‘Make pies not war’: Protests by the women's peace movement of the mid 1980s

Abstract

The women's peace movement has a long history in Australia and groups of women have protested since at least World War I. In this paper I discuss the women's peace movement of the mid 1980s and, in particular, the activities of the Western Australian group, Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament, and the Sound Women's Peace Camp held south of Perth in 1984. Radical feminism informed the women's peace movement and was expressed through protests not only against war, but also against other forms of what were considered to be patriarchal violence.