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Paul was born into a Quaker family in Moorestown, New Jersey. She attended Swarthmore College (BA, 1905), the New York School of Philanthropy (social work), and the University of Pennsylvania (MA, sociology). In 1907 Paul moved to England where she attended the University of Birmingham and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Returning to the U.S. in 1910, she attended the University of Pennsylvania, completing a PhD in political science in 1912. Her dissertation topic was "The Legal Position of Women in Pennsylvania."

While she was in England, Paul heard Christabel PankhurstChristabel Harriette Pankhurst ( September 22, 1880 February 13, 1958) was a suffragette born in Manchester, England. The daughter of Dr. Richard Pankhurst and Emmeline Pankhurst, and a sister of Sylvia Pankhurst, in 1905, Christabel Pankhurst interrupted speak at the University of Birmingham in 1908. Inspired, Paul joined the Women's Social and Political UnionThe Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was the leading organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom. It was the first group whose members were known as " suffragettes". The WSPU was founded in Manchester on October 10th, 1903 (WSPU), where she met fellow American Lucy Burns. Her activities with the WSPU led to her arrest and imprisonment three times. Along with other suffragists she went on hunger strikeA hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest or to achieve a goal such as a policy change. Mohandas Gandhi engaged in two famous hunger strikes. The first protested British rule of India; and was force-fed.

In 1913 Paul, with Burns, formed the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage. Their focus was lobbying for a constitutional amendmentA constitutional amendment is an alteration to the constitution of a nation or a state. In jurisdictions with 'entrenched' constitutions this requires a special procedure different from that used for enacting ordinary laws. Flexible constitutions A flexib to secure the right to vote for women. Such an amendment had originally been sought by suffragists Susan B. AnthonySusan Brownell Anthony ( February 15, 1820 March 13, 1906) was an American civil rights leader who, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, led the effort to grant women the right to vote in the United States. She was born in Adams, Massachusetts, the daughter and Elizabeth Cady StantonElizabeth Cady Stanton and her daughter Harriot In the degradation of woman the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source. at the Seneca Falls Convention, July 19-20, 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton ( November 12, 1815 October 26, 1902) was a leadin in 1878. However, by the early 20th century, attempts to secure a federal amendment had ceased. The focus of the suffrage movement had turned to securing the vote on a state-by-state basis.

When their lobbying efforts proved fruitless, Paul and her colleagues formed the National Woman's PartyThe National Woman's Party (NWP), was an American women's organization that fought for women's rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly the right to vote and to be given jobs and be compensated for them the same as men did. (NWP) in 1916 and began introducing some of the methods used by the suffrage movement in Britain. Tactics included parades, mass meetings, vigils and demonstrations. These actions were accompanied by press coverage and the publication of the weekly Suffragist.

In the election of 1916, Paul and the NWP campaigned against the continuing refusal of President Woodrow Wilson and other incumbent Democrats to actively support the Suffrage Amendment. In January 1917, the NWP staged the first political protest ever to picket the White House. The pickets, known as “Silent Sentinels,” held banners demanding the right to vote. This is believed to have been the first non-violent civil disobedience campaign in the U.S. In July 1917, picketers were arrested on charges of "obstructing traffic." Many, including Paul, were convicted and incarcerated at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia (now the Lorton Correctional Complex) and the District of Columbia Jail.

In protest of the conditions in Occoquan, Paul commenced a hunger strike. This led to her being moved to the prison’s psychiatric ward and force-fed. Other women joined the strike, which combined with the continuing demonstrations and attendant press coverage, kept the pressure on the Wilson administration. In January, 1918, the president announced that women's suffrage was urgently needed as a "war measure."

In 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution secured the vote for women.