NARRATOR: For nearly three years,
while the countries of Europe had been consumed by battle and bloodshed,
the rhythms of America's day-to-day
had continued with little variation or interruption.
It therefore came as a something of shock
when, in early February 1917, Wilson answered Germany's ongoing aggression at sea
by severing diplomatic relations.
As lobbyist Maud Wood Park remembered,
"The importance of the slogan, 'He kept us out of war,' in the reelection of President Wilson...
had led to the belief that the United States would never be involved in the conflict...
Overnight, it seemed, the shadow of the Great War fell upon Washington."
ZAHNISER: The probability of war gave suffragists some difficult choices.
Were they going to put the idea of gaining suffrage aside for the duration of the war?
Or were they going to persist in the suffrage struggle?
Or were they going to try to juggle both things?
NARRATOR: For Carrie Chapman Catt, the choice was a bitter one.
Like many suffragists, she was a lifelong pacifist,
and believed that women, once they voted,
would put an end to war.
Just two years earlier, she'd helped to found the Women's Peace Party,
and had been advocating ever since
for disarmament and mediation in Europe.
But if American women refused to back their country now, she reasoned,
they could hardly expect the country to back them.
BEHN: Carrie Chapman Catt is a pragmatic politician.
If she has to make a choice, suffrage is going to be the priority for her,
and she's willing to sacrifice principle in other areas
to move forward that agenda.
NARRATOR: On February 5th,
as the nation grappled with the implications of war,
Catt arrived in the capital
to have dinner at the White House.
Officially, she was the guest of the Secretary of the Navy;
but the evening's host was President Wilson.
BEHN: This dinner comes at a really important time for Wilson.
He's facing the prospect of having to say
to many of those who voted for him,
"I am no longer able to keep us out of war."
For Catt, it's also a really important time.
There are major states,
New York being the most significant,
that are having a referenda in the fall of '17,
and she needs President Wilson's support.
So we don't know for sure what happens at that dinner.
There's no transcript of what they discussed.
But what we do know is what happens afterwards.
NARRATOR: Less than three weeks later,
in a hand-delivered letter to President Wilson,
the National Association offered its services to the government of the United States.
Although it was made clear
that work on behalf of suffrage would not be set aside,
the commitment to Wilson was unequivocal:
"in the event they should be needed,
and, in so far as we are authorized,
we pledge the loyal support of our more than two million members."
WEISS: Carrie Catt takes the approach
that if we can prove to Wilson
that American women can be trusted, are citizens, are patriots,
are willing to step up, are willing to support him,
then maybe we can slowly, slowly turn him around.
She also makes one of the great compromises of her life.
And she's kicked out of the Women's Peace Party.
She is snubbed by her fellow pacifists.
And she does this because she feels
this will help gain support for the federal amendment.
NARRATOR: Alice Paul, for her part, expressed no support for the war,
and the daily protest at the White House gates went on –
to the mounting consternation of not only President Wilson and the men of Congress,
but also Harriot Stanton Blatch,
who believed that in a time of national crisis,
picketing ought not to be pursued.
Even Paul's mentor,
the implacable British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst,
had set her demand for the vote aside when England went to war.
But Paul refused to back down.
VOICE [Paul]: When the civil war began,
Susan B. Anthony was told the same things we are being told today.
If she’d only drop her suffrage work and become an abolitionist,
women would be given the vote as a reward
as soon as the war was over.
She did drop her work
and as a result all legislation in which women were interested
was promptly dropped.
WALTON: Alice said,
"I’m not going to make that mistake again.
We are going to continue the battle for the federal amendment.
We are going to continue picketing,"
and they did.
NARRATOR: The pickets remained at the White House gates all through February.
They were still there on the eve of Wilson's second inaugural on March 3rd–
a contingent of hundreds,
who marched the half-mile around the White House
four times in a drenching rain,
chanting "votes for women."
And when President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 2nd,
the pickets took up their vigil once more.
By then, the battle lines within the suffrage movement had been clearly drawn:
Paul on one side, Catt on the other–
and between them, a president
who, by his own account, was willing to go to war
to make the world safe for democracy.
BEHN: Catt and Paul are very similar in many ways.
Both have these incredibly persuasive personalities,
and they are decisive and focused once they’ve made decisions.
So it’s interesting that two women,
both totally devoted to the same ultimate goal,
take such different and antagonistic paths to get there.