Transcripts For CSPAN3 Global History Of The 19th Amendment 20240711

Rates in the wave of the horrors of the great war. And at some of these women who are attending 1919 1920 press conference, helped push president Woodrow Wilson to support the 19th amendment. The National World War One Museum hosted this event and provided the video. It is such a pleasure to cooperate with the museum and i am thankful to laura for reaching up to me and making this program possible. I have about 45, 50 minutes of stories and information that i am excited to share with you. I do very much hope that you will pose whatever questions you have. I dont always have the answers but i will certainly give it my best shot. So, the cover that you are looking at there on your screens, the cover of my most recent book, peace on our terms. It is fundamentally tied to the history of world war i which makes this collaboration so important to me. My back as a snapshot of a singular moment in history. Almost exactly 100 years ago, as the world finally began accident from the devastation from the first world war, and was able to begin both dreaming and planning for the peace and the new world that would come afterwards. At this, moment i shall read in my book women from farreaching and incredibly diverse parts of the world began stepping onto the global stage and asserting and objective of womens rights and gender equality. At the core, demanding the rate of women to help shape this new world order and transform it into something so fundamentally different from whats had given week two world were one. My book is a story of women from north america, from europe, asia, and the middle east. It is a history of white, wealthy women, and also sometimes desperately poor, working class women. It is a story of women that were married to tremendously supportive husbands, and also women that engaged in lifelong single sex relationships. It is a story of white women, and women of color. A story of christians, muslims, hindus, choose, it women that profess no religion at all. It is a story of women from powerful, global empires, as well as subjugated and powerless colonies. I argue that at the end of world war one in 1919, these pioneering female activists transformed womens rights into a global rally cry. And its a rallying cry that continues to reverberate around the world right up until the present day. Now here in the United States, we are actually very focused, many of us anyway are very focused on this moment 100 years ago, because it marks a imported anniversary in our own National History which is the passage and ratification of the 19th amendment of the constitution, which granted women the right to vote. And that kind of begs that question. If these two things happened at roughly the same time, women gained the right to vote in the United States, and global feminists began to speak out and establishment when and where these two things related . Were they intercepted . The answer is absolutely yes. And, so while might book is not specifically a story of American History, the stories recorded in it, i think, have a very Important Message about American History and about the 19th amendment. Which is that this long battle of women who had fought for economics, racial, and Political Rights in this country are embedded in a Global Movement that was designed to secure the equality and humanity of half the population it serves. In particular, might book in this talk tonight are going to emphasize the fact that american women through the passage of the 19th amendment, at least in small part owe it to foreign women. To their International Sisters who brought pressure on americans, and particularly the american president , Woodrow Wilson, to give up to his own rhetoric of american democracy. The other thing that my book explains is why some american women in this moment in 1919 to 1920, just as the movement to his suffrage was reaching its climax and it looked like it was finally got to pass the senate and move on to the states for ratification. At this critical moment, why is it that quite a few dedicated american suffragists decided to leave the United States and go advocate for womens rights, abroad, instead of here at home . This was particularly true of women who found themselves on the margins of the american severed movement. It includes pacifist women. It includes working class labor suffragists. And it also includes a fairly large number of African American suffragists. So for our top today, i want to zero in on the global history of the 19th amendment, and in the process introduce you to some of the pioneering womens rights activists who are featured in my book, and who made this post rope were one period such a watershed for womens rights, both here in america, and also around the world. Because i am a historian i always have to trace back in time. Well start our story in 1940 just before the outbreak of the first world war. At that point in, time there were very few women anywhere in the world who enjoyed the right to vote at the federal level, at the national level. In fact there were only four countries in the world that had granted women the right to vote by 1914. The first country to break that threshold was new zealand, as you can see this photo on the screen, women fought tenaciously for the right to vote in new zealand in the late 19th century, and in 1893 they want that right. And very interestingly and importantly, it was a right, that wasnt qualified by wealth or education level. And it also enfranchised white women and indigenous miry women at the same time. That was the first country to stabless womens right to vote at the national level. Shortly after australia granted white women the right to vote. And then also prior to world war i, both finland and norway had established the right to vote at the national level. That was about it. Now Suffrage Movements had been growing steadily in the years leading up to world war i. That is most famously truer in great britain, and the United States, where suffragists were getting headlines, and attention for increasingly militant tactics, including heckling speakers, in staging merch