Transcripts For CSPAN3 Global History Of The 19th Amendment 20240711

Collaborate with the National World war i museum. And im particularly thankful to lora for reaching out to me and making this weekend possible. I have about 45, 50 minutes of stories and information that im excited to share with you and 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 youre looking at there on the screen is the cover of my most recent book. Peace on our terms. And 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 exactlily 100 years ago, as the world finally began exiting from the devastation of 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 show in my book that women from farreaching and incredibly diverse parts of the world began stepping on to the global stage and asserting an agenda of womens rights and gender equality. And at the core, demanding the right for women to be able to help shape this new world order. And transform it into something so fundamentally different way what transformed into world war i. My book is a story of women from north america, from europe, from asia, and from the middle east. It is a story of white, wealthy women, and also sometimes desperately poor working class women. It is a story of women married to tremendously supportive husbands and also women who husbands and also women who engaged in lifelong singlesex relationships. It is a story of white women and women of color. A story of christians, muslims, jews, women who profess no religion at all. 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. Now, here in the United States, we are very focused. Many of us are very focused on this moment 100 years ago because it marks an important anniversary in our own National History which is the passage and the ratification of the 19th amendment to the constitution, which granted women the right to vote. And that kind of begs the question, if these two things happened at roughly the same time, women gain the right to vote in the United States and global feminists he began to speak out and establish rights as a global agenda, were these two things related . Were they intersected . And the answer to put it right up front is absolutely yes. And so while my book is not specifically a story of American History, the stories recorded in it have a very Important Message about American History and about the 19th amendment which is that this long battle that women fought for economics, social, 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 of this earth. So in particular, my book and my talk tonight are going to emphasize the fact that american women owe the passage of the 19th amendment. At least in small part to foreign women. To their International Sisters who 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 1919 to 1920, just as the movement for suffrage was reaching its climax, it looked like it would finally move on to the states for ratification. At this critical moment, why is that quite a few dedicated american suffragists chose to leave the United States and go advocate for womens rights abroad instead of here at home . And this was particularly true of women who had often found themselves somewhat on the margins of the american womens Suffrage Movement. It includes pacifist women, it includes working class labor women, labor suffragists, and it also includes a fairly large number of africanamerican suffragists. So for my talk today, i want to zero in on this global history of the 19th amendment. In the process, introduce you to some of the pioneering women, womens rights activists featured in my book, and who made this post world war i period such a watershed for womens rights both here in america and also around the world. So, because im an historian, i always have to trace back in time. Well start our story in 1914. Just before the outbreak of the first world war. And 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. In 1893, they won that right. And very interestingly and importantly, it was a right that was not qualified by wealth or education level had, and it also enfranchised white women and indigenous maori women at the same time. So that was the first country to establish womens right to vote at the national level. Shortly there 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. But that was about it. Now, Suffrage Movements had been growing steadily in the years leading up to world war i. Thats 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 right to vote. But this was in no way uniquely an anglophon phenomenon. Women in asia were beginning to establish certainly individual suffragists were 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 ching dynasty. 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, nonetheless, broke their way into the meeting hall in nanjing. They smashed some windows to get the mens attention 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 both for home rule in india but also for women to share in the political responsibilities in india. That would continue to mount. In fact, during world war i, the suffragists would put forth requests for the franchise during world war i. It was also true in Continental Europe that women Suffrage Movements had been growing exponentially. This photograph was 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 demonstration that french suffragists staged in demanding the vote. And i want to point out in particular on the screen, the woman in the front row in the middle who is wearing a white blouse and a fantastically feathered hat on her head. That woman is known by the name marguerite. She was the head of the largest french suffragist organization in france at the outset of world war i. Shell play a role in the story im going to tell in a moment. So i wanted you to recognize her