Dilemma Action: Alice Paul's Silent Sentinels And The Fight For Women's Right To Vote

GregSatell.com/ WHEN YOU FACE OPPOSITION, DON’T CREATE A CONFLICT, DESIGN A DILEMMA
The first march on Washington, dubbed the "Women's Suffrage Procession," was scheduled for March 3rd, 1913. It quickly turned to disaster.
Provocateurs disrupted the procession, blocking its path and yelling epithets at the suffragettes. The police were negligently slow to respond and a full scale riot broke out, discredited the movement and its leader, Alice Paul.
Later, when Wilson entered office, the Suffragettes went to see him and urge him to do something about women’s rights. He refused, saying he had more important things to tend to, such as economic and Foreign policy.
The Suffragettes had every reason to be bitter and, certainly, could have chosen to create a conflict. But they did something better. They created a dilemma.
Small bands of "Silent Sentinels” picketed the White House with phrases lifted from President Wilson’s own book, published just a few years earlier.
How could he object, without appearing to be a tremendous hypocrite, to signs that read, “LIBERTY IS A FUNDAMENTAL DEMAND OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT” and “WE ARE INTERESTED IN THE UNITED STATES, POLITICALLY SPEAKING, IN NOTHING BUT LIBERTY,” when he was, in fact, the very author of those same words?
Later, when he declared war against Germany and its allies, the suffragists once again carried Wilson’s words, “WE SHALL FIGHT FOR THE THINGS WHICH WE HAVE ALWAYS HELD NEAREST OUR HEARTS - FOR DEMOCRACY, FOR THE RIGHT OF THOSE WHO SUBMIT TO AUTHORITY TO HAVE A VOICE IN THEIR OWN GOVERNMENTS.”
Wilson had two choices: He could have voiced support for women’s right to vote or he could have had the women arrested to stop their picketing. He chose the latter, and, when the brutal treatment the woman endured in captivity became public, the movement won even more support, damaging Wilson politically.
The President would ultimately surrender. Just a few years later, on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote.
Since then, dilemma actions have become a crucial tool for anyone who wants to create change in any context.
Learn more in this video:..
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Greg Satell is Co-Founder of ChangeOS, a transformation & change advisory, an international keynote speaker, and bestselling author of "Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change," whose work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Barron’s, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company and other A-list publications. His earlier book, "Mapping Innovation," was selected as one of the best business titles of 2017.
A Lecturer at Wharton, accomplished entrepreneur, global executive and one of the foremost experts on transformation and change today, Greg helps organizations overcome resistance to change and build a better future. He speaks to audiences around the world and works with leading organizations, is consistently ranked as one of the top innovation bloggers in the world and was named by IDG as one of “10 Digital Transformation Influencers to Follow Today.”
Greg was formerly a senior executive for the Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s largest marketing services companies. Before that, Co-CEO of KP Media, which he scaled from a small privately held firm to a market leading, public company valued at $100 million with over 800 employees. It was sold to Ukraine Media Holding in 2010.
A global citizen, Greg spent 15 years living and working in Eastern Europe where, among other things, he managed a leading news organization during Ukraine’s Orange Revolution..
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