Provided the video. Mona siegel it is such a pleasure to collaborate with the world war i museum and i am particularly thankful to lora for making this program possible. I have about 45 minutes of stories and information i am excited to share with you. I feel that i hope you will pose any question you might have. I dont always have the answers but i will give it my best shot. The cover you are looking at there on your screen is 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 book is a snapshot of a singular moment in history. Almost exactly 100 years ago. As the world finally began exiting from the devastation of the First World War and was able to begin the dreaming and planning for the peace and the new world that would come afterwards. At this moment, i show in my book that women from farreaching and incredibly diverse parts of the world began stepping onto the global stage and asserting an agenda of womens rights and gender equality that at the core demanded the rights for women to help shape this new world order and transform it into something that was fundamentally different than what had given way to world war i. My book is a story of women from north america, europe, asia, and the middle east. It is a story of white, wealthy women and also sometimes desperately poor, workingclass women. It is a story of women that were married to tremendously supportive husbands and also women that engaged in lifelong singlesex relationships. It is a story of white women and women of color, a story of christians, muslims, jews, hindus, and women that professed 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 i in 1919, these pioneering female activists transformed womens rights into a global rallying cry and it is a rallying cry that continues to reverberate around the world right up to the present day. Here in the u. S. , many of us are focused on this moment, 100 years ago because it marks an important anniversary in our own National History which is the passage and ratification of the 19th amendment to the constitution which granted women the right to vote. And that kind of begs the question 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 establish womens rights as a global agenda were these two things related . And the answer to put it right up front is absolutely yes. And so, while my book is not specifically a book about American History, the stories recorded in it, i think, have a very Important Message about American History and the 19th amendment which is that this long battle that women fought for economic, social, and Political Rights in this country are embedded in a Global Movement that was designed to secure the equality and humanity of half of the population of this earth. In particular, my talk tonight and my book will emphasize the fact that american women owe the passage of the 19th amendment in small part at least to foreign women. To their International Sisters that brought pressure on americans and particularly on the american president , Woodrow Wilson, to live up to his own rhetoric of democracy. And then, the other thing, the equally important thing that my book explains is why some american women at this moment in 19191920, just as the movement for suffrage was reaching its climate and it looked as though it was finally going 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 chose to leave the United States and go to advocate for womens rights are broad instead of here athome . This is particularly true of women that found themselves somewhat on the margin of the american suffrage it Movement Including pacifist women, workingclass, labor women, labor suffragists as well as a fairly large group of africanamerican suffragists. I want to zero in on the global history of the 19th amendment and in the process introduce some of the pioneering womens rights activists featured in my book who made this post world war i period such a watershed for womens rights in america and around the world. Because i am a historian, i always have to trace back in time. We will start our story in 1914 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, the national level. And in fact, there were only four countries and 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 light 19th century and in 1893, they won that right and interestingly and importantly, it was a right that was not qualified by wealth or education level and it also enfranchised white women and indigenous maori women at the same time. That was the first country. Shortly thereafter, 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. But that was about it. Suffrage movements had been growing steadily in the years leading up to world war i. That is most famously true in Great Britain and the United States where suffragists were gaining headlines and attention for increasingly militant tactics including heckling speakers and staging marches out in public demanding womens rights to vote. This was in no way uniquely an anglophone phenomenon. Women in asia were 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 the Chang Dynasty in 1911. In 1912, when the First Provisional Parliament met in 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 smashed the windows to get the attention of the 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 but also for women to share in the political responsibilities in india. And during world war i in 1917, indian suffrages put forward their first formal request for the franchise during world war i. It was also true in Continental Europe that women Suffrage Movements had been growing exponentially. And this photograph is taken in paris. You might recognize the background scenery there. Somewhat movingly, this photo was taken in july, 1914, just several weeks before world war i broke out and this was the first major public demonstration that french suffragists staged in demanding the vote. And i want to point out the woman in the front row in the middle who was wearing a white blouse and a fantastically feathered hat on her head. That woman is marguerite de wittschlumberger. She was the head of the largest french suffragists organization in france. She will play a role in a story i will tell in just a moment so i wanted you 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 the war work that their nations were calling upon them to complete. From 1914 through 1980, women in the warring nations stepped into all kinds of social, economic, and even political roles that had been considered rightfully mens spheres up to that point. On the screen are a few of the economic and duties that women engaged in vital to the war efforts. You can see two british ambulance drivers that shuttled Wounded Soldiers from the frontlines to some of the immediate hospitals and triage stations. Women were also vital as farmers. They took over family farms but also large, commercial farms as well and the picture in the center of the screen is celebrating female farmworkers in france. You can see also on the top row, women that began working in munitions factories by the tens of thousands. And also women that volunteered to serve as nurses, many for the red cross providing vital medical aid. What all of these women shared in common was that the work they were doing was considered to be absolutely of vital and fundamental importance to the nation. They were told that what they were doing was not just important to their family but it was important to their country which gave them a new sense of confidence and citizenship. The United States did not initially join world war i. 