face. Well, when world war i broke out in 1914, Suffrage Movements, not everywhere but by and large halted or they halted their activism in order that women might turn their attention to the war work that their nations were calling upon them to complete. And from 1914 through 1918, women in the warring nations stepped into all kinds of social, economic, and even political roles that had been considered rightfully mens sphere until then. The pictures on the screen represent a few of the types of Economic Activity that women engaged in that was vital to supporting the war effort. In the upper left of the screen, you can see two british ambulance drivers who shuttled Wounded Soldiers from the front line 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 that picture at the center of the screen is a french postcard from world war i celebrating these female farm workers in france. You can see also on the top row, women who began working in munitions factories, and by the tens of thousands. In engineering and chemicals. And then finally at the bottom, we will also by the tens of thousands who volunteered to serve as nurses. Many of them for the red cross, providing vital medical aid. What all these women shared in common was 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 families. It was important to their countries. And that gave them a new sense of confidence and a new sense of citizenship. Now, 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. In 1917, wilson went before the American Congress and requested a declaration of war on the central powers, which is to say germany, austria, hungary, and the ottoman empire, 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 respond to this declaration of war. And, in fact, they split. On the one hand, the militant wing of the American Suffrage Movement led by alice paul and the National Womens party continued to prioritize their campaign for the vote. They said there is no reason for us to put it to the side. And all the more reason to amp up pressure. So, on the lower right hand 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 denying democracy at home. And these were some of the women who famously served hard time in prison for their refusal to back down. The majority of suffragists, however, followed the lead of the National American womens suffrage association. And the president , Carrie Chapman cat, the woman in all white with the American Flag on her sleeve. She thought that it would be behoove suffragists to throw their support behind the wall and show through their dedication and patriotism that women were ready for the full responsibilities of citizenship. Now, historians have 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, and also turning the majority of 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 undoubtedly others as well 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. And indicated to him that america would never be seen as a democracy abroad unless democracy was established here at home. Now we need to understand when Woodrow Wilson spoke publicly during world war i evgs never just addressing an american public. His words and his speeches were carried all over the world. And 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 across the globe. They made front pages of newspapers, as we can see from this french paper on the screen. Now other historians have noted that in places that we could that wilson could scarcely imagine, his words were taken as a sign of support for liberation and for anticolonialism. 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 of a national selfdetermination and a 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 his words with tangible action. Now, in this effort, still in the midst of world war i, marguerite, the french suffragist i pointed out to you jerel, 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, europe, north america, australia, saying lets write a her to wilson. And lets get him to commit. Lets get him to go public with this idea that womens rights integral to the peace. So on this screen youre seeing a portion of the draft of the letter. The underlined part, underlined in the original, says to wilson that the women from the allied countries have a wish. We want president wilson in one of his upcoming messages to pro claim the message of womens suffrage to be a fundamental pillar of future international law. We want you to go public. We want to you say not jut in america but all over the world, womens suffrage needs to be part of the creation of democracy. They got the letter together by early 1918. It took a little while to get into wilsons hands, having to do with the complications of the American Suffrage Movement, which i can explain if youre interested. Finally in the spring of 1918, Carrie Chapman cat gave this letter to Woodrow Wilson, and much to her shock, he immediately responded. This response he sent off to the suffragists in europe. 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. So he said to french women, you can read along with me, 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, 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 the new peace settlement. And then american women had extra reason to be excited. Because he added a paragraph just for them, thats highlighted at the bottom of the article there. He said 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 wasnt the very first time that wilson publicly endorsed a federal amendment, but it was one of the first. And this pressure coming from abroad is part of what was on his mind as he finally made that decision. Now, in france and in europe, women were elated as well. Thy sent it out to all the press agencies and got this in the newspapers as well. 