Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Eight months after the start of World War I, almost 1,500 women – from neutral and “belligerent” nations – congregated in the Netherlands for four days to discuss how to achieve international peace. From April 28 to May 1, 1915, at the International Congress of Women at The Hague, the participants concurred that international disputes “should be settled by pacific means” and “the parliamentary franchise should be extended to women” who then would have a say in deciding between war or peace. In spite of the fact that travel was made difficult by war, 12 nations participated with the following number of members: Australia, 6; Belgium, 5; Canada, 2; Denmark, 6; Germany, 28; Great Britain, 3 (180 others were prevented from attending due to the closing of the North Sea for military reasons); Hungary, 9; Italy, 1; the Netherlands, 1,000; Norway, 12; Sweden, 12; and the United States, 47. The women who gathered also received messages of solidarity from women from Argentina to Romania. From the outset, the Congress advanced transnational organizing and was the only international meeting, of any kind, during World War I to bring together representatives from both neutral nations and those at war. A spirit of appreciative solidarity was evidenced by both belligerent and neutral nations. Nonetheless, the competing demands of nationalism and internationalism were felt. For example, the French ... log in or subscribe to read full text