ABSTRACT
Alice Paul remained convinced, up to the very end, that the equal rights amendment would be ratified before the time extension expired. While her quest for equality failed for the moment, Paul's legacy remains an essential part of American history. Historian William O'Neill rightly characterized Paul as "the one truly charismatic figure" in the suffrage movement. Paul's strategy for achieving suffrage with the Nineteenth Amendment shaved years off of that struggle. She wasn't afraid of being called a militant or a feminist, and she never doubted the direction she had chosen to follow in her life. It was Paul who used her contacts to promote women as United States delegates in international conferences, where they had never been able to serve before. Paul's relentless pursuit of equality eventually succeeded in persuading millions of American women to change their minds and finally recognize equal rights as a priority.