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. And 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 the allied governments but with Woodrow Wilson in particular throughout these long months of french and european feminists were at the epicenter of this push. So were back to marguerite here, still active and scheming and planning. This is a letter she sent to Woodrow Wilson on january 18, 1919. That was the opening day of the paris peace conference. Get him right at the beginning there. And she reminded him of his promises that he had made publicly during the war, and writing on behalf of french feminists, she says there, 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. And they asked him to again publicly express his sympathy, as she wrote there, 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. Now, they didnt just want a pledge from wilson. They wanted some tangible actions. This letter kind of informed him of one thing and 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, and then she also asked Woodrow Wilson if they could meet with him face to face at his earliest convenience. Wilson as you might imagine, was a pretty busy man at the beginning of the paris peace conference. He had dozen and dozens of people knocking on his door asking for his time and attention. He could easily have dismissed this and brushed it off. He didnt. He wrote back and gave them an appointment. Sure enough, less than two weeks later on january 27th, he met privately with about 20 french suffragists who insisted that womens rights must not be forgotten in the plans for the peace. Wilsons response to them that day was incredibly encouraging. Ill quote him here. He said, it would seem impossible to me to refuse to listen to women after the service they rendered during the war. Whatever it is within my power to do for them, i will do. So french feminists were elated and they prepared to convene this conference of suffragists to hold him at his word. This conference first gathered on february 10th, 1919 in paris. These are just some of the allied women who participated. And, you know, you can go on shelves of books at the library or bookstores covering the paris peace conference and you may find these women mentioned in a sentence or perhaps in a footnote. But that is about it. Reducing their lobbying effort to a side show in the greater diplomatic history of the war. And i think that this is a huge mistake. The Pressure Campaign that womens activists waged was serious and relentless. This conference met nonstop for 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 help explain why International Relations has remained such a maledominated profession right up to the present day. So this interallied womens conference, as they called themselves, demanded a voice for women in the peace negotiations and they also laid out a long agenda of items they thought needed to be addressed by the peace settlement if the diplomats really wanted to create a lasting and stable Peaceful World order. So their demands included recognition of womens rights to vote and hold office. What they ideally wanted was for only nations that had enforced womens suffrage or allowed we 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 deportation. This last issue became very important to them in february of 1919 when a woman came to paris. She was a survivor of the armenian genocide, the attempted ottoman genocide of the armenian population during world war i. She spoke to the incredibly difficult and murderous treatment that women found themselves under in those circumstances. Most directly what these is interallied feminists wanted was a seat at the table. 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 ask 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. And he did so, although i would say tepidly, three days later, february 15, 1919, when he brought the male diplomats before the meeting of the supreme council. Some of the male diplomats in the room, and he told them that he seriously desired, ill sorry, sincerely desired to satisfy the suffragists by creating this commission. However, he followed it up by saying that he did not wish to urge this against the opinion of the conference. Take 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 expend any Political Capital to make sure it actually happens. And sure enough, all the men in the room from france, from britain, from italy, from india, from japan, one after another said they thought it was a terrible idea to give women a voice in the peace negotiations and they promptly dismissed it and moved. Now, theres an interesting story when wilson wrote to these women to apologize and say, i couldnt make this happen. He blamed it specifically on the asian diplomats on the room, on the backward eastern countries, which was a blatant lie. If youre interested in that, i can tell you more about that in q a. Well, women did not get their Womens Commission in 1919, but they did eventually win the right to testify before two of the commissions, advisory commissions to the peace conference, that were 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, paid Maternity Leave and a whole series of issues of interest to them. And then secondly at the league of Nations Commission in april of 1919, they came before, they put their whole long list of agenda items before the commission again. And in the end, they convinced the peacemakers to open the league of nations, all positions, appointed and otherwise, at the league of nations to men and women on an equal basis. This is in article 7 of the league of nations which was itself enshrined in the versailles treaty. This was a far cry from the cry that womens suffrage had initially hoped for but it was also a huge breakthrough. British suffragists when they got the news, they