is out and public, demanding womens right to vote. But this was in no way uniquely in anglophone phenomenon. In fact, by the earliest 21st century women in the show are beginning to establish, certainly individual suffragists are beginning to speak out, and movements were beginning to form as well. In china for example, women were very involved in the revolutionary movement that overthrew a change dentist in 1911. And i can 12, when the First Provisional Parliament met and china to try to establish what the new constitution would be, women were not invited, but they broke their way into the meeting hall, and they smashed some windows to get the attention of men and had to be forcibly removed. They refused to quiet down. Also in the early 20th century, in the british empire, women from india were also beginning to call for both a home rule in india, and share in the political responsibilities and. Media and during world war one in 1917, indians have urges put forward the first formal request for the franchise during world war i. It was also true in continental europe, that womens Suffrage Movements had been growing exponentially. And this photograph is taken in paris. You might recognize the background scenery there. Somewhat movingly, this photograph was taken in july, 1914, so just several weeks before world war i broke out. And this was the first major public demonstrations that french suffragists staged and demanding the vote. And i want to point out particularly and scream, the woman and the front row in the middle is wearing a white blouse and a fantastically feathered hat on her head. That women is a woman by the name of margaret. She was the head of the largest french suffragists organization in france. At the outset of world war i. She will play a role in the story, i will tell it in just a moment, so i want to do to recognize her face. When world war i broke out in 1914, Suffrage Movements, not everywhere, but by and large halted their activism in order that women might turn their attention to war work that their nations were calling upon them to complete. And for 1914 through 1980, 18, women in the war nation stepped into all kinds of social, economic, and even political roles that have been considered rightfully meant spheres up to that point. The pictures on the screen represent just a few of the different types of Economic Activity that women engaged in that was little to supporting the war. Efforts looking back at the screen you can see two british ambulance drivers that shuttled Wounded Soldiers from the front lines to some of the immediate hospitals, and triage stations. Women were also vital as farmers. They took over family farms. But also large, commercial firms as. Well and the picture in the center of the screen is celebrating female farm workers in france. You can see also on the top row, women that began working in munitions factories by the tens of thousands. Engineering chemicals. And finally, at the bottom there women by the tens of thousands who volunteered to serve as nurses, many of them for the red cross providing vital medical aid. When all these women shared in common was that the work they were doing was considered to be absolutely vital and fundamental to the nation. They were told what they were doing was not only important to their families, but to their countries. That gave them a new sense of competence and a new sense of citizenship. The United States did not initially join world war i. In fact, Woodrow Wilson had campaigned on the promise that he had kept america out of the war and would continue to do so. But in april of 1917 nonetheless, wilson went before the American Congress and requested a declaration of war on the central powers. That is to say germany, austria hungry and in the ottoman empire. He did so insisting that american boy should put their lives on the line because the world must be kept safe for democracy. American suffragists had to decide how to respond to this declaration of war. In fact, they split. On one hand, the american wing of the American Suffrage Movement led by alice paul and the National Womens party, continue to prioritize their campaign for the vote. They said theres no reason for us to put it to the side. All the more reason to amp up pressure. And so on the lower right hand side of the screen there, you see one of the many women who stood sentinel outside the white house. Insisting that wilson should not be preaching democracy to the rest of the world while day the crying denying to democracy at home. These are women who served hard time in prison for their refusal to back down. The majority of suffragists however followed the lead of the National Women suffragists association. The leader is the woman all in white with the American Flag on her sleep. She thought that it would be whove suffered just to throw their support behind the war and show, through their dedication and their patriotism, that women were ready for the full responsibilities of citizenship. Now, historians had been arguing for years which of these two groups, the militants or the moderates, were more responsible for finally convincing Woodrow Wilson to support suffrage after a lifetime of opposing it. Also, turning the majority of the public and male politicians to supporting the 19th amendment. What my book shows is that, another force was at work in addition to these two that pushed Woodrow Wilson and others to finally endorse a federal amendment. This force was foreign women. Women from abroad who took Woodrow Wilson at his word when he said this was going to be a war fought for democracy. They indicated to him that america would never be seen as a democracy abroad unless democracy was established here at home. We need to understand that when Woodrow Wilson spoke publicly during world war i, he was never just addressing an american public. His words and his speeches were carried all over the world. In fact, the United States created its first modern propaganda wing, the committee of public information, specifically to make sure that Woodrow Wilsons words made headlines all cross the globe. They made the front pages of newspapers as we can see in this