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 WorldWar 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 wan