proclaimed 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 them. We take it in the near future, all political futures and all civilized countries in the world will be open to women. Now this was overly optimistic to be sure. This 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 of democratic governance that had been so widely preached during the war was part of reason why there is this global story behind the passage of the 19th amendment. Now, so far ive really mostly 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 vociferous 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 1919, women in egypt led by the remarkable feminist and nationalist, whom you see on the screen, began staging a revolt that was at once directed against the british colonizing power in egypt and also directed at Woodrow Wilson and the peacemakers, demanding democratic liberation for egypt. So let me give you the tiniest background of her and a little about the story. She was born in the late 19th century into the family of a very, very wealthy Egyptian Land owner. And as a daughter of this elite social class, she was groomed from a very young age to live a life of domestic seclusion in the family home. But she really rebelled against this. She sought out education whenever she could. She was extremely upswhet her family contracted for her at age 13 to marry a much older cousin. A man in his 40s who already had a wife and children of his own. And it was a marriage designed to keep the family foreign in sar sa to keep the family fortune in the family, but which she resented and rebelled against. For reasons that i would be happy to again talk about in q a. She managed to extract a little bit of freedom. She was able to bring tutors into the home to educate herself, found a number of 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 upper class 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 her husband, who called for an immediate end to British Colonial occupation. The british had occupied egypt ever since the 1880s. But they really tightened their control during world war i declaring egypt to be a protectorate and declaring martial law in egypt. That was extremely difficult and costly for the egyptian people. Almost as soon as the war was over, just days after the war was over, some of these egyptian nationalist male leaders went to the British Colonial authorities and demanded the right to or requested an 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. And the nationalist leaders came back and said, if you wont talk to us, let us go to london or let us go to paris, talk to the peacemakers, well make this part of the peace settlement. Now the british felt like they really needed to silence these National Leaders who were stirring up trouble. So they responded by arresting some of the leaders and exiling them to malta. Now the man saw the writing on the wall and so they began priming some of their wives to take over the movement in their absence. And elite egyptian women at this point in time began joining publicly in the struggle, but they had been meeting independently for years. They had ideas of their own of what a liberated egypt, liberated and free egypt would look like. So they didnt want to just become caretakers of a movement. They prepared to act as mens equals. In their first major public act, march 16th, 1919, one of the few very rare photographs of that day. She led several hundred egyptian women through a march through central cairo carrying, you know, flags and banners saying, long live freedom. Their goal was to march all the way to the quarters of the american and french and italians in cairo to put forward this demand and ask the peace makers 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 policemen to essentially sexually harass them women, to taunt them and question their honor for being seen in public. They were left to swelter under the blazing sun for hours on end and then their 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 petitioning anyone who they thought would help them achieve their goal. In particular, they turned their attention again to Woodrow Wilson, who claimed to be this champion of selfdetermination and democracy. And so you can see this letter on the screen. This was signed by in the name of the women of egypt, and it says in there, we believe in president wilson and his principles of liberty and human fraternity. We believe in american disinterestedness and in american chivalry. They 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 crushed in egypt. Clearly the priority for these egyptian women in 1919 was to bring an end to colonialism and establish national liberation. But that does not mean that womens rights were not a fundamental part and baked into their activism, i would say. They were fightly simultaneously for the liberation of their nation and the liberation of their sex, and they very 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. Four years later in 1922 when egypt finally did win partial independence from egypt, they were to be very sadly disappointed when egyptian nationalist men established a Constitutional Monarchy that did not give women the right to vote, did not address most of their concerns and told women, thank you for your help. You can now return home. Hoda did not accept that message. In 1923, she founded the egyptian feminist union, which would become the largest and most active feminist organization in the arab world for decades to come. The photograph that youre she was also begin to collaborate with international feminists to form a global womens rights agenda. The photograph that youre seeing on the screen here is shaarawi in the middle with the interNational Womens Suffrage Group in rome in 1923. So, the passage of the 