American and British Women Peace Activists

Abstract

Abstract American and British women peace activists in the nineteenth century were members of organized peace groups from 1815 onward. They worked with male activists but were rarely allowed leadership positions. Some men blamed the female sex for the continuation of war as an institution. As a result, some women formed women-only groups to work against war. They networked with other women peace and social reform activists to achieve their goals. To make their ideas public many published short stories, poems, hymns, essays, and pamphlets through women’s magazines and the reform press. These writers often emphasized how war and militarization of society negatively affected women, children, and families. Women often connected this to other social issues, such as economic deprivation, mental illness, sexual violence, and slavery and racial violence. Some peace women connected their own lack of a voice in public affairs to the continuation of war.