“It’s up to the women”: Women’s Peace Songs for Eleanor Roosevelt

Abstract

Eleanor Roosevelt’s papers in the FDR Presidential Library contain approximately seventy musical works calling for world peace, the lyrics and/or music of which were created by women. Women’s peace songs from the 1930s were often a response to the First Lady’s press and radio statements about peace. They were also influenced by calls for cultural change by activists in the women’s peace movement, represented by the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, groups with which Roosevelt was involved. Compositions about peace typically either featured march-like music and nationalistic imagery or were religious choral works and hymn-like expressions of women’s collective action. Writers sometimes parodied well-known hymns or patriotic songs, providing them with less militaristic texts. Musical offerings for the First Lady reflected women’s desire to assist Roosevelt in her peace efforts, their growing concern about the onset of World War II, and a strong belief in the power of music to help achieve a better world.