Iron Jawed Angels

Iron Jawed Angels is a 2004 American historical drama film. It was directed by Katja von Garnier and starred Hilary Swank as suffragist leader Alice Paul, Frances O'Connor as activist Lucy Burns, Julia Ormond as Inez Milholland, and Anjelica Huston as Carrie Chapman Catt. The film received critical acclaim after it premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Much of the principal photography was done in Richmond, Virginia.

The film focuses on the American women's suffrage movement during the 1910s, and follows women's suffrage leaders Alice Paul and Lucy Burns as they use peaceful and effective nonviolent strategies, tactics, and dialogues to revolutionize the American feminist movement to grant women the right to vote. It was released in the United States on February 15, 2004.

Plot

The film begins as Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor) return from England where they met while participating in the Women's Social and Political Union started by radical suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and led by her daughter Christabel Pankhurst. The pair presents a plan to the National American Woman's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to push directly in Washington for women's rights to vote nationally. They see that their ideas were much too forceful for the established leaders, particularly Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston), but are allowed to lead the NAWSA Congressional Committee in DC. They start by organizing the 1913 Women's Suffrage Parade, on the eve of President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration.