Women and the Peace Movement in Britain - Essay Example

Women did not make an individual contribution to British peace activism until the late twentieth century. To understand the situations that led tothe various peace movements in the twentieth century in Britain, it is important to know the situations in Britain by and large, the changes in the British provinces and in the other countries across the world, particularly America. It is observed that women have been quite instrumental in bringing about the changes that led to full-fledged movements for peace not just in Britain but across the world in the twentieth century. Though very few are counted among the pioneers of these movements, the impact has been phenomenally strong due to their consistent effort which found a base in the earlier century activities and achievements. In the first half of the nineteenth century, Britain and its colonies witnessed a range of changes which defied the age old practices of oppression and suppression. Of them the reform brought by Henry Brougham, the reformist and the then Chancellor and Charles, Lord Grey the then PM in giving the majority of Brits the right to vote to elect their representatives in Parliament, is considered to be the major reform. The Bill had been passed after a long and solitary struggle by Lord Grey for forty long years and finally was brought to see the light of the day when he was joined by Brougham who became the Chancellor and Lord John Russell, both of whom were determined to get the First Reform Bill see the light soon. The Bill was passed finally in 1832 and many of the citizens were able to exercise it. Those who enjoyed the right to vote for the Parliament's representatives were the men who either owned property worth 40 shillings or those who leased a property worth 50. It is observed that in spite of the forty years long struggle to gain the right to vote, women did not gain any mention in the Bill itself or the passing of the Bill [1]. Another major reform that the Brits had achieved was the abolition of slavery across all the British colonies in the year 1833. This reform was particularly supported by the Christian women who had resolved to aid the movement by boycotting the usage of sugar which was the main export from the slave countries as they believed in the Christian philosophy of equality to all humans. This movement was the result of a long effort by William Wilberforce and Brougham along with their accomplices and Christian women in Britain and America as well. It is important to note that this movement to enforce the reform to end slavery in the world, particularly the British colonies, had saved over a half a million African slaves. [1] Another development during the early nineteenth century was in the war front which has been quite active because of some major forces like Britain, Russia, France, Germany and almost all other countries of the world. War was on the verge of becoming the concept for social, political and economic strength for almost all of the countries of the world. Different countries and their respective allies had been taking to war increasingly and aggressively thereby changing the social and political scenarios in the world and thus impacting the economic scenario the most which is the major factor effecting the people, their thinking and their life standards. By the mid - nineteenth century, political reforms had gained much momentum and some of them saw the light of the day after long periods and these reforms had been instrumental in giving the women some freedom from their earlier days of suppression. But still the conditions and the freedom of women was far from being significant [1]. Not all women had been emancipated and the few who were enjoying freedom from the oppressive laws were miniscule even when the 'Custody of Children' bill had been passed in 1839 with much efforts by a much influential Caroline Norton and the then Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. This bill gave the rights to custody of the child below seven years and permission to see the older ones' above seven to the mother who is divorced from her husband. Though this bill was in a direction to empower women in the times when there was little equality enjoyed by women, it was among the first steps to women empowerment and women liberation to play an active role in the society [2]. Also, the reform bill passed in the year 1869 enabling some women, particularly the unmarried women who paid tax as they were not represented by a spouse, to vote for the local elections to choose the representative in Parliament is counted as another major step towards increased say of women in the activities of the state. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, married women were given property rights under the 'Married Women's Property Act' and ultimately the voting rights to those who owned property. This was apart from the right of single women and widows who could inherit property and hence as a result earn the right to vote. The right to vote still evaded the majority of the women of the country. The inequality meted out to the women at large and women who did not own any property made them the sufferers of and were still in poverty to even think of anything like playing an active role in any of the movements for reforms. However, a very small group of women were involved in the movements to bring reforms in Britain and other countries and they were more educated and liberated than the majority who were forced to live in poverty and be abused. Millicent Fawcett was one among the educated and the first woman doctor in