Jus Suffragii was the official journal of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, published monthly from 1906 to 1924.
Jus Suffragii was the official journal of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, published monthly from 1906 to 1924.
The International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA), now called the International Alliance of Women, was formed in 1904 in Germany, Berlin, by a group of prominent suffragists from many countries. The IWSA established Jus Suffragii, the official journal of the organisation, in 1906. [1] Its title translates from Latin to "The Right of Suffrage". [2]
The journal published news about the progress of the women's suffrage around the world, in addition to news about various other women's issues, including women leaders, women working in male-dominated fields, women's and children's health, marriage and divorce law, prostitution, women's education, maternity benefits, working conditions and the age of consent. It was published in English in London, and in French in Geneva. Each issue cost 4 pence in the United Kingdom, 4 marks in Germany, or 4 francs in France. [3]
During World War I, Jus Suffragii was edited by Mary Sheepshanks, whose pacifist and feminist direction of the journal caused significant controversy. [3] This began in 1914 when, after war broke out, Jus Suffragii shared its London offices with the International Women's Relief Committee, which had just been formed to provide aid to the hundreds of "enemy" German women who had become stranded in Britain. Sheepshanks apologised in the journal's pages to German and Austrian readers for the lack of news from those countries in what should have been an international journal and appealed to readers in neutral countries where the journal was distributed—Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands—to obtain news about women in the "enemy" countries. The journal was openly criticised by several suffragist leaders, including the president of the IWSA itself, for abandoning its original focus on women's voting rights and launching "an active pacifist campaign". [3] By the end of the war in 1919, however, Sheepshanks and Jus Suffragii received messages of gratitude and praise from around the world. [3]
In 1917, the journal adopted the name The International Woman Suffrage News in addition to its original title. [3] Sheepshanks stepped down as editor in 1920 and the journal ceased publication in 1924, when it was replaced by International Women's News as the IWSA's official periodical. [4]
Carrie Chapman Catt was an American women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. Catt served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900 to 1904 and 1915 to 1920. She founded the League of Women Voters in 1920 and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in 1904, which was later named International Alliance of Women. She "led an army of voteless women in 1919 to pressure Congress to pass the constitutional amendment giving them the right to vote and convinced state legislatures to ratify it in 1920". She "was one of the best-known women in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century and was on all lists of famous American women."
Helena Maria Lucy Swanwick CH was a British feminist and pacifist. Her autobiography, I Have Been Young (1935), gives a remarkable account of the non-militant women's suffrage campaign in the UK and of anti-war campaigning during the First World War, together with philosophical discussions of non-violence.
The International Alliance of Women is an international non-governmental organization that works to promote women's rights and gender equality. It was historically the main international organization that campaigned for women's suffrage. IAW stands for an inclusive, intersectional and progressive liberal feminism on the basis of human rights and liberal democracy, and has a liberal internationalist outlook. IAW's principles state that all genders are "born equally free [and are] equally entitled to the free exercise of their individual rights and liberty," that "women's rights are human rights" and that "human rights are universal, indivisible and interrelated." In 1904 the Alliance adopted gold as its color, the color associated with the women's suffrage movement in the United States since 1867 and the oldest symbol of women's rights; through the Alliance's influence gold and white became the principal colors of the mainstream international women's suffrage movement.
Margaret Ashton was an English suffragist, local politician, pacifist and philanthropist, and the first woman city councillor for Manchester.
The International Congress of Women was created so that groups of existing women's suffrage movements could come together with other women's groups around the world. It served as a way for women organizations across the nation to establish formal means of communication and to provide more opportunities for women to ask the big questions relating to feminism at the time. The congress has been utilized by a number of feminist and pacifist events since 1878. A few groups that participated in the early conferences were The International Council of Women, The International Alliance of Women and The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Helen Bright Clark (1840–1927) was a British women's rights activist and suffragist. The daughter of a radical Member of Parliament, Clark was a prominent speaker for women's voting rights and at times a political realist who served as a mainstay of the 19th century suffrage movement in South West England. A liberal in all senses, Clark aided progress toward universal human brotherhood through her activities in organisations which assisted former slaves and aboriginal peoples.