french paper on the screen. Other historians have noted that, in places that wilson could scarcely imagine, his words were taken as a sign of support for liberation and anti colonialism in places as far away as egypt and colonial vietnam and china. Nationalists listened to him when he said this world war must create the conditions for National Self determination and of democracy. What my Research Shows is that women were paying just as much attention as these male nationalists were. And more than that, they were strategizing and acting in order to make sure that wilson was going to follow up on is words with tangible action. In this effort, still in the midst of world war i, margaret, the french suffragists i pointed out to you earlier, was the first to see that wilson might prove to be the key to establishing womens right to vote. Not just here in the United States, but all over the world. And so in 1917, she began sending out letters in the midst of the war to other women from other allied nations in north america and australia, saying lets write a letter to wilson and lets get him to commit. Lets get him to go public with this idea that womens rights are integral to the peace. So on the screen you are seeing a portion of the draft of the letter in and that underlined part, which was underlined in the original, says to wilson that the women from the allied countries have eight wish. We want president wilson in one of his upcoming messages to proclaim the principle of womens suffrage to be a fundamental pillar of future international law. We want you to go public. We want you to say not just in america, but all over the world. Womens suffrage needs to be part of this democracy. They got the letter together by early 1918. It took a little while to get into wilsons hands, that having to do with the complications of the American Suffrage Movement, which i can explain if you are interested. But finally, in the spring of 1918, Carrie Chapman cat gave this letter to Woodrow Wilson. Much to her shot, he immediately responded. This response he sent off to the suffragists in europe, but he also gave permission for it to be published. On the left of your screen you can see on the New York Times article, covering wilsons response. So he gave two french women, you can read along with me, i have read your message with the utmost interest and i would love the opportunity to say that i agree without reservation that the full insincere democratic reconstruction of the world for which we are striving, and for which we are determined to bring about at any cost, will not have been completely or adequately attained until women are admitted to the suffrage. Man, amazing. Those women had him now publicly on front pages of newspapers saying i support womens suffrage as a fundamental pillar of this new peace settlement. And then american women had extra reason to be excited because he added a paragraph just for them, that is highlighted at the bottom of the paragraph there. As for america, it is my hope that the senate of the United States will give an unmistakable answer to this question, passing the suffrage amendment to our federal constitution before the end of the session. This was not the very first time that wilson had publicly endorsed a federal amendment, but it was one of the first. This pressure coming from abroad was part of what was on his mind as he finally made that decision. In france and in europe, women were elated as well. They sent it out to all of the press agencies and got this in the newspapers as well. And so wilson was now on record. Right . He was on record saying he supported womens suffrage as a pillar of this new democratic world order. European allied suffragists now had this as a tool in their tool chest and were ready to bring it out as soon as the war was over. Chapter one of my book chronicles the lobbying campaign that womens rights activists waged in paris during the paris peace conference, the negotiations that came at the end of world war i, with all of the allied governments, but with Woodrow Wilson in particular throughout these long months of negotiating. French and european feminists were at the epicenter of this push. So we are back to marguerite de wittschlumberger, was still active in scheming and planning. This is the letter she sent to Woodrow Wilson on january 18th, 1919. That was the opening day of the paris peace conference. Get him right at the beginning there. She reminded him of his promises that he had made publicly during the war. And writing on behalf of french feminists, she says we would beg of you to use your immense influence for introducing womens suffrage together with other world questions necessary to discuss at the peace conference. They asked him to again publicly express his sympathy, as she wrote there, for the more half for the more than half of humanity, represented by women, who in so many countries were condemned to a cruel and unjust silence of denial by boat. They did not just want a pledge from wilson, they wanted some tangible actions. This letter kind of informed him of one thing and then asked him for another. It informed him that french feminists were convening a conference of suffragists in paris to help make sure that they were listened to during this peace process. Then she also asked Woodrow Wilson if they could meet with him facetoface at his earliest convenience. Wilson, as you might imagine, was a pretty busy man at the beginning of the paris peace conference. He had dozens and dozens of people knocking on his door and asking for his time and attention. He could easily have dismissed this and brush it off, but he didnt. He wrote back and gave them in appointment. And sure enough, less than two weeks later on january 27th, he met privately with and other french suffragists who insisted their plans must not be forgotten in the strive for peace. He said, quote, it would seem impossible to me to refuse to listen to women after the service they render during the war. Would ever it is within my power to do for them, i will do. So french feminists were again elated and prepared to convene this conference of suffragists to hold wilson to his