Alice Paul Institute
Newsletter Article – February 2022
The Alice Paul Institute is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation devoted to educating the public on equal rights activist Alice Paul and continuing her legacy of advocating for equality for all. API is headquartered at Paulsdale, Alice Paul’s childhood home in Mount Laurel, NJ, where it serves as one of a few historical sites in New Jersey dedicated to a woman. Paulsdale sits proudly on the state’s Women’s Heritage Trail, where it operates as a site for educational tours and field trips for patrons in the local community.
API was established in 1984 as a homage to Alice Paul’s vision and the work she completed in her lifetime. Alice Paul dedicated her life to promoting gender equality, from being a leader in the Women’s Suffrage Movement, to authoring the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and rallying support for its ratification. Today, API continues to advocate for the passage of the ERA, in the ongoing battle to afford legal equal protections to people of all genders.
API expands on Alice Paul’s trailblazing work through its community and youth programing. API is most well-known for its signature Girls Leader Council, a year-round women’s leadership program for teen girls designed to empower young women and equip them with the skills necessary to become leaders of change within their communities. The institute works to not only preserve the history of Alice Paul, but to carry out her visions within a contemporary lens. API is committed to the intersectional struggle for gender equality, and embraces an inclusive understanding of the terms “women” and “girls.” API thereby encourages the participation of trans women and girls, non-binary and gender non-conforming people.
The overall mission of API is to honor Alice Paul’s work through education and leadership development. In both its focus on historic preservation and commitment to tackling contemporary gender issues, API has a well-established role in its community as a hub of history and continued civic engagement and advocacy. The organization aims to secure Alice’s legacy as an architect of change, and also set the foundation for a new generation to continue the fight for ordinary equality.
Rachael Glashan Rupisan
Development Director
Alice Paul Institute
www.alicepaul.org