president; Dawn Berkebile, BPW/PA state president; Denice Robinson, past state president and Masontown BPW treasurer; Barbara Harmon, Masontown BPW assistant treasurer; and Dorothy Gruskowski, past Masontown president; back row: Charlene Smochinsky, Masontown BPW vice president; Nanci Myers, Masontown BPW parliamentarian; Patty Clutter and Connie Wallace.
This photo, courtesy of the Alice Paul Institute, shows Alice Paul toasting passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote.
The New Jersey home of suffragette Alice Paul
Shown here is the Justice Bell, a replica of the Liberty Bell that visited Pennsylvania’s 67 counties to promote support for a 1915 state ballot for women’s suffrage.
As the National Federation of Business and Professional Women and the state chapter celebrated their 100th anniversaries in 2019, area residents joined in a trip by Pennsylvania BPW to the home of a 20th century leader in the equal rights movement.
Five members of Masontown BPW were part of a fall bus trip to Paulsdale, the Mount Laurel, N.J., home of suffragette Alice Paul (1885-1977), a chief strategist in campaigning for the 19th Amendment – passed by Congress in 1919 and ratified by the states in 1920 – that gave women the right to vote.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip,” said Denice Robinson of Uniontown, who serves as Masontown BPW treasurer and is also a member of Uniontown BPW.
Robinson, who organized the trip with a Philadelphia area member, was joined by Masontown members Sharlene Lehman, of Fairchance, president; Nanci Myers, of Georges Township, parliamentarian, Dorothy Gruskowski, of German Township, immediate past president, and Charlene Smochinsky, of Uniontown, vice president.
The trip also included a luncheon on the Paulsdale lawn and entertainment by Kate Campbell Stevenson, who portrayed Paul in a program on women’s suffrage.
Robinson said of Paul, “She just believed so much in the cause. I wish sometimes I had that passion.”
BPW members learned how Paul and other suffragettes organized nonviolent demonstrations, including picketing in front of the White House that resulted in their being jailed under harsh conditions. Paul went on a hunger strike.
“You knew women got the right to vote when the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, but I didn’t know her story – what was involved,” said Gruskowski.
After gaining suffrage, Paul co-authored the Equal Rights Amendment to guarantee legal rights for women. Congress pass ERA in 1972, but it still needs ratification by one state.
Lehman said, “I thought I knew a lot about women suffragettes, but when I visited the Alice Paul House, I realized there was so much more to this struggle that’s still going on for the Equal Rights Amendment.”
Paul worked for women’s rights throughout her life.
“What an outstanding woman she was. What a great humanitarian,” said Smochinsky, noting Paul’s work with the United Nations and helping Jewish refugees during WWII. “You don’t realize what an important role she played in the history of equal rights.”
BPW, which has sponsored equal pay rallies in Fayette County, has been a longtime advocate for women.
“BPW was one of the first organizations to sign on to the Equal Rights Amendment in the ’30s, and when we were at the Alice Paul House, she acknowledges BPW in helping,” said Robinson, who also noted BPW members were present when President Kennedy signed the 1963 Equal Pay Act.
The trip included an overnight stay in Valley Forge where Amanda Owen, of the Justice Bell Foundation, gave a presentation on this replica of the Liberty Bell used to promote suffrage. The Justice Bell had a secured clapper so it could not ring until women won the right to vote.
Robinson and Gruskowski said the bell was taken to all 67 Pennsylvania counties to drum up support for a 1915 state ballot on women’s suffrage.
“They had to get men to vote for it. They had parades. Here in Fayette County, they had a tea at Linden Hall. Sarah Cochran sponsored it to get everybody to see the Justice Bell,” said Robinson.
Gruskowski, who noted the Justice Bell is housed at Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge National Park, said the Pennsylvania vote “failed but it passed in Fayette County. That’s why they turned to the federal amendment.”
On this 100th anniversary of suffrage, Robinson said, “What I found fascinating was the suffragettes felt once women got the right to vote, we would have a female president within 10 years. When you think it’s been 100 years and we still have not had a female president.”