In the spring of 1913, Alice Paul organized what would become the most prominent suffrage demonstration in American history processions.co.uk . The parade drew a crowd of more than 500,000 people, and it was an occasion that made the suffrage movement visible to the world.

But the issue of women's rights to vote was not resolved in Washington, D.C. Every year since 1869, suffragists had trekked to the capital to present petitions asking that women be given full suffrage.

Although nine states had enacted full suffrage by 1913, debate over whether to give women the right to vote in Congress remained largely unaddressed. Opponents of suffrage argued that giving women the right to vote endangered what they considered the vital separation of male and female roles in society.