Britain who had been very active and had a key role to play in advocating for women's rights and education. She played an important role in the 'Women Suffrage Movement' for fifty long years which extended well into the early twentieth century. Also, along the same period, John Stuart Mill's argument that "the legal sub-ordination of one sex to the other is wrong itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement" in his essay "The Subjection of Women" had clearly and without prejudice put forth the importance of the role of women in building the society and the human development at large. He further argued that the ill-treatment meted out to the women by way of inequality "ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, or disability on the other." Consequently, the increased assault on inequality to women resulted in women gaining even more rights and as a result, freedom. The married women's right to vote and inherit property, matchbox girls gaining fair employment facilities in terms of higher wages and lesser working hours were but a few of the more trend-setting reforms of the times. These reforms had led to other workers in coal miners and dock workers to demand a fair treatment and higher wages [2]. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, British women started enjoying more freedom and independence and earn respect as an individual, which ultimately would lead them to gain more self-confidence and enhanced enlightenment and awareness towards their own well-being and the society's interests as well. They slowly have made advances in a direction which would then lead them to achieve a more important role to play in the formation of the government, in choosing the representatives for the Parliament and also gain the support of the men in earning equal rights in all spheres of life. A major achievement towards this direction had been the earning of voting rights in the British dominion of Australia and finally the right to candidacy in elections in this country. It was the first time for women to vote in any election and also the first of its kind to allow women contestants in an election at the local as well as national level. Though these achievements were outside Britain, the reforms were framed by the British government in those occupations and involved much from very few activists and reformists to bring about eternal change in the conditions of women and humans in general [3]. Also, these movements had gained the support of men and the majority in the government as well as other countries particularly America and were increasingly gaining popularity and momentum around the globe. One such popular movement was the Suffrage movement by both the British and American women at around the same times which later recognised each other and after much struggle, were successful in making the movement a global movement and play a major role in determining women's contribution to the world peace and human rights. During the Suffragette movement, the British women fought for the right to vote for the Parliament and in the early twentieth century, much of the struggle was to gain voting rights for all women. The women had aggressively campaigned for the same and prominent among the activists were Emmeline Prankhurst and her two daughters who established the 'Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) who along with other members of the union vigorously fought for the voting rights by hunger strikes, courting arrests, etc. This was until the outbreak of World War I when these Suffragettes started to focus on the peace efforts instead of the women's rights with an intention to save their country. In Emmeline's words, "What would be the good of a vote without a country to vote in" [4] it can be understood that the women though without the rights due to them, were confident and aware of their role in the society to build and nurture it. On another occasion, Emmeline is quoted as saying to the court on her arrest, "We are here because we are not law breakers; but we are here in our efforts to become lawmakers" [5]. They also seemed to be gaining increasing support from the men and members of government who started recognising the importance of their women in keeping the country together and to sustain. The decision of the Suffragettes to abandon the fight for voting rights and focus on supporting the peace movement during the war was the beginning of their involvement and active support to the peace movements of the century which witnessed two major wars. In Britain, all the Suffragettes were released from the prison and many joined the peace movement to end the war and nurse the wounded and affected. Also, this decision of theirs' started gaining them the increased recognition and support to their cause. Post war, the British women's contribution to the peace movement during the war is acknowledged and the government gives all women above thirty the right to vote. At the same time in the early twentieth century, peace movements in British colonies in India and elsewhere gain momentum and put themselves on the path to freedom [6]. In the early years of the century, after years of persuasion, the Nobel Peace prize was created and the woman behind the idea Bertha Von Suttner who persuaded Alfred Nobel to create the prize won it in 1905 [7]. By the end of the First World War in 1914, women earned their rightful position in the society due to their significant role in the peace initiatives across the globe, of which the British and American women had a major role to play. By this time, women had gained increasing recognition for their role