19th amendment took place against this. Global backdrop, and that was a movement that was very much aimed at americans and president Woodrow Wilson who claimed to be supporting democracy in the world. And the blatant injustice of womens disenfranchise in a world that promoted itself as a defender of democracy and selfdetermination when it would not yet establish that for women at home. Now, if foreign women were directly and indirectly Holding Americans politicians feet to the fire in 1919, 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. Now this was an incredibly controversial decision. It was one that most suffragists were unwilling to make. Most notably Carrie Chapman cat, who we see again here now with all the flowers in her arms. Shes being congratulated upon the passage of the 19th amendment. Carrie chapman catt was not just the president of the american womens suffrage moment, she was also the International President of the interNational Womens Suffrage Alliance. 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 Alliance is here helping us advocate for womens rights at the peace negotiations. Catt, however, wasnt going to have anything of it. She wrote back to european suffragists that americans were, quote, in the hot and final Suffrage Campaign and she simply could not imagine leaving the United States before years end. So catt remained 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 the 19th amendment was soon going to head to the senate for its final vote. Now, i said broadly there were three categories of american women who went to europe in 1919, although there were some overlap between them. The first of these were passivists suffragists. They believed women needed the right to vote but the major reason that they believed that it was so necessary for women america to enfranchise women was because they believe that women, as nurturers of humanity and those who gave birth to the next generations, would never ever allow another war to occur. They believe that women were natural passivists and making sure that a Peace Agreement laid the terms for lasting peace was the greatest act that they believed they could accomplish as suffragists in 1919. Youre looking at two women on the screen, two american women who traveled to europe after world war i. The woman on the left, im guessing many of you have heard her name, thats jane adams who was a very predominant progressive reformer, active in all kinds of circles in the late 19th and early 20th century. She would later become the First American woman to win the nobel peace prize. Jane adams went to europe. So did the woman on the righthand side of your screen, thats jeanette rankin. The first woman to serve in the house of legislature and house of representatives. She was the representative from the state of montana. And these two women and a dozen other american women traveled over to europe. They did not go to meet with that interallied womens conference that we were talking about earlier because they saw that conference as fundamentally flawed because it only included women from the victorious nations. They said if women are going to build a last or help build a lasting peace thats going to establish new terms for a new world order, then women from the victorious powers, neutral powers and defeated powers need to be able to sit around the common table and talk about this together. And so the two of them on the screen, these american women, traveled to zurich, switzerland, which, of course, was a neutral state, where they gathered in may of 1919. 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 took the train back to paris and delivered into the hands of the peacemaker, laying out womens demands that they thought needed to be inserted into the peace treaty in order to make it lasting and enduring. Now, in addition to passivist feminists, labor suffragists were another group of american women who traveled to europe in 1919. These were women some of them anyway who came from desperately circumstances, working in horrific circumstances and worked their way up through the union in the United States. One of these you can see in the picture at the bottom of the screen there. Shes kind much surrounded by that sea of hats. Shes looking ourwards to the left towards them, leaning forward. Thats rose schneiderman. Schneiderman was born in the late 19th century in the pale of settlement, which was part of the russian empire where jews were allowed to settle. She was from a desperately poor jewish family that fled russia and moved to america. Her family suffered misfortune once they got here, so at age 13 rose became the primary breadwinner for her family, earning a living sewing lining into mens caps in the sweatshops in the Lower East Side of new york. Unlike most women of her generation, rose got involved in the union movement, began rising up through union ranks and promoting organization among particularly immigrant female laborers. During world war i when this photograph was taken, she stepped back from her union work in order to advocate for womens suffrage, particularly among working class men. Now, when world war i was over, she along with another working class woman by the name of mary anderson, were selected by the womens trade union league of america to travel to paris to collaborate with some of these international feminists in paris, pushing a womens rights agenda, and particularly a womens rights labor agenda in paris. So they conferred with european feminists in paris. They met with wilson as well and other peacemakers, and they returned home to the United States and in late october of 1919, these American Labor suffragists convened a the first ever congress of working women, in order to advance womens labor interests in that body. And one of