word. This conference first gathered on february 10th, 1919 in paris. These are just some of the allied women who participate itd participated. You can go on the shelves of bookstores or libraries covering the paris peace conference and may find these women mentioned in a sentence or perhaps in a footnote, but that is about it. Reducing their lobbying effort to a sideshow in the greater diplomatic history of the war. I think this is a huge mistake. The Pressure Campaign that womens activists waged was serious and relentless. This conference went nonstop or two months running in 1919. Its successes would be critical to womens growing ability to Shape International policy in the 20th century, and its shortcomings would really help explain why International Relations has remained such a male dominated profession right up to the present day. This inter allied womens conference, as they call themselves, demanded a voice for women in peace negotiations, and they also laid out a long agenda of items that they thought needed to be addressed by the piece ethel meant if the diplomats really wanted to create a lasting and stable Peaceful World order. Their demands right included womens right to vote and ability to hold office. We wanted womens suffrage to be recognized as members of the new world government, the league of nations, which would later give way to the united nations. They wanted recognition of womens economic rights including equal pay for equal work, and they called for an international denunciation of violence against women and girls in wartime, including rape and forced deportation. This last issue became very important to them in february of 1919, when a woman came to paris who was a survivor of the armenian genocide, or the attempted ottoman genocide of the armenian population in world war i. They spoke to the incredible difficult and murderous treatment that women found themselves under in those circumstances. Most directly, what these inter allied feminists wanted was a seat at the table. So they got their second audience with Woodrow Wilson on the very first night of the conference on february 10th, 1919. He met with a group of them and there they proposed that he asked the allied powers to create a Womens Commission at the peace conference that could advise the male diplomats on any issues that were of particular interest to women or children. Wilson said he would. He did so, although i would say tepidly, three days later on february 13th, 1919, when he brought the issue before the meeting of the supreme council. Some of the male diplomats in the room, and he told him that he sincerely desire to satisfy the suffragists. By creating this when its commission. However, he followed it up by saying that he did not wish to urge this against the opinion of the congress. Take it that in for a second. In other words, he said im willing to go far enough and propose this thing that women want me to do, but im not willing to expand any Political Capital to make sure it actually happens. Shorten up, all of the men in the room from france, from britain, from italy, from india, from japan, one after the other told him that they thought it was a horrible idea to give women a voice in these peace negotiations. They promptly dismissed it and moved on. Theres an interesting story where wilson wrote to these women to apologize and could not make this happen. He blamed it squarely on the asian diplomats in the room, which was a blatant lie. If youre interested, i can tell you more about that in the queue way. Women did not get their Womens Commission in 1919, but they did eventually win the right to testify to before two of the commissions, advisory commissions to the peace conference, that where the greatest interest to women. The first of these was the labor commission, where they came before them demanding that women have a right in the new International Labor organization to representation, and also again calling for equal pay, calling for paid Maternity Leave, and a host of series of issues of interest to them. At the Second League of Nations Commission in april of 1919, they came before and put their whole long list of agenda items before the commission again. And in the end, they convinced the peacemakers to open the leak of nations all positions appointed and otherwise at the league of nations, two men and women on any kobes this. This is an article seven of the league of nations, which was itself and tried in the versailles treaty. This was a far cry from the hardy universal support for women suffrage that they initially hoped for, but it was also a huge breakthrough. British suffragists, when they got the news, they proclaimed, quote, the league of nations will be the First Political body in the world. It is hard to see how any of the nations under it will be able to refuse to follow the example which it sets. We take it then in the near future, all political positions and all in all civilized countries in the world will be open to women. This was overly optimistic to be sure, but it is a reminder that political events here in the United States, because this was happening at exactly the moment, this was two months before the Senate Finally passed the 19th amendment here at home. So this International Pressure from abroad to live up to the terms, democratic governance, that has been so widely preached during the war, was part of the reason why there is this global story behind the passage of the 19th amendment. So far, ive really mostly just talked about western suffragists and white women. But this was not a movement that was only taking place in paris or only among white suffragists either. Some of these very specific demands for liberty and democracy were coming from all over the world, including most notably in egypt, which is the central focus of another chapter in my book. By march of 1918, women in egypt, led by the remarkable feminist and nationalist who you see on the screen, began staging a revolt that was directed against the british colonizing power in egypt, and also directed at Woodrow Wilson and the peacemakers demanding democratic and liberation for egypt. So let me give you the tiniest