in the society and some of them enjoyed equal rights too. During this time, two women from the opposite sides of warring nations and members of the Suffragettes in their respective countries, Hungary and Britain, formed "Women's International Liberation Peace Front (WILPF)" which focussed on peace efforts in the war hit regions. According to the writer in the article "War and Gender: How Gender shapes the war system and vice versa", the 'Women's Peace Party (WPP)' members "turned a good deal of their energies, in the midst of the suffrage campaign - which they did not abandon - to address the causes and cures of war" [5]. The peace movements brought women from different nations, class and race to unite and discuss their contribution to the peace in the world. Among these were women with varied interests; writers, educationists, reformists and doctors, etc. and had affiliations with feminist, pacifist and suffragist ideologies. Although most of the feminists were also pacifists, some remained loyal to their age old culture of segregation based on class, race and nationality. All the women have been instrumental in tirelessly working for world peace. There also have been an increasing number of organisations to achieve peace and disarmament during the twentieth century and most of them gained prominence after the end of World War I. Some of the important committees which gained importance through their role in bringing peace in the war ridden world and the new committees formed to address the causes and cures of war along with war prevention had all witnessed women playing major roles and most of them were from Britain and America. The committees included the United Nations, League of Nations, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) formed by Women's Peace Party (WPP), Women's Committee for World Disarmament, Women's Peace Union (WPU), National Committee for Cause and Cure of War (NCCCW), Women for Peace, Women Waging War, Women Against Military Madness [8], and the three important organizations formed by transnationalists which are Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and War Resistor's League (WRL) [9]. The organisations formed immediately after the World War I were the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) which is an extension of the Women's Peace Party and its main objective of inception was to "protest the killing and destruction of the war raging Europe" when it was formed in 1915. Later, the WILPF included many more agendas to its chart and these can be found on the official website. The committee proposes simple agenda for peace and disarmament in the world and laid down some of the aims like "bringing together women of different political beliefs and philosophies who are united in their determination to study, make known and help abolish the causes and the legitimization of war; to work toward world peace; total and universal disarmament; the abolition of violence and coercion in the settlement of conflict and their substitution in every case of negotiation and conciliation; the strengthening of the United Nations system; the continuous development and implementation of international law; political and social equality and economic equity; co-operation among all people; and an environmentally sustainable development". Also "furthering non- violent means for the social and economic transformation of the international community to enable the establishment of economic and social systems in which political equality and social justice for all can be attained, without discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, or any other grounds whatsoever; believing that under systems of exploitation these aims cannot be attained and a real and lasting peace and true freedom cannot exist, seeing as its ultimate goal the establishment of an international economic order founded on the principles of meeting the needs of all people and not on those of profit and privilege, work on issues of peace, human rights and disarmament at the local, national and international levels, participating in the ongoing international debates on peace and security issues, conflict prevention and resolution, on the elimination of all forms of discrimination, and the promotion and protection of human rights". It is noted that this organization analyses these issues, and educates, informs and mobilizes women to act through its many activities. [10] In April 1915, the British women were joined by American, German and other nationalities to discuss the causes and prevention of war. The British women along with others had braved the government to attend the international Congress of Women at Hague which was chaired by Jane Addams the then chairperson of WILPF [11]. Chrystal Macmillan, Katheleen Courtney, Emily Leaf and Theodora Wilson were among the British women who were active in the Hague meeting. Chrystal Macmillan played the role of chairperson for the International Women's Relief Committee and sent relief to Belgium in resistance to war. She was also instrumental in arranging The Hague meeting of the European and other pacifists to discuss the peace organizations concerns of arbitration, foreign policy control and need for disarmament. She extensively wrote to all the members to attend the meeting in order to be able to bring about a policy concerning the success of the peace movement [12]. Also, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, olive Schreiner and Millicent Fawcett were more prominent in Britain because of their views and writings on some of the issues concerning war and human rights. Schreiner in her essay 'Women