ABSTRACT
This essay focuses on women’s international peace activism in the interwar period. It explores the increased prominence given to peace by the three major international women’s organizations of the day: the International Council of Women (ICW, formed in 1888), the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA, formed in 1904; later known as the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship or simply International Alliance of Women, IAW), and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF, formed in 1915 during a time of a deteriorating geopolitical relationships). The essay shows how the compelling matters of war and peace caused disagreements among women activists, yet also resulted in greater collaboration among them, for example through the establishment of new associations and ways of organizing. The essay contributes to the gender analysis of internationalisms of the interwar period. It demonstrates how the peace question resulted in new commitments to what was described by historical actors as humanism, understood as the care for all humanity and everyone’s right to determine his or her own goals and values. It also highlights the renewed focus on rights in the era, which laid important foundations for future developments regarding human rights, particularly women’s human rights.