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, 1917, nonetheless, Woodrow Wilson went before the American Congress to request a declaration of war on the central powers. And he did so insisting that american boys should put their lives on the line because the world must be kept safe for democracy. Now, american suffragists had to decide how to react to this declaration of war. On the one hand, the militant wing led by alice continued to prioritize their campaign for the vote. They said there is no reason for us to put it aside and all the more reason to amp up pressure. You see one of the many women who stood sentinel outside of the white house insisting that wilson should not be preaching democracy to the rest of the world while denying democracy at home. These were some of the women that famously served hard times in prison for their refusal to back down. The majority of suffragists however followed the lead of the national suffragists association and its president who is the woman all in white with the American Flag on her sleeve. She thought that it would behoove suffragists to throw their support behind the war. That women were ready for the full responsibility of citizenship. Historians have been arguing for years which of these two groups, the militant or moderate, were more responsible for finally convincing Woodrow Wilson support suffrage after a lifetime of opposing it and also turning the majority of the public and the 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 as well to finally endorse a federal amendment. And 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 and indicated to him that american would never be seen as a democracy abroad unless democracy was established 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 speeches were carried all over the world and in fact the United States created its first modern propaganda wing, a committee of public information, specifically to make sure that his words made headlines all across the globe. They made front pages of newspapers as we can see from this french newspaper 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 anticolonialism. In places as far away as egypt and colonial vietnam and china nationalists listened to what he said, that this war must create conditions of National Determination and democracy. What my research showed was that women were paying just as much attention as the male nationalists and they were strategizing to make sure that wilson was going to follow up on his words with tangible action. In this effort, still in the midst of world war i, marguerite de wittschlumberger, the french suffragists i pointed out earlier was the first to see that wilson might prove to be the key to establishing womens rights to vote not just in the United States but all over the world. In 1917, she began sending out letters in the midst of the war to women from other allied nations in europe, australia and north america saying let us write a letter to wilson and let us get him to commit, go public with the idea that womens rights are key. On the screen, you are seeing a portion of a draft of the letter. It says to wilson that the women from the allied countries have a wish we want president wilson in one of his upcoming messages to declare the principal of womens suffrage to be a fundamental pillar of future national law. We want you to go public. Not just in america but womens suffrage needs to be a part of democracy. They got the letter together by early 1819. It took a while to get it into the hands of the president. Finally, in the spring of 1918, Terry Chapman gave the letter to Woodrow Wilson and much to his shock, he immediately responded. The 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 the New York Times article covering wilsons response. He said to french women i have read your message with the deepest interest and i welcome the opportunity to say that i agree without reservation that the full and sincere democratic reconstruction of the world for which we are striving and for which we are determined to bring about at any cost would not be completely or adequately attained until women are admitted to the suffrage. Man, amazing those women had him now publicly saying i support women suffrage and the fundamental pillar of the Suffrage Movement. There was an extra reason to be excited. An added paragraph highlighted at the bottom where it says as for america, it is my hope that the senate of the United States will give an unmistakable answer to the question adding this to our constitution. This was not the very first time that Woodrow Wilson had publicly endorsed federal amendment but one of the first and there was pressure coming from abroad and that 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 it in the newspapers as well. And so, wilson was now on record as 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 peas conference, the negotiation 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 center of this push. We are back to marguerite de wittschlumberger who was so active. This is a letter she sent to wilson on january 18, 1919, the opening day of the paris peas conference. She got him right at the beginning. She reminded him of his promises that he had made publicly during the war and she was writing on behalf of french feminists saying that we beg you to use your immense influence. They asked him again to publicly express his sympathy for the more than half of humanity represented by women who in so many countries had been condemned to an unjust and cruel silence by the denial of the vote. They did not just want a pledge from wilson. They wanted tangible action. This letter informed him of one thing and asked him for another. It informed him that french women were convening a conference to help make sure that they were listened to during the peace process. She also asked if they could meet with him facetoface at his earliest convenience. Wilson was a pretty busy man at the beginning of the paris peace conference. He had dozens and dozens of people knocking on his door asking for his time and attention. He could easily have dismissed this but he did not. He gave them an appointment. Less than two weeks later on generate high seven, he met privately with a number of suffragists. Wilsons response to them that day was incredibly encouraging and he said it would seem impossible to me to refuse to listen to women after the service they rendered after the the war. Whatever it is in my power to do for them, i will do. French women were again elated and the conference rather on february 10, 1919 in paris. This was just some of the allied women that participated. You can go to books that covered the peace conference and you may find women mentioned in a sentence or a footnote but that is about it. Reducing their lobbying effort to a sideshow in the greater diplomatic history of the war and i think this is a huge mistake. The Pressure Campaign that women activists waged with serious and relentless, the conference met nonstop its success would be critical to shaping policy in the 20th century and it would help explain why International Relations remain such a maledominated profession up to the current day. This conference demanded a voice for women at the peace negotiations and they also laid out a long agenda of items they felt needed to be addressed. If the diplomats really wanted to create lasting and stable and Peaceful World order. Their demands included the right to vote and hold office. They wanted th