and War' linked motherhood and peace and Gilman in her magazine 'The Forerunner' attacked patriarchal institutions for being responsible for war [12]. The outcome of The Hague and other similar meetings in London and Holland led to an organized peace movement further. Another peace movement meeting of WILPF was held in 1922, 1924, 1929, 1931 and 1932 under the leadership of Jane Addams and she was also co-awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932. In the recent meetings, the cause and cure for war was extensively discussed and the League of Nations also made Peace its important agenda and had the support of the women's league in this effort. After 1932, the League of Nations started focusing on disarmament and the women organizations actively propagated the agenda for the meet in 1932 by circulating a petition across most of the countries, involving the students and women in marching for the cause to persuade the governments to consider disarmament as important, gathering signatures to the extent of ten million, marching for peace. This was a big event in that even the religious organizations by women had joined with the belief that "international friendship can be attained by creating goodwill based on Christian principles of justice and with political and economic co-operation to attain it" [12]. Maude Royden, a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) published her first pacifist pamphlet, The Great Adventure: The Way to Peace in which she advocates the non-violent action which could have helped Britain during German attacks. She observed that "We could have called for the peace-lovers in the world to fling themselves-if need be-in front of the troop trains. If millions of men will go out to offer their lives up in war, surely there are those who would die for peace! and if not men, we could have called out women!" [13]. In spite of all the support and movement after the First World War, the peace movement was inefficient in preventing the onset of another World War. Some of the nations like Japan and Germany withdrew from the League of Nations. And the women peace activists were inactive and needed to realign their preferences. During World War II, more women join the peace movements with their own views and approaches to the peace activism. Prominent among them was the English writer and feminist Vera Brittain who became a member of the Peace Pledge Union owing to her intense Christian faith and disinterest in the League of Nation's internationalization. She showed more inclination to be associated with the peace movements owing to her humanist outlook than being a feminist. She exhaustively used her writing and oratory skills in during World War II. She was the leader of the Union and would publish 'Letters to Peace Lovers' during the war to express her views on the war in which the Peace Pledge Union criticized the government's bombing of the Nazi areas. She was a strong opponent of the nuclear war and joined other writers in 1957 to form a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) [13]. Vera Brittain used her writing skills to publish a few books on the history of women's peace movements among which 'Letters to Peace Lovers' (1939), 'Testament of Experience' (1953) and 'Lady into Women' are more popular (1979). She says in 'Letters to Peace Lovers "The disappearance of Herr Hitler will probably lead instead to a revolutionary situation in Germany, controlled by puppets who own allegiance to another Power. We, the democracies, will still be faced by totalitarianism, in a form less clumsy but no less aggressive, and even more sinister in its ruthless unexhausted might." In 'Testament of Experience' she questions "Was not the unthinking acceptance of an aggressive or short-sighted national policy, followed by mass-participation in sociable war-time activities, one of the ingredients which created a militant psychology and made shooting wars possible..." but these views did not down well with the government agencies [14]. Though the disarmament movement was ended with the outbreak of World War II, after the war the peace activism again tool a leap and the Women's International Democratic Federation had been formed. This organization strongly advocated the cause of peace and disarmament while supporting the women and children affected during war. After the end of World War II, the two most powerful nations of the world, United States of America and the Soviet Union again engaged in a Cold War. This saw the surging of the peace demonstrations across the world. After the World War II, the British women's literature had been used to impact the peace movements. Their writings are found to be inquiring theoretically the involvement and the outcomes of the militarizing the world, though they are found to lean towards supporting their country's militaristic ideology. Maude Royden (1876-1956) was one of the activists for Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and she put her efforts to convince men and women in Britain to form a Peace Army to intervene non-violently between the warring nations during the World War II. But it was to be a great disappointment to her and she had to compromise on her pacifism. Another writer Simone Weil (1909-43) published her "Reflections on War" in La Critique Sociale magazine in November 1933 where she criticised the governments taking their people to war and noted that they were the real enemies of the people of the country as they lead them to destruction like in any war . Another of her essay which is considered the powerful of all, is the "The Power of Words" in which she observes "What a country calls its vital economic interests are not the things which enable its citizens to live, but the things which enable it to make war; petrol is much more likely than wheat to be a cause of international conflict. Thus when war is waged it is for the purpose of safeguarding or increasing one's capacity to make war" [13]. However, she also wrote about the idea of 'decentralised armed resistance' to resist invasion. In 1951, WIPLF bought the non-violent strategies from Gandhi and in 1961 under the leadership of Dagmar Wilson who was particularly influenced by Linus Pauling, Bertrand Russell, and Albert Einstein's ideas joined the committee of Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE) and led the women in a one day strike to 'end the arms race and not the human race' by saying "We strike against death, desolation, destruction and on behalf of life and liberty" during the cold war. Also a year later, the Women Strike for Peace (WSP) called for a boycott of milk over increased concerns over the contamination during nuclear testing by the US and USSR. The WSP was successful in convincing the United Nations to sign the Partial Tests Ban Treaty which prohibited nuclear testing on the land. By the eighties, women's peace movement had established long ago as an international movement and the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) reported the peace movements celebrating the Action for Disarmament by USSR and establishing their offices at Greenham Common in England and at Seneca in New York. Also, according to WIDF, "in the spring of 1982 women demonstrated for peace in Angola, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Finland, West Germany (800,000 citizens), East Germany (77,000 women), Great Britain (100,000), Greece, Italy, Japan (30,000 in Tokyo on Easter), Yemen, Mauritius, Mozambique (20,000 women), Nicaragua (100,000), Netherlands, New Zealand (20,000 women), Poland, Soviet Union, Sweden, and the USA" [13]. A statistical analysis by Ruth Sivard showed that the US and the USSR were spending almost 60% of the world's defence expenditure while they accounted only to 11% of the world's population. SANE along with other volunteers urged the US and USSR to enable peaceful resolution of the conflict of cold war by the United Nations and other organisations to implement the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They further urged these nations to declare that the "real enemies are hunger, disease, racism, poverty, inequality, injustice, and violence, that by a partnership among all nations the systems of war could be dismantled and replaced by systems of peace and justice using non-violent means and that a comprehensive security would include the political, economic, military, humanitarian, cultural, and environmental spheres and affirmed that no nation has the right to intervene in the internal affairs of other nations" [13]. Towards the end of the century, Jody Williams and Princess Diana along with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) had worked to get 121 nations to sing the Mine Ban treaty which is estimated to ban the use of antipersonnel landmines which amounted to about 200million landmines across the world and had the potential to kill without discrimination. Hence, it is observed that almost all of the women's contribution to British Peace Activism was in the twentieth century which gained impetus by the drastic changes or reforms in the society during the nineteenth century. Bibliography - 1. Liberty! The Timeline, 20th Century 1800 -1833, Published by David Abbott and Catherine Glass in Brits at their best, < http://www.britsattheirbest.com/freedom/f_time_19th_1800_1833.htm>. 2. Liberty! The Timeline, 20th Century 1834 -1849, Published by David Abbott and Catherine Glass in Brits at their best, < http://www.britsattheirbest.com/freedom/f_time_19th_century_1834_1849.htm>. 3. Liberty! The Timeline, 20th Century 1850 -1899, Published by David Abbott and Catherine Glass in Brits at their best, < http://www.britsattheirbest.com/freedom/f_time_19th_century_1850_1899.htm>. 4. Liberty! The Timeline, 20th Century 1900 -1938, Published by David Abbott and Catherine Glass in Brits at their best < http://www.britsattheirbest.com/freedom/f_time_20th_1900_1938.htm>. 5. War and Gender: How Gender shapes the war system and vice versa, Joshua S. Goldstein, Cambridge University Press, September 2001. 6. Liberty! The Timeline, 20th Century 1900 -1938, Published by David Abbott and Catherine Glass in Brits at their best < http://www.britsattheirbest.com/freedom/f_time_20th_1939.htm>. 7. "Heroines of Peace - The Nine Nobel Women*", by Irwin Abrams, Antioch University, 22 September 1997 < http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/heroines/index.html>. 8. The Women's Peace Movement and Feminism in WWI, Park Jinyoung, Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, 2007 9. Vincent Kavaloski, , "MOVEMENT TOWARD PEACE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: INTERNATIONALISTS AND TRANSNATIONALISTS", Journal for the Study of Peace and Conflict < http://jspc.library.wisc.edu/issues/1999-2000/article2.html>. 10. "WILPF throughout the years", . 11. Women and Peace: The Legacy, by Blanche Wiesen Cook , Ms. Magazine 2008, http://www.msmagazine.com/winter2006/legacy.asp>. 12. "Cross-Currents in the International Women's Movement: 1848-1948", Patricia Ward D'Itri, Published by Popular Press. 13. Women and Peace, Ruth Roach Pierson, Published by Routledge http://www.san.beck.org/GPJ28-WomenforPeace.html. 14. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWletters.htm Read More