http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_063700_nationalwoma.htm
NATIONAL WOMAN'S PARTY
The National Woman's party (nwp) was an outgrowth of the Congressional Union, formed in 1913 by Alice Paul and other militant suffragists. Paul and her associates called for a federal amendment to give women the vote and pursued their goal with the aggressive methods used by their British counterparts, including parading, picketing, civil disobedience, and hunger strikes. This effort, combined with the passage of laws granting women suffrage at the state level, encouraged the larger and more conservative National American Woman Suffrage Association to join the campaign for federal action, culminating in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.
With the vote won, many former suffragists believed that women should now abandon gender-specific efforts. Alice Paul disagreed, and, with other members of the Congressional Union, formed the nwp as an independent woman's party. Whereas organizations like the League of Women Voters (lwv) worked for generalized social and political reform, the nwp focused its energies on a single-minded struggle to win total equality for women. Its approach was embodied in its campaign, launched in 1923, for an Equal Rights Amendment. The lwv spoke for those who opposed the amendment, arguing that it would harm women by invalidating the various laws that gave them special rights and protection. This dispute became increasingly bitter and personalized over the years, further reducing the chances for compromise. Although the nwp had less than ten thousand members, the militance, energy, and persistence of Alice Paul and her followers succeeded in keeping the subject of an Equal Rights Amendment alive for decades, helping to lay the groundwork for a reinvigorated campaign in the 1970s.