the remarkable achievements of these women at the First International congress of working women was they pushed through the adoption of an International Labor standard, an International Labor convention, calling for a minimum of 12 weeks paid Maternity Leave for all women, all working women. And that was adopted by the ilo in 1919. It has since been met or surpassed by every developed country in the world, except for the United States of america. So passivist women and labor women were one of the two groups of women who traveled abroad rather than staying at home to advocate for womens rights in 1919. The third group were africanamerican women. These were women who were, again, avid suffragists. Had actively campaigned to help women or to try and help women win the right to vote in the United States, but for whom the vote had a completely different significance than white women. For africanamerican women, they believed black women needed the vote fundamentally to help fight the systemic discrimination and racism and violence that their communities suffered on a daily basis. And there were a very a surprising large number of africanamerican 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 applied for passport to go to paris in 1919 and they were both denied those passports by the state department. Youre seeing a portrait of ida b. Wells and on the right madam c. J. Walker who by some peoples estimates was the wealthiest selfmade woman in america at the end of world war i. Both of these women tried to go to paris but were prevented from doing so by the american state department. But there were other africanamerican women who were able to go or who were already in paris, who made a mark on unfolding events there. Two of whom i feature in my book. On the left youre looking at the 1919 passport of feminist suffragist and civil rights activist mary church harrell who was invited to go to europe by jane adams and the passivist women and shared many of the same goals of them. But who also, once she got to paris, realized that she was the only woman of color from anywhere in the world who was invited to be a delegate at that conference. So she spent much of her time in europe trying to persuade White International feminists to make Racial Justice an integral part of their demand for womens rights and human rights at the moment of the peace settlement and moving forward. The other woman whom you see on the screen in that somewhat blurry photograph there, shes seated in the front with a white collar, that is ida gibbs hunt. She was actually a friend of mary church terrell. The two of them had been roommates at college. The two of them were among the first five women to get a full fouryear degree africanamerican women to be able to get a full fouryear degree after the civil war. Ida gibbs hunt took a different route to paris. Her husband was one of the few diplomats of color in the American Foreign service. She had lived in colonial africa with him in madagascar and then in france, in southern france. She went up to paris in 1919 in order to collaborate with the man seated in front of her in that picture. That is the famous intellectual and journalist w. E. B. Du bois to who convened a Panafrican Congress in paris to bring together people of color from the United States, from europe, from the caribbean, and from africa in order to advocate Racial Justice in this peace settlement. And i will just say up front, w. E. B. Dubois, who is a remarkable figure, is given all the credit for this remarkable event in 1919. Ida gibbs hunt did most of the work and actually i argue in the book was a pretty strong intellect behind the shaping of the Panafrican Movement that came out of this congress as well. So, africanamerican women, labor women, passivist women were no less committed to womens suffrage than Mary Chapman Catt or alice paul, the women who stayed behind in 1919, but their commitment to suffrage intersected with a commitment to other pressing causes. Passivism, economic justice, Racial Justice, which they felt to be inextricably linked to womens rights campaigns and dignity and had a better advancement, they thought, outside of americas borders than within. On i hope i have convinced you here today that the American Battle for suffrage and for the 19th amendment has a farreaching and global history behind it, and as we move forward and commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment almost exactly a month from now, its my hope that well remember not only the suffrage leaders like ca it. T and paul for their tree sill yens of leadership but remember they never acted alone or in a vacuum. And that this battle for womens rights has been an International One from the beginning. Bringing women across the boundaries of religion and nation and race and uniting the interest 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, in fact, 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 so very much for your patience as i work through all this material. Mona, thank you so much. What a great conversation to really to so deeply, specifically and exquisitely show the type of thing that we talk about at the National World war i museum often which is that the life and the world and the concerns of 100 years ago is still so very similar to the conversations that we have today. And its not just about a pandemic. It is truly about so much more. Now, whether you are joining us via zoom or if 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 some more questions on both of these platforms, i would also invite you to take a look at 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 take to bookshop. Org, and take a look at peace on our terms global battle after world war on our terms, you are going to find some very specific