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Against the background of the bloody Great War then raging in Europe, Jane Addams and Carrie Chapman Carr summoned together a conference of 3000 women in Washington, D.C. to call for peace, the limitation of armaments, nationalization of weapons manufacture, opposition to militarism in culture and government, and economic sources of conflict. Jane Addams served as the first chairman of the new Woman's Peace Party.
Representatives of the WPP participated in the International Congress of Women in April 1915 held in The Hague. Addams chaired the Hague Congress and oversaw the creation of an International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP). The WPP would become the U.S. Section of the ICWPP at the latter organization's first annual meeting in January 1916. The Second International Congress of Women was held in May 1919 in Zurich, Switzerland as the great powers met to determine the final terms of peace in Paris. The ICW was critical of the sanctions regime of the Versailles Treaty and sought universal free trade, arms reductions with parity for all powers, and a world league that represented all people. The delegates decided to form a more permanent organization and the ICWPP became the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). The new organization chose Jane Addams as its international president and Emily Green Balch as secretary-treasurer to run its new headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
The U.S. Section of WILPF was headquartered in New York City and later Washington, D.C. in November 1921. By 1924, the U.S. Section had 26 branches with a membership of 6,000. State and local branches varied in overall membership and level of activity, but most groups promoted "methods for the attainment of that peace between nations which is based on justice and good will and to cooperate with women from other countries who are working for the same ends." WILPF requested that the United States Government release political prisoners and conscientious objectors in January 1920. The group was an early advocate of U.S. recognition of the Bolshevik government in Russia. WILPF was an active proponent of efforts to outlaw war as it strongly supported the Kellogg-Briand Pact of August 1928. The emergence of fascism in the 1930s would prove more divisive to the organization as some members sought collective security while a majority continued to pursue complete neutrality.
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom continues to be an active organization in the United States and around the world. World War II saw the group defending civil liberties, supporting the rights of conscientious objectors, and seeking the abrogation of unfair laws and practices that affected the welfare of minorities.
WILPF was a pioneer for other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as it obtained formal recognition from the United Nations. Emily Greene Balch, international president of WILPF in 1946, received the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor shared by only one other American woman, Jane Addams. Supported by affiliated organizations such as the Committee for World Development and World Disarmament (CWDWD) and the Jane Addams Peace Association (JAPA), the U.S. Section of WILPF pursued peace and disarmament throughout the Cold War.
Bibliography:
Barr, Eleanor, "Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Collection (DG043)," [Finding Aid] http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/peace/Dg026-050/dg043wilpft/history.htm,(198 )
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Collection includes correspondence, brochures, pamphlets, materials for the Jane Addams Centennial, and miscellaneous items.
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Women's International League for Peace and Freedom collection, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago
Released on 2020-03-18.