Politics

Communications Consortium (Iron-Jawed Angels)

On February 15, 2004–Susan B. Anthony’s birthday – HBO premiered the film Iron-Jawed Angels, a hip, modern-day production featuring Hilary Swank and Angelica Houston and following the story of the women’s suffrage movement. The Barbara Lee Family Foundation funded a project in 2004 through the Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC) to engage women in a dialogue around suffrage in conjunction with the premiere and subsequent re-airings throughout March of 2004—Women’s Equality Month. CCMC’s project included outreach about the film and women’s voting to national organizations and individual women; the creation of a viewing guide with discussion questions; and mobilizing events designed to encourage discussion of the importance of women’s votes. The goal of this project was to use the film as a catalyst to spark dialogue about the founding mothers’ long, hard struggle to win women’s voting rights and about the critical importance of women’s votes today. Through this project, CCMC mobilized female voters and increased women’s political engagement for the 2004 election cycle.