Feminism, pacifism, internationalism and the 1915 international congress of women

In a bold protest, women in 1915 took collective action across political boundaries during time of war to establish peace. These courageous women from both warring and neutral nations, committed to suffrage and to peace, made a major contribution for reconceptualizing society as a global system and in enabling the concept of the solidarity of women to hold fast during the turbulent years of World War I. Feminists today can draw upon the teachings of these foremothers: working for peace in times of threat to nationalism will bring censure and penalties. Intensified efforts for peace, as was true in 1915, will release passionate nationalism from many women who do not acknowledge or accept the psychological and ideological link between the forces against peace and those found in other forms of exploitation of women. The theory that peace can be maintained by competing armaments is a fallacy. Peace is more than the absence of war; it requires social change toward economic, social and political justice. Women must refuse to sanction a form of patriotism based on hatred between nations and authority dependent upon force and violence.