bit of background for sure rally in a little bit about the story. She was born in the late 19th century into a very wealthy family land owner. As a daughter of this elite social class, sharawi was going from a very young age to live a life of domestic seclusion in the family home. But sharawi really rebuild against this. She sought out in education whenever she could. She was extremely upset when her family contracted or her, at age 13, to marry a much older cousin, a man in his forties who already had a wife and children of his own. It was a marriage that was designed to keep the family fortune in the family, but which shaarawi resented and rebuild against. For reasons that i would be happy to talk about qanon, she managed to extract a small amount of freedom in her young adulthood, and was able to continue to bring tutors into the home to educators self. She founded a number of important philanthropic works, and also started a lecture series for women in cairo to talk about social and economic questions that were of particular interest to them. After world war i, she would lead upperclass women in joining in the nationwide revolt against british imperialism that coalesced in the 1919 egyptian revolution. This was a movement that was led by a handful of egyptian male nationalist leaders, including shaarawis husband, who called for an immediate and to British Colonial occupation. The british had occupied egypt since the 1880s, but they really tighten their control during world war i, declaring egypt being a protectorate in enforcing martial law in egypt. It was very difficult and costly for the egyptian people. Almost as soon as the war was over, just days after the war was over, some of the egyptian nationalists male leaders went to the British Colonial authorities and demanded the right, or requested in audience so that they could begin to negotiate the terms of egypts liberation and the establishment of an independent state. The british said were not really in the mood to talk about this right now. Go away. The nationalist leaders came back and said if you wont talk to us, then let us go to london or let us go to paris. We will talk to the peacemakers and make this part of the peace settlement. Now the british felt like they really needed to silence these nationalist leaders who are starting trouble. They responded by arresting some of the leaders and exiling them to malta. They saw the writing on the wall so started priming some of their wife to take over the moment over their absence. Women began joining publicly in the struggle. They had been meeting independently for years. They had ideas of their own of wet a liberated egypt, a liberated in for egypt it would look like. They did not want to just become caretakers of a movement, they prepared to act as mens equals in their first major public act, march 16th, 1919, this is one of the few rare photographs of that day, Huda Shaarawi let several hundred egyptian women through a march through central cairo carrying flags and banners, saying long the freedom. Their goal was to march all the way to the foreign corners in cairo to put forward this demand and ask the peacemakers to put pressure on britain to recognize egyptian liberation. This march that you see on the screen was met by an Armed Police Force in cairo. The Police Commissioner encouraged the egyptian policeman to essentially sexually harassed these women and taught them and questioned their honor for being seen out in public. They were left to swelter under the blazing sun for hours on and and then the march was finally dispersed. But the egyptian women did not back down. They were back in the streets days later staging more protests. They joined in a nationwide boycott against british goods. And they began petitioning anyone who they thought would help them achieve their goal. In particular, they turn their attention against Woodrow Wilson who claim to be this champion of Self Determination and democracy. So you can see this letter on the screen. This was signed by in the name of the women of egypt. It says on there that we believe in president wilson and his principles of liberty and human fraternity. We believe in american disinterested miss and in american chivalry. We beg you to send our message to america and to president wilson personally. Let them hear our call. We believe they will not suffer liberty to be questioned egypt. Clearly, the priority for these egyptian women in 1919 was to bring about an anti colonialism and establish national liberation. But that does not mean that womens rights were not a fundamental part and built faked into their activism i would say. They were fighting simultaneously for the liberation of the nation and the liberation of their sex. And they were a much expected that when freedom finally came to egypt, that women would be invited to share equally in the governing of this new democratic state. When egypt earn partial independence, they were to be sadly disappointed when nationalist men established a Constitutional Monarchy that did not give women the right to vote. It did not address most of their concerns in the family or economy and essentially told women thank you for your help, you can now return home. Huda shaarawi did not accept that message. In 1923, she founded the Egyptian Feminist Union which will become the largest and most active feminist organization in the arab world for decades to come. She would also begin to collaborate with international feminists to forward a global womens rights agenda. So the photograph you are seeing on the screen here is shaarawi in the middle with two other feminists activists from egypt and wrote in roma 1923. Meeting with the interNational Womens Suffrage Association. The passage of the 19th amendment again took place against this blow global backdrop. There was a movement that was directly aimed at americans and president wilson, who claim to be supporting democracy in the world. And the blatant injustice of womens disenfranchisement in a nation that promoted itself as a defender of democracy itSelf Determination when it would not yet establish that for women at home. If foreign women were directly