Feminism And Non-Violence Women's Peace Movement: On To Seneca or the last 10,000 or so years, women have generally Prize for their work with the WILPF. Triennial world F served society as peacemakers. Women have cleaned up congresses and international summer schools have been up after the manmade wars. They have tended the wounded, consistent features of WILPF work throughout the years. comforted and cared for the widowed. They have been the After World War I, sentiment for peace and disarmament peacemakers within the family, and within the community. reached a high pitch. The lledgling League ·of Nations c·alled Women have raised and trained the young, formed and a disarmament conference in 1932. So many women's staffed the charities, healed the sick, assisted at births and organizations came_.to the conference in Geneva with their tended the dying. Women have enriched and enhanced the millions of petitions and signs that one New York newspaper living-out of human lives, in all ages and in all regions of the headlined, "Where Are The Men?" But the conference failed earth. as war clouds gathered. Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, the In their rightful quest for liberation from the limitations and Japanese invaded Manchuria, the League of Nations restrictions imposed on them by the stereotypical roles dissolved, and soon Hitler's forces terrorized the continent as assigned them throughout most of history, women World War II erupted. Once again, the disarmament sometimes ignore the significance of their noble movement was ended by the outbreak of war. peacemaking tradition. No attribute, no skill is more needed After the War, the Women's International Democratic today. Women's traditional preference for nonviolent Federation was formed to respond to the needs of women solutions to human problems deserves to be honored by and children; they were also strong advocates of peace and women and men alike, and _greater use must be made of disarmament. these skills. In the late 50s and early 60s, nuclear testing in the In the nineteenth century, women began to emerge in atmosphere by the United States and the Soviet Union more formalized peace activity through the formation of spurred a vigorous ban-the-bomb movement. When women peace societies. They wrote treatises, held discussions and discovered that radioactive Strontium 90 was turning up in corresponded with other peace societies. These came about their breast milk and babies' bones, they descended on as a reaction to the expansion of huge armies wielding Washington. Women Strike for Peace was born in 1961, and highly destructive weapons. In response to the fervent new a partial nuclear test ban treaty was concluded in 1963. WSP nationalism, women saw internationalism as the answer, and is currently engaged in an "I Don't Want To Be One in 20 began corresponding across national boundaries. Such million" campaign. corresponding peace societies were well developed when The elegantly understated slogan "War is Not Healthy for Bertha von Suttner wrote her famous book, a call to "Lay Children and Other Living Things" accompanied the birth of Down Your Arms." She later persuaded powder-maker Another Mother for Peace. Based in California, it drew Alfred Nobel to establish a peace prize, and still later, was support from some Hollywood personalities, and sent its herself made a Nobel laureate. unique newsletter nationwide. The women's peace movement grew out of the early Many church women's groups, which had long given lip women's rights movement. Lucretia Mott, a Quaker from service to peace, became more and more active on behalf of Nantucket who became an early activist in Philadelphia in peace and disarmament. Catholic groups, orders of nuns, the anti-slavery and women's rights societies, was one of the and Protestant denominations in Church Women United first espousers of peace and nonviolence in this country. The were often instrumental in opening up discussion of peace first Women's Rights Convention she co-convened in 1848 issues in their respective churches. sparked a national movement, which became international When in 1975 the United Nations proclaimed with the formation of the International Suffrage Alliance, International Women's Year, it adopted the theme, many of whose members were pacifists. "Equality, Development, Peace." The year produced the In 1915, suffragists from 12 countries, some of whose Mexico City Conference involving women by the thousands; husbands, brothers and sons were slaughtering each other the first women's international disarmament conference, on the battlefield in the "Great War," came together to held at the U.N., hosted by WILPF; and an international protest the war and plan for peace, in the first international congress of women in East Berlin. women's peace congress. From that gathering emerged the The U.N. Special Session for Disarmament in 1978 Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, with spawned further action for disarmament · as new groups Jane Addams, head of the new U.S. Women's Peace Party, emerged. The clarion call of Helen Caldicott, alerting all to its first president. She and Emily Greene Balch, the League's the medical effects of nuclear power and war and urging Executive Secretary who had been fired from her teaching women to organize against nuclear armament, led to the post at Wellesley for her pacifist views, received the Nobel formation of Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament,

30 Women's Encampment Handbook Feminism and Non-Violence