Between 1850 and 1920 a dramatic increase in reform by like-minded women took place in New Jersey. New Jersey’s Alice Paul became a major figure in the militant wing of the suffragist movement. In 1915, New Jersey suffrage had national as well as state significance. No eastern state had given women the full right to vote. If New Jersey could break this pattern, it might help for the state-by-state process. Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment and presented it to Congress in December 1923. Almost 100 years later, the ERA continues to be at the front stage of American politics.

This video clip is from the archives of the New Jersey Network. For more New Jersey social studies content, please visit the New Jersey: Then and Now collection