[Information Packet Distributed by the National Woman's Party]

Published by New York, NY; Washington, D.C., 1945

About this Item

14" x 8½". Three mimeographed leaves, printed rectos only and corner stapled. Pp. [3]. Very good: creased at two old horizontal folds; light foxing to rear; a bit of corner wear and light spotting at edges. This is an information packet and marketing tool issued by the National Woman's Party (NWP), intended to entice women into joining the struggle for political freedom and equal rights. NWP was an outgrowth of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, formed in 1913 by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. The group played a critical role in the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment, and one year later announced plans to campaign for another amendment to guarantee women equal rights with men; this would come to be known as the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). In 1923 Paul made the first revision to ERA at Seneca Falls; she named this version the Lucretia Mott Amendment, after the abolitionist who fought for women's rights and attended the First Women's Rights Convention. The amendment went under further revision in 1943. The women of NWP worked tirelessly for years, planning, publicizing and fighting for its approval; its text became Section 1 of the version that would finally be passed by Congress in 1972. This packet provided the "Declaration of Sentiments adopted at the first Woman's Rights Convention in the World," at Seneca Falls, New York. It bewailed that as of "1945 Only one of these demands put forth in 1848 that of the right to vote has been completely won" and argued that "It is in the hands of women today" to continue the push for the "complete freedom of women" as begun by those "pioneer women." There was a list of recommended "Books on the Woman Movement," including works on Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as well as Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and Of Men and Women by Pearl S. Buck. The document listed its four authors, which included Paul, still national chair in D.C., as well as Jeannette Marks, chair of the New York State Branch from 1942 to 1947. A noted writer, lecturer and political advocate, Marks was a professor of English at Mount Holyoke College and the school's LGBTQ+ center is named in her honor. We found no evidence of this packet in OCLC or online.

Seller Inventory # 8326

Bibliographic Details

• Title: [Information Packet Distributed by the National Woman's Party]
• Publisher: New York, NY; Washington, D.C.
• Publication Date: 1945
• Condition: Very good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Women
  • Suffrage
  • Politics