On the March: Women of the Peace Movement

By Amy Schneidhorst, Ph.D. and the National Women's History Museum

By National Women’s History Museum

National Women's History Museum www.womenshistory.org

Anti-Vietnam war protest and demonstration in front of the White House (1968) by Library of CongressNational Women’s History Museum

American women's peace advocacy has roots in 19th century US and European abolitionist, suffrage, and peace movements.  Throughout the last century, women peace advocates have worked inside and outside the political system to end war and promote a more just American international policy.

Jane Addams/ Library of Congress, Gerhard Sisters, photographer, 1914, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Nobel Prize winner Jane Addams worked for international disarmament during World War I. A pioneering reformer, Addams believed bringing people together to collaborate in local communities could be a model for international peace.

Helen Keller, Library of Congress, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Helen Keller was recognized for her work to promote universal brotherhood and greater understanding between the races. Keller supported woman suffrage and child and adult workers’ rights.

Ida B. Wells, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., 1891, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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At the turn of the 20th-century, journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett denounced lynching against African Americans as an attack against African American economic and political advancement.

Miss Emily Greene Balch, Harris & Ewing, photographer, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Internationalist Emily Greene Balch led an interracial delegation to Haiti in 1925 that criticized the American occupation’s impact on race relations and civil liberties and encouraged greater democracy.

Peace Pilgrim, Ray Berry, 1972, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Peace Pilgrim walked more than 25,000 miles not only to oppose war and the arms race, but also to demonstrate peace could arise from the goodwill of people, such as those who helped her on her journey.

Dagmar Wilson, Paul Schmick, Reprinted with permission of the DC Public Library, Star Collection © Washington Post., 1963, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Anti-nuclear activist Dagmar Wilson co-founded a 1960s women’s peace movement that mentored a generation of women activists and argued women had a role to end war and atmospheric nuclear testing that endangered children’s health.

Barbara Deming, Consuelo Kanaga, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Writer and nonviolence activist and practitioner, Barbara Deming believed violence and racism had common roots. A lesbian and feminist, Deming devised a secular model of nonviolence based on respect.

Marii Hasegawa, Irving Wagman, 1966, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Marii Hasegawa and her family were interred during World War II. Hasegawa was President of WILPF during the Vietnam War where she organized protests and led a delegation to North Vietnam.

Elise Boulding, Ikeda Center, 1999, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Elise Boulding, a Quaker, was an early sociologist of peace and conflict. She envisioned a holistic approach to peace: that a peace culture could emerge through spirituality, family dynamics, and peace education.

Bella Abzug, Library of Congress, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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A Jewish American lawyer and U.S. Representative, Bella Abzug worked for peace, women’s rights, racial justice and workers’ rights as a lawyer, politician, and grassroots activist.

Coretta Scott King, Library of Congress, 1976, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Coretta Scott King played a prominent role as a speaker, citizen diplomat, and political strategist in the 1960s women’s peace movements WILPF and the anti-nuclear and anti-war women’s movement Women Strike for Peace.

Joan Baez, NARA, 1963, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Folk music icon, peace educator, founder of the human rights group Amnesty International, Joan Baez has led campaigns against the Vietnam war, the death penalty, U.S. policy in Central American and domestic civil rights.

Holly Near, Irene Young, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Holly Near is an activist folk-singer and pioneering woman record-label owner. Through her music and her organizing Near linked international feminism and anti-war activism.

Jody Williams, Nobel Women's Initiative, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Jody Williams saw the need to coordinate non-governmental organizations in an international protest against landmines. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines successfully drafted a treaty to ban anti-personnel mines.

Kathy Kelly, Alan Pogue, 1998-12, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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Nonviolence practitioner, author, and teacher, Kathy Kelly is a founder of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a group that works in conflict areas to de-escalate violence and build foundation for alternatives to war.

Samantha Smith, From the collection of: National Women’s History Museum
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At a time of large anti-nuclear protests, Samantha Smith, a young citizen diplomat, wrote to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov to understand the Soviet view and spark dialog. She also visited the Soviet Union to promote easing of relations.

800 women strikers for peace (1961) by Phil StanziolaNational Women’s History Museum

American women have displayed great creativity to promote more peaceful international and domestic relations over the last century; consistent throughout is the vision that the foundations of a peaceful world are based in cooperating to address the root causes of violence and injustice.

Credits: Story

National Women's History Museum
https://www.womenshistory.org/

Amy Schneidhorst, Ph.D.

Jeanette Patrick
Program Assistant

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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