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 June 1915 International Woman Suffrage Alliance Congress was scheduled to meet in Berlin. When World War I broke out, the Deutscher Verband für Frauenstimmrecht (German Union for Woman Suffrage) withdrew as host. A notice was published in the December 1914 issue of Jus Suffragii announcing the cancellation. A response to the notice, published in the same issue and written the Dutch pacifist, feminist, and suffragist Aletta Jacobs proposing that the conference be held in the Netherlands, as it was a neutral country. Recognizing that the IWSA could not sponsor a conference to discuss foreign policy and the war during the conflict, Chrystal Macmillan privately communicated to Jacobs, suggesting that individuals and organizations could be invited to an unsponsored convention. [1] : xxxvii–xxviii [2] : 425–426 Many IWSA members, including German leaders Anita Augspurg and Lida Gustava Heymann, echoed the need for a conference and stressed that it should be autonomous so as not to damage the women's movement objectives. [2] : 425, 429
In that regard, Jacobs invited representatives of both sides of the conflict and neutral women to a planning meeting held at Amsterdam early in February 1915. The goal of the congress was to protest the war then raging in Europe, and to suggest ways to prevent war in the future. [1] : xxxix [3] : 146–149 Those present included from Belgium – Flor Burton, Mme. and Mlle. Mulle, and Mme. Van Praag; from Britain – Kathleen Courtney, Emily Leaf, Macmillan, Catherine Marshall, and Theodora Wilson Wilson; from Germany – Augspurg, Heymann, Frida Perlen, and Mme. Von Schlumberger; and twenty-six activists from the Netherlands. [1] : xxxix [Notes 1] A preliminary programme was drafted at this meeting, and it was agreed to request the Dutch women to form a committee to take in hand all the arrangement for the Congress and to issue the invitations. The expenses of the Congress were guaranteed by British, Dutch and German women present who all agreed to raise one third of the sum required. [3] : 146–149
Invitations to take part in the Congress were sent to women's organisations and mixed organisations as well as to individual women all over the world. Each organisation was invited to appoint two delegates. Women only could become members of the Congress and they were required to express themselves in general agreement with the resolutions on the preliminary programme. This general agreement was interpreted to imply the conviction (a) That international disputes should be settled by pacific means; (b) That the parliamentary franchise should be extended to women. [3] : 146–147
The Congress opened on April 28 [4] and was attended by 1,136 participants from both neutral and belligerent nations. [5] The Congress was carried on under two important rules: 1) That discussions on the relative national responsibility for or conduct of the present war and 2) Resolutions dealing with the rules under which war shall in future be carried on, shall be outside the scope of the Congress. [3] : 147 The focus was to remain on establishing peace immediately when the conflict ended and developing lasting peacekeeping measures. [2] : 427
The Congress adopted much of the platform of Woman's Peace Party (WPP), [6] : 68 which had passed at a January convention held in Washington, D.C. The WPP platform included arms limitations, diplomatic mediation of the war, development of legislation and economic policies to prevent war, and creation of an international policing force instead of national militaries. [6] : 63 Among resolutions passed by the attendees were affirmation of the need for peace and for no territorial transfers to be granted in a peace settlement without the consent of the population affected. [7] : 148 Other resolutions called for creation of an international permanent council to peacefully mediate differences between nations, involvement of women in the peace processes, and women's suffrage. [7] : 148–149 [8] : 258–259 Participants at the conference established the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace, subsequently known as the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). [8] : 256, 262 with Jane Addams as president. [6] : 69
There were problems in getting 1200 women together during wartime. The delegation from Britain was trimmed by the Foreign Office to 24 delegates and actually only two (or three) made it to the Hague. Italy only managed one delegate and she was keen to note that she did not represent her country. One woman also came from Canada to represent what was called at the time "the Colonies". [9] Neither France or Russia sent delegations because of the war and the potential that attendance might appear disloyal. [6] : 67 The Belgian delegation arrived late because they had to obtain travel documents from the German authorities of Occupied Belgium, undergo frisking at the border crossing at Essen, Belgium, and then walk two hours to Roosendaal, where they caught a train to The Hague. To reinforce the spirit of cooperation, all five of the Belgian delegates were invited by Augspurg to sit on the rostrum. [10] : 210 Only Eugénie Hamer agreed, with the caveat that she be allowed to address the congress, which was granted. [11] : 52 [2] : 427
Countries represented included the United States, which sent 47 members; Sweden, 12; Norway, 12; Netherlands, 1,000; Italy, 1; Hungary, 9; Germany, 28; Denmark, 6; Canada, 2; Belgium, 5; Austria, 6, and Great Britain, 3, although 180 others from there were prevented from sailing owing to the closing of the North Sea for military reasons. The Congress, which was attended by a large number of visitors as well as by the members, was extremely successful. Proceedings were conducted with the greatest goodwill throughout, and the accompanying resolutions were passed at the business sessions. [3]
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make known the causes of war and work for a permanent peace" and to unite women worldwide who oppose oppression and exploitation. WILPF has national sections in 37 countries.
Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs was a Dutch physician and women's suffrage activist. As the first woman officially to attend a Dutch university, she became one of the first female physicians in the Netherlands. In 1882, she founded the world's first birth control clinic and was a leader in both the Dutch and international women's movements. She led campaigns aimed at deregulating prostitution, improving women's working conditions, promoting peace and calling for women's right to vote.
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 (ICW), The International Alliance of Women (IAW) and The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
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.
During the First World War there were three conferences of the Socialist parties of the non-belligerent countries.
Anita Theodora Johanna Sophie Augspurg was a German jurist, actress, writer, activist of the radical feminist movement and a pacifist.
Dame Kathleen D'Olier Courtney, DBE was a leader in the suffragist movement in the United Kingdom.
Gabrielle Duchêne was a French feminist and pacifist who was active in the French section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
Second Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance was held in Berlin, Germany in June 1904. The main features of the second conference were the formation of "The International Woman Suffrage Alliance," and the adoption of the Declaration of Principles.
The Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance met in Budapest, Hungary, June 15–21, 1913. As had been the case with all the preceding conferences, the location had been chosen to reflect the status of woman suffrage: a place where the prospects seemed favorable and liable to influence public sentiment by demonstrating that it was now a global movement. When it had been announced at the sixth congress that the next one would be held in the capital of Hungary, it was felt that the location seemed very remote, and there were concerns that Hungary did not have representative government. In fact, it proved to be one of the largest and most important conventions. Furthermore, the delegates stopped en route for mass meetings and public banquets in Berlin, Dresden, Prague and Vienna, spreading its influence ever further afield.
Eighth Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance occurred June 6–12, 1920, in Geneva, Switzerland.
Maria (Mia) Boissevain (1878–1959) was a Dutch malacologist and feminist.
International Archives for the Women's Movement was founded in Amsterdam in 1935, as a repository to collect and preserve the cultural heritage of women and make the documents of the movement available for study. The entire collection was stolen by the Nazis in 1940 and only small portions were recovered after the war. In 1988, the part of the archival collection which had not been looted by the Nazis became the foundational collection of the International Information Centre and Archives for the Women's Movement. A substantial portion of the archive was discovered in Moscow in 1992 and returned to Amsterdam in 2003. In 2013, the institution which houses the collection was renamed as the Atria Institute on Gender Equality and Women's History
Cornelia Ramondt-Hirschmann was a Dutch teacher, feminist, pacifist and theosophist active in the first half of the twentieth century. She was one of the women who participated in the push by pacifist feminists during World War I for world leaders to develop a mediating body to work for peace. The culmination of their efforts would be the achievement of the League of Nations when the war ended. Between 1935 and 1937, she served as one of the three international co-chairs of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
Mien van Wulfften Palthe was a Dutch feminist and pacifist. As a member of the Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, she strove to secure enfranchisement for women and worked as an advocate peace.
Eugénie Hamer was a Belgian journalist, writer and activist. Her father and brother served in the Belgian military, but she was a committed pacifist. Involved in literary and women's social reform activities, she became one of the founders of the Alliance Belge pour la Paix par l'Éducation in 1906. The organization was founded in the belief that education, political neutrality, and women's suffrage were necessary components to peace. She was a participant in the 18th Universal Peace Congress held in Stockholm in 1910, the First National Peace Congress of Belgium held in 1913, and the Hague Conference of the International Congress of Women held in the Netherlands in 1915. This led to the creation of the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace, subsequently known as the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Hamer co-founded the Belgian chapter of the WILPF that same year. During World War I, she volunteered as a nurse and raised funds to acquire medical supplies and create an ambulance service.
Rose Morgan French was an American suffragist, temperance and peace activist. She represented California suffragists as a delegate to the International Congress of Women, when it met in The Hague in 1915, and in Zürich in 1919.
Helene Lecher was an Austrian women's rights activist and philanthropist. During World War I she served as a nurse and later as a hospital kitchen administrator, establishing nutrition protocols for patients. Born into a well-to-do family in Vienna, she was tutored at home, learning English, French, German and Italian, as well as art and music. After both her parents died when she was young, she moved with a sister to Prague around 1890 to live with an older brother. There, she studied at the German School and participated in cultural events. She married a physics professor and had a daughter in 1899 but continued to perform in theater and sing at events.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain : J. Addams, E. G. Balch, & A. Hamilton's Women at the Hague: The International Congress of Women and Its Results (1916)