INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type o f computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely afreet reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Aim Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 A HEMISPHERE OF WOMEN: LATIN AMERICAN AND U.S. FEMINISTS IN THE lACW, 1915-1939 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Esther Sue Wamsley, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1998 Dissertation Committee: Professor Leila J. Rupp, Adviser Professor Kenneth J. Andrien Adviser Professor Susan M. Hartmann History Graduate Program UMI Number: 9834091 Copyright 1998 by Wamsley, Esther Sue All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9834091 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright Esther Sue Wamsley 1998 ABSTRACT The early twentieth century witnessed widespread organizing among women in the transnational arena. Most of the literature, however, concentrates on the transatlantic activities among U.S. and European feminists. Historians of women's international organizing have paid scant attention to Pan American feminism, and to the fact that Latin American women often took the leadership role. This dissertation explores the nature of women's organizing on the Pan American stage, paying particular attention to the impact of the imperial or neo-colonial relationships of the U.S. and various Latin American countries. My investigation examines U.S. women's deeply rooted assumptions about the lack of emancipation of their Latin American colleagues and the ways that Latin American women defied those narrow imperialists' views. The lACW thus marks not the U.S.- inspired beginning of Pan American organizing among women. 11 but the culmination of years of effort by women from many countries throughout the Western hemisphere. To get at these issues, I trace the development of the Inter-American Commission of Women starting in 1915, the year that the first organized Pan American women's conference took place, to 193 9, when its chair, Doris Stevens, stepped down. The Commission was the first all­ female, government-affiliated body to deal specifically with women's civil and political rights in a transnational arena. It played an important role as a strong advocate of legal equality for women, and the Commission remains today a dominant voice on women's concerns in the Western hemisphere. Ill Dedicated to my daughters IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to Professor Leila J. Rupp for her patience, scholarly guidance, and dedication throughout this project. Often Professor Rupp went beyond the call of duty to assist me in this work. Professor Kenneth J. Andrien played a valuable role in my pursuit and completion of this dissertation giving thoughtful analysis, helpful suggestions, and generous support. And I extend a sincere appreciation to Professor Susan M. Hartmann for her insightful comments. My daughters, as always, have sustained me throughout this ordeal and have seldom complained about my often diverted attention. A special thanks goes to the newest member of my family, J. R. Thompson, for his understanding. Numerous librarians and archivists have also contributed to this work. The staffs at OSU's Inter-Library Loan, the Library of Congress, the Columbus Memorial Library, the Inter-American Commission of Women, and the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women provided extensive help in my endeavors to locate often obscure materials. I would like to thank The Ohio State University's Department of History for the Ruth Higgins Award, the Department of Women Studies for the Elizabeth D. Gee Research Grant, the Graduate School for the Graduate Student Research Award, and the Latin American Studies Program for the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship for the funding to help to complete this project. Lastly, I owe a tremendous debt to my father who has always supported me in the circuitous path I have taken to arrive here. Throughout my life he told me: "you could do anything that you want." And even though he never quite understood why his daughter was in college for so long, he was always there with praise. VI VITA 1990 .........................M.A., The Ohio State University 1978.........................B.A., The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: History Vll TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract_____________________________________________ ii Dedication------------------------------------------- iv Acknowledgments________________________________________ v Vita------------------------------------------------- vii Chapters ; 1. Introduction_____________________________________ 1 2. Origins of Pan American Feminism----------------- 17 3 . The Founding of the lACW------------------------- 73 4. Negotiating Goals And Strategies---------------- 134 5. The lACW in the International Arena_____________ 187 6. A Coup d'Etat in the lACW?______________________ 233 7. Conclusion--------------------------------------- 257 Bibliography_________________________________________ 2 66 Vlll CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In January 1928, women from the United States and a number of Latin American countries convened in Havana, Cuba, to secure an official voice in the Pan American Union (PAU), a government-affiliated organization established in 1889 to promote peaceful and commercial relations through diplomatic channels among the nations of the Americas/ As early as 1915 the Honorable John Barrett, Director General of the Pan American Union and Secretary of the Second Pan American Scientific Conference, had proposed the formation of a women's group. In a letter inviting women to attend the First Pan American Women's Auxiliary, Barrett intoned "that the holding of this Women's Conference may be the first step toward calling together a few years hence a great Pan American Women's Conference that will become a powerful ^ The World Book. 1927 ed., s.v. "Pan-American Union." factor in the development of fraternity and solidarity among the American nations."^ Eight years later, in 1923, at the Fifth International Conference of American States in Santiago, Chile, the issue of a woman-centered Pan American group got onto the Union's official agenda. Maximo De Soto Hall, Guatemalan delegate at the conference, initiated a "series of résolutions...to accord to women, through the intervention of the Conference of the American Republics, equal rights with the men in all the American Republics."^ The resolution called for the promotion of women's education, a systematic examination of laws pertaining to women among the various countries, the establishment of a body in the Union to analyze women's civil and legal status, and the appointment of women as official delegates to PAU conferences. “ To discuss and ^ Report on the Women's Auxiliary Conference held in the City of Washington. U.S.A. in Connection with the Second Pan American Scientific Congress. December 28. 1915-January 7. 1916■ (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1916): 15 . ^ The American Journal of International Law. "Inter-American Commission of Women," 24 (1930): 758. “ James Brown Scott, ed.. The International Conferences of American States. 1889-1928. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1931): 244-245. investigate these concerns, Union members promised women seats at the upcoming Sixth Pan American Conference to be held in Havana in 1928. They neglected to nominate women as delegates, however, even though women's issues constituted part of the official agenda. Determined not to succumb to defeat, women from the United States and Latin American countries gathered in Havana to protest their exclusion from and to obtain official recognition in the Pan American Union. Through a variety of campaign and lobbying efforts, the women succeeded in securing a hearing before the conference, resulting in the founding of the Inter-American Commission of Women (lACW), the first all-female, government-affiliated body to deal specifically with women's civil and political rights in a transnational arena. The lACW played an important role internationally as a strong advocate of