and indirectly Holding American politicians feet to the fire in 1919 and challenging them to live up to the rhetoric, american women also helped assure that the 19th amendment would have a global history to it. Because they were staging the fight in part outside of americas borders in that final year leading up to the passage of the suffrage amendment. These were women who opted to leave the United States at the apex of the movement to advocate for womens rights abroad. This was an incredibly controversial decision. It was one that most suffragists were unwilling to make. Most notably, Carrie Chapman catt, who we see here with the flowers in her arms. Shes been congratulated upon the passage of the 19th amendment. Carrie chapman catt was not just the president of the National American womens Suffrage Association, she was also the International President of the interNational Womens suffrage alliance. So when world war i ended at the end of 1918, european feminists began writing her regular letters saying we need you here in europe. Your place at the head of the interNational Womens suffrage alliances here helping us advocate for womens rights at the peace negotiations. Cat, however, was not going to have anything of it. She wrote back to european suffragists that americans were in the, quote, hot and final Suffrage Campaign and she simply could not imagine leaving the United States before years and. So catt remain here at home advocating for the 19th amendment. But other very prominent american suffragists made a different decision, sailing off to europe at the exact time that the 19th amendment was soon going to head to the senate for its final vote. I said broadly there were three categories of american women who went to europe in 1919, although there was some overlap between them. The first of these were pacifists suffragists. These were american women who believed firmly that women needed the right to vote, but the major reason that they believed that it was so necessary for america to enfranchise women was because they believed that women, as a nurtures of humanity and those who gave birth to the next generations, would never allow another war to occur. They believed that women were natural pacifists. So making sure that a Peace Agreement made the terms for lasting peace was the greatest act they believe they could accomplish suffragists in 1919. You are looking at two women on the screen, to american women who traveled to europe after world war one. The woman on the left, im guessing many of you have heard her name, that is jane adams, who was a very prominent progressive reformer, active in all kinds of circles in the late 19th and early 20th century. She also later would become the First American woman to win the nobel peace prize. Jane adams, on the righthand side of your, screen that is, jeanette the first woman to serve in the American Legislature in the house of representatives to the representative of the state of montana. And these two women, and it doesnt other american women traveled throughout europe. They did not go to meet in womens conference is that we were talking about earlier, because they saw that conference as fundamentally flawed because it only included women from the victorious nations. Women help build a lasting peace. And that is going to establish new terms for a new world order need to be able to sit at the common table and talk about this together. The american women traveled to switzerland. Which of course was a neutral state, where they gathered in may in 19, 19 they became the First International organization anywhere in the world to denounce the versailles treaty as a treaty of retribution and vindication. And saying it was never going to create the terms for a lasting peace around the world. And they also drafted their own womens charter, which they that took the treaty back to paris and delivered it into the hands of peacemakers, laying that womens demands, they thought needed to be asserted into the peace treaty in order to make it lasting and injuring. In addition to pacifists feminists, labor feminists were another group of american women who traveled to europe in 1819. These were women, some of them anyway, who came from desperately poor circumstances, working in horrific conditions working their way up through the Union Movement of the United States. So any of these you can see in the picture at the bottom of the screen, there she is surrounded by the sea of hats. Shes looking outwards to the left towards them leaning forward, that is rose schneider, men she was born in the late 19th century in the hail of part of the russian empire where jews were regard to settle. Fled russia to america from the bombs that were attacking her community. Her family suffered misfortune when she got here so at age 13 rows became the primary breadwinner for her family, earning a living sewing linings intimates caps at the sweat shops in the Lower East Side of new york. Unlike most women of her generation, rose got involved in the Union Movement and rose through the ranks. Promoting organization among particularly immigrant female laborers. During world war i which is when this photograph was taken, cheddar men stepped back from the union work, in order to advocate for womens suffrage. Particularly among working class now one world war one was over, she, along with another working class women by the name of Mary Anderson were selected by the womens trade union league of north america to travel to paris to collaborate some of these international feminists in paris pushing a womens rights agenda, particularly a womens rights lethbridge and paris. So they deferred with european feminist in paris. They met with wilson as well and other peacemakers. Then they return to their home in the United States, and in late october of 19, 19 these American Labor suffragists convened the first ever International Congress of working women which met at the same time as the first meeting of the International Labor organization in order to advance womens labor interest in that body and one of the remarkable achievements of this women in the International Congress of working women was the pushed