The Open Christmas Letter was a public message for peace addressed "To the Women of Germany and Austria", signed by a group of 101 British suffragists at the end of 1914 as the first Christmas of the First World War approached. The Open Christmas Letter was written in acknowledgment of the mounting horror of modern war and as a direct response to letters written to American feminist Carrie Chapman Catt, the president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA), by a small group of German women's rights activists. Published in January 1915 in Jus Suffragii, the journal of the IWSA, the Open Christmas Letter was answered two months later by a group of 155 prominent German and Austrian women who were pacifists. The exchange of letters between women of nations at war helped promote the aims of peace, and helped prevent the fracturing of the unity which lay in the common goal they shared, suffrage for women.
Jessie Chrystal Macmillan was a suffragist, peace activist, barrister, feminist and the first female science graduate from the University of Edinburgh as well as that institution's first female honours graduate in mathematics. She was an activist for women's right to vote, and for other women's causes. She was the second woman to plead a case before the House of Lords, and was one of the founders of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Annie Fredrika Furuhjelm was a Finnish journalist, feminist activist, and writer. She was a member of the Parliament of Finland from 1913 to 1924 and again from 1927 to 1929, representing the Swedish People's Party of Finland (SFP). She was the first enfranchised woman in Europe to serve as a delegate to the International Women Suffrage Alliance and the first elected female legislator to speak before the British Parliament.
Wilhelmina Hay Abbott, also known by the name "Elizabeth Abbott," was a Scottish suffragist, editor, and feminist lecturer, and wife of author George Frederick Abbott.
Women at the Hague was an International Congress of Women conference held at The Hague, Netherlands in April 1915. It had over 1,100 delegates and it established an International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP) with Jane Addams as president. It led to the creation of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
The Eighth Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance occurred June 6–12, 1920, in Geneva, Switzerland.
Rosette Susanna "Rosa" Manus (Dutch pronunciation:[roːˈsɛtəsyˈsɑnaːˈroːsaːˈmaːnʏs] was born 20 August 1881 and died either at Auschwitz or Ravensbruck in 1942. She was a Jewish Dutch pacifist and female suffragist and was involved in women's movements and anti-war movements. She served as the President of the Society for Female Suffrage, the Vice President of the Dutch Association for Women's Interests and Equal Citizenship, and was one of the founding members of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom as well as its secretary. She firmly believed that women could work together across the world to bring peace. Although Manus was fairly well known in feminist circles in the 1920s and 1930s, she remains relatively unknown today. She was involved in feminist work for about thirty years during her lifetime and was known as a "feminist liberal internationalist."
Mary Ryott Sheepshanks was a pacifist, feminist, journalist and social worker. She is not to be confused with the author of the same name born in 1931.
The Hungarian Feminist Association was created by Rosika Schwimmer and Vilma Glücklich. The organization pushed for women's equality in Hungary in all spheres of women's life. In addition to pressing for women's suffrage, they drafted replies to modification of the marriage statutes and urged government response to address employment and training for women workers.
Johanne Elisabeth Münter née Johnson (1844–1921) was a Danish writer and women's rights activist.
Martina Kramers (1863-1934) was a Dutch suffragist who was a leader in the International Council of Women and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance as well as in the national feminist movement in the Netherlands. In her various roles, Kramers was an active speaker, writer, and conference organizer for the causes she supported.
Irma Szirmai was a Hungarian pacifist and women's rights activist. One of the founding members of the Feministák Egyesülete, she led its Mother and Child Protection Committee from 1907. She served on the press committee from 1906 to 1913 and was the chair of the interpreters organized to facilitate the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA), held in Budapest in 1913. She also worked as a deputy for the Board of Wards of the state and visited the orphanage and maternity hospital to assist patients and help them with needed services. A committed pacifist, she joined the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) when the organization was formed in 1915. In addition to her work in Hungary, Szirmai attended numerous international congresses of the IWSA and WILPF and served on international committees dealing with women's nationality and unmarried mothers. From 1925, she co-chaired the Feministák Egyesülete but resigned in 1927 when her daughter died. She returned to co-chair the organization in the 1930s. The organization was banned during World War II but was revived by Szirmai in 1946. It was forced by the government to dissolve again in 1949, but continued to operate clandestinely with Szirmai at the helm until her death in 1958.