The Woman's Hour

During the battle taking shape in Nashville, President Woodrow Wilson is recovering from a cerebral embolism. His wife Edith, his physician, Dr. Grayson, and his private secretary, Joseph Tumulty conceal his ill health from the nation. Edith is secretly running the country during her husband’s slow recovery, and she is no friend of women’s suffrage. However, Wilson himself backs giving women the vote.

Both Catt and Paul take credit for his support based on their activism during WWI, when, while Catt and NAWSA put aside their pacifist sentiments to pledge themselves to the war effort, Alice Paul’s NWP faction demonstrated violently against the hypocrisy of liberating Europe while American women remained disenfranchised. After the war ended, Wilson pledged his support for women’s suffrage and tepidly used his influence with Congress to push the amendment forward:

Carrie Catt could, and did, take credit for patiently, skillfully, bringing the president around. […] Alice Paul would insist that credit for the turnaround belonged to her brave, defiant picketers and prisoners […] They were both right (84-85).

When Catt appeals to Wilson to bring pressure to bear on Tennessee Governor Roberts, she little realizes that Wilson’s pro-Suff secretary dispatched the President’s response instead of the President himself.