through the adoption of a International Labor standard, International Labor convention, calling for a minimum of 12 weeks paid Maternity Leave for all women. All working women. That was adopted in 1919, and it has since been met or surpassed by every developed country in the world except for the United States of america. So pacifist pacifist women, liberal women were to crops of women who traveled abroad rather than staying at home to advocate womens rights in 1919. The third group were African American women. These were women who again, were avid suffragists. Had actively campaigned to help women to try and help women to win the right to vote in the United States. But for whom, the vote had it completely different significance than white women. For African American women, they believed black women needed the vote fundamentally to help fight the systemic discrimination and racism and violence that the community suffered on a daily basis. And there were a surprisingly large number of African American women either trying to work their way to paris, or in paris in 1919. Now the two women who are on the screen right now both apply for passports to go to paris and i can, 19 and they were both denied those passports by the state department. So the left of course you are seeing a portrait of the living this antilynching crusader and feminist. And on the right, madam c. J. Walker by who some peoples estimates was the wealthiest selfmade women in america the end of world war i. But these women tried to go to paris but were prevented by doing so by the american state department. But there were other African American women who were able to go, or who were already in paris are making a mark, theyre two of whom i featured in my book. On the left you are look at the 1919 passport of feminist, suffragists, and civil rights activist, mary church carroll, who was invited to go to europe, and the pacifist, women and who shared many of the same goes as, them but who also, would you like to paris, realized that she was the only women of color from anywhere in the world, who had been invited to be a delegate at the conference. So she spent much of her time in europe trying to persuade White International feminists to make Racial Justice a integral part of their demand for womens rights, and for human rights. At the moment at the peace settlement and moving forward. The other woman who you see on the screen in that somewhat blurry photograph, there she seated in the front with a white color, that is maya hunt, shes a friend, the two of them had been roommates in college, the two of them were among the first five women to get a full four year degree, first African American women to get a full four year degree after the civil war. Took a different route to. Paris her husband was one of the few diplomats of color the milk and foreign service. She had lived with him in colonial, africa in madagascar, and then southern france. She will talk to paris in 1919 in order to collaborate with a man seat in front of her in that picture. That is the famous intellectual and journalist, w. De to boyce, who convened a Panafrican Congress in paris to 1919 to bring together people of color from the u. S. , europe, the caribbean, and from africa, in order to advocate for Racial Justice in this peace settlement. And i will just say up front, the boy, who is obviously a remarkable figure, who is given all of the credit for this remarkable event in 1919. I think hunted most of the, work and i argue in the book, he was a pretty strong intellect behind the shooting of the Panafrican Movement that came out of this congress as well. So African American women, labour women, pacifist women were no less committed to womens suffrage that cat or else paul. The women who stayed behind in 1919. But their commitment to suffrage intersected with a commitment but to other present causes. Pacifism, economic justice, Racial Justice, which they fell to be inextricably linked to womens rights campaigns, and, dignity and had a better chance of advancement, they thought, outside of americas borders than within. So i hope that i have convinced you here today that the American Battle for suffrage of the 19th amendment has a far reaching history behind it. As we go forward and commemorate the anniversary of the 19th amendment almost exactly a month from now, it is my hope that we will remember not only suffrage leaders like cat for the resilience and leadership, but remember that it couldnt happen in a vacuum. And this battle for womens rights has been an International One from the beginning. Bringing women across the pantries of religion, and nation, and race, and uniting the interests of a full half of humanity. When women were demanding peace on our terms in 1919, they were arguing that womens rights were not some special interest, but instead spoke to the most pressing questions of the day, peace, stability, and democracy. And i think that those issues are still just as pressing today as they were 100 years ago. So thank you also very much for your patience as i look through all of this. [laughs] mona, thank you so much. What a great conversation me too deeply, exquisitely show that we talk about at the museum, often which is that the life and the world and concerns of 100 years ago, its still so very similar to the conversations that we have today. And its not just about a pandemic. Its truly about to much. More now whether you are joining us on facebook live, we would invite your questions, we would invite your conversation, to continue a bit of this. Delving into the global battle for womens rights. I would also at this time, as some of you are typing in more questions on both of these platforms, i would also invite you to take a look, to really dig into more of these conversations, and very specifically, if you are one of my World History teachers who has joined into this conversation, if you go to book shop. Org and take a look at peace on our terms, the global battle for womens rights after the first world war, you are going to find some very specific names, some new information, new individuals that you can be highlighting that i can almost guarantee either