names and new information, some new individuals, that i can guarantee that are not 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 do take a look at that book. Also, consider joining us for the teacher workshop version of this a little bit later on. Check it out at theworldwar. Org august 4th. Dr. Siegel, if i am not mistaken. So, your first question is actually going to come from lets see. Ashley cunningham. Is the Temperance Movement a factor in the exodus of women fighting for suffrage from the United States . I mean, the suffrage im sorry, the Temperance Movement converged 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 centuries. It drew 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. It made it larger and more popular, but it also made it more mainstream. And so there were there were some women who no longer felt as comfortable in the National American womens suffrage association, for example, by the early 20th century, which had largely embraced the cause of temperance along with a much more moderate stance. Im going to read well, this is bridging a little from the past to the present. Well see how comfortable you are with this. This question comes from kevin. What is the likelihood, in your opinion, of seeing an equal rights amendment to the constitution adopted any time soon . I. E. , the next decade. I like, kevin, your idea of any time soon. Thats excellent. And that he gives a tenyear time span, too. A different perspective. A short story first. My very First Political act was signing a petition for the e. R. A. I was less than 10 years old and a radical aunt of mine told me i needed to sign this petition, which i did, and i got a thank you note signed by my colorado legislator at the time signed with a smiley face. Somehow she knew what my age was. So, the e. R. A. , of course, has been around for a long, long time. In fact, its been around since the 1920s when alice paul and the National Womens party took it up after after having won the passage of the 19th amendment. It was actually extremely controversial among suffragists in america in the 20s and 30s. Labor suffragists in particular were fundamentally opposed to the e. R. A. Because they were afraid that they would lose some of the special protections that they had gained and counted on in order to fight the rampant exploitation they suffered in the workplace. By the 1970s, though, that was no longer the case. Feminists were fairly united around an e. R. A. Agenda. So, the question isnt about the past, its about the future. Theres a lot of constitutional and legal hurdles to get beyond the e. R. A. , not the least of which is the fact that actually most of those ratifications have expired. So, as much as i might really want and be willing to fight for an e. R. A. In the United States, im not holding my breath, unfortunately, even in the next ten years. But maybe ill be proven wrong. All right. This question comes from shareeka crawford. Where did the interwar suffragists land by the beginning of the Second World War . In other words, how did they reconcile the diverse demands from the more inclusive concerns of international women, i. E. , egyptian, indian, working class and women of color, i. E. , africanamericans . So, there were three major interNational Womens organizations by the 20s and 30s. The two most not necessarily the two largest but the two most active by that point in imtoo were the alliance, the old interNational Womens suffrage the old interNational Womens Suffrage Alliance which became the womens alliance, and the Womens International league for peace and freedom. Of the two organizations, the second, the Womens International league for peace and freedom was the more inclusive. Not just in terms of welcoming women of color or women from formally colonized countries but making an issue of imperialism and Racial Justice. The league sponsored a delegation to go to haiti which was under American Military occupation in the 1920s. And one of the another africanamerican woman who had been in paris in 1919 who i didnt talk about today was one of the women included in that delegation. And they sent another delegation to into china, japan and china in the late 1920s and the woman who served as their interpreter in china was a woman who is by far the most interesting person in my book, even though i didnt 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, an avid nationalist. She became chinas first female lawyer and judge. And was involved in interNational Womens suffrage as well. Now ive completely lost track of the question. But i think looking at the Womens International league for peace and freedom, while it remained predominantly western and predominantly white, it was a space in which both africanamerican women and women from former colonized countries or still colonized countries began to at least be able to network and begin to fight the battles that were most important to them. Weeknights this month we are featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. And tonight we look at president john f. Kennedys assassination. A week after his death, president Lyndon Johnson appointed Supreme Court chief justice orel warren to lead a commission to investigate. Author Philip Shenon takes us to the original Conference Room on capitol hill to discuss key artifacts and lingering controversy surrounding the kennedy report. Watch at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. And enjoy American History tv every weekend on cspan3. 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 africanamerican became involved in womens suffrage and other political movements in the first half of the 1920s. The United States Historical Society and womens Suffrage Centennial commission hosted this event. Dr. Martha jones was the