Barely 12 hours after a group of feminists criticized the Sewall-Belmont House’s decision to honor Laura Bush with its Alice Award for progressing women’s rights, ShePAC responded with an email blast touting Bush’s female-friendly bona fides and urging supporters to join their “Stand with Laura” Twitter campaign.
The whole matter has baffled Susan Scanlan, chair of the non-partisan National Council of Women’s Organizations. “Controversy over honoring a first lady simply makes no sense,” Scanlan told Yeas & Nays. “This is one of those occasions where I ask myself, ‘What would Alice do?'”
Suffragist Alice Paul, for whom the award is named, “demonstrated that victory is not achieved by excluding those whose support is not sufficiently pure,” she added. “It’s a lesson I’ll carry with me to the Sewall-Belmont’s celebration of Mrs. Bush in September.”