are not included in your textbook, or are included with a flattened version of some of their story and some of their contributions to history, and contributions to who we are both as a nation, and as a Global Community today. So to take a look at that book. Also consider joining us for the workshop version of this a little bit later on. Check it out at the world war dot borg august 4th. Doctor seagull, if im not mistaken. So your first question is actually going to come up from lets see, ashley, is the Temperance Movement a factor in the exodus of women fighting for suffrage in the United States . I mean the Temperance Movement converge very much with the Suffrage Movement in the United States. The Womens Christian Temperance Union was the single largest Womens Organization in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. So it true many, many women into the American Suffrage Movement. By the same token, though it did push some of the more radical women in the movement to the margins, and made it larger and more popular, but it also made it more mainstream. So there were some women who no longer felt as comfortable in the National American womens Suffrage Association by the early 20th century, which had largely embraced the cause of temperance along with a much more moderate stance. Im going to read, this is bridging a little from the past to the president. Well see how comfortable you are with. This what is the likelihood, in your, opinion of sync equal rights amendment to the constitution adapted anytime soon . I. E. The next decade . I like kevin your idea of anytime soon. That is excellent. That gives a tenyear times fan. A short story first. My very First Political act was signing a petition for the er a. I was less than ten years old, and a radical aunt of mike told me any to signed this petition which i did. I did and i got a thank you note signed by my colorado legislator at the time, patricia rotor, signed with the smiley face. So somehow, she knew what my age was. The organization has been around for a long time. It has been around since the 1920s. Alice paul took it up after having won the passage of the 19th amendment. It was actually extremely controversial amongst suffragists in america in the twenties and thirties. Labor suffragists in particular will fundamentally opposed to the era because they were worried they would lose some of the special protections they had gained in order to fight the rampant exploitation they suffered in the workplace. By the 1970s, that was no longer the case. Feminists were fairly united around era agenda. The question is not about the past, it is about the future. There is a lot of the constitutional and legal hurdles to get beyond the era, not the least of which is most of the ratification have expired. So as much as i might really want and be willing to fight 14 era in the United States, im not holding my breath unfortunately in the next ten years. Maybe i will be proven wrong though. All right, this question comes from miss crawford. Where did the inter war suffragists land by the time of the Second World War . In other words, how did they reconcile the diverse demands from the more inclusive concerns of interNational Women, for example, working class, women of color. There were three major interNational Womens organizations by the twenties and thirties. Not necessarily the two largest, but the two most affected by that time where the alliance, the old interNational Womens suffrage alliance, which became the womens alliance. And then, the Womens International lead for peace and freedom, which was founded by jane adams and all of those radical pacifist suffragists in zurich. Of the two organizations, the Womens International lead for peace and freedom, or the wilf as its known, was by far the most inclusive. Not just in terms of welcoming women of color or women from formally colonized countries, but also making an issue of imperialism and Racial Justice. The Womens Internationally for peace and freedom sponsored a delegation to go to haiti, which was under American Military occupation in the 1920s. One of, another African American women who had been in paris in 1919, who i did not talk about today, was one of the women included in that delegation. They sent another telegraphed shun delegation into china, japan and china in the late 19 twenties, and the woman who actually served as their interpreter in china was woman by the name of who is by far the most interesting person in my book even though i did not talk about her at all tonight. She was in fact the only woman who was officially appointed to serve on the delegation on her nations delegation to the paris peace conference, on the chinese delegation. She was a former bomb smuggler. She was an avid nationalist. She became chinas first female lawyer and judge. She was involved in interNational Womens suffrage as well. Now ive completely lost track of the conversation. Looking at the Womens International lead for peace and freedom, while it remained predominantly western and predominantly white, it was up for us it was a space in both African American women and women from former colonized countries were or still colonist countries, were began to at least be able to network and begin to fight the battles that were important to them. Next, martha jones, author of vanguard, how black women broke barriers, won the vote and insisted on equality for all, talks about some of the ways African American women became involved in womens suffrage and other political movements in the first half of the 20th century. The United States Capital Historical Society and the womens Suffrage Centennial commission hosted this event. Doctor martha jones was the very first scholar that we recruited for this symposium. Back in the day when you could see one another, i went over to baltimore and we had coffee and got to know each other a little bit. She agreed that she would come and keynote our conference. So we are so honored. Doctor jones is a historian, a writer and a commentator whose work has focused on how black americans have shaped the history of american democracy. Her most recent book, which just came out,