Transcripts For CSPAN3 Global History Of The 19th Amendment 20240711

I have about 45, 50 minutes of stories and information 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. 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 exactly 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 onto 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 than what had given way to 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 workingclass women. It is a story of women married to tremendously supportive husbands and also women who engaged in lifelong single sex relationships. It is a story of white women and we will 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, or 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 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 . 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 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 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 a 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 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 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 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 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 who are featured in my book and who made this postworld 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. And 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 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. 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 anglophone enomenon. In fact, by the early 20th century 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 1911. Taking up arms and smuggling bombs in order to make that happen. 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 in 1917 indian suffragists would put forth their first formal request for the fan chooiz during world war i. It was also true in Continental Europe that womens 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 at that woman is known by the name marguerite de berger. 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 just 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 suffragists 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 just 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 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 farms as well. And that picture at the center of the screen is a french post card 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, there were also women 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 that the work that 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 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. But in april of 1917 nonetheless wilson went before the American Congress and requested a declaration of war on the central powers, which is to say generation aus tro 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 side of the screen, 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 its president Carrie Chapman cat, the women all in white with the American Flag on her sleeve. She thought that it would behoove suffragists to throw their support behind the war 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 twoe 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 he was 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 in places 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 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 de witt schlumberger, the french suffragist 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, europe, north america, 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 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 proclaim 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 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 and 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 where 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 was not the first time he publicly endorsed an amendment but it was one of the first. And this pressure from abroad was part of what was on his mind as he finally made the decision. Now, in france, europe, women were elated as well. They sent it to 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 part of this democratic new world order. And European Allied suffragists now had this as a tool in their tool chests and were able 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 negotiating and french and european feminists were at the epicenter of this push. So were back to Marguerite Dewitt schlumberger here who was still active and scheming and planning. This is the letter she sent to Woodrow Wilson on january 18, 1919. That was the opening day of the paris peace conference. 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 en wilson, as you might imagine, was a pretty busy man at the beginning 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 schlumberger and about 20 other french suffragists who insisted 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 again were elated and they 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 participated. And you know, you can go on shelves of books at the library or book stores 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. The 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 male dominated 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 that they thought needed to be addressed by the peace settlement if the diplomats really wanted to create lasting and stable Peaceful World order. So their demands included recognition of womens right to vote and hold office. What they ideally wanted was for only nations that had enforced womens suffrage or allowed womens suffrage to be recognized as members of the new world government, the league of nations, which would then give way to the united nations. They wanted recognition of we womens economic rights including equal pay for equal work. And they called for an international denunciation of violence against women and girls in war time, including rape and forced deportation. This last issue became very important to them in february of 1919, when a woman by the name of zabel yasayan 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 interallied women 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, on february 5th, 1919 when he brought the issue before the meeting of the supreme council. Some of the male diplomats in the room, and he told them that he 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 congress. Take that he 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 on. Theres an interesting story to apologize and said i couldnt make this happen. He blamed it specifically on the asian diplomats in the room, on the backward eastern countries, which is a blatant lie. And 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 interests 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 whole series of issues of interest to them. And then at the second, 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 seven of the league of nations which was itself enshrined in the versailles treaty. This was for womens suffrage that they 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 then in the near futurl all political positions in all civilized countries in the world will be open to women. Now 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 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 skreerngs a woman by the name of hoda sharawi, 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 on sharawi and a little bit about the story. Hoda sharawi 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 upset when 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 fortune in the family but which sharawi 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 in her young adulthood, was able to continue bringing tutors in the home to educate herself, 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 one, she would lead upper class women in joining in the nationwide revolt against british imperialism that coalesced in the 1919 egyptian revolution. Now, this was a movement that was led by a handful of egyptian male nationalist leaders including sharawis 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 enforcing martial law in egypt. That was extremely costly for the egyptian people. After the war was over, days after the war was over, some of these egyptian nationalist male leaders went to the British Colonial authorities and demanded the right to, requested an audience so 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 nationalist 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 ake te er the movement in their absence. And elite egyptian women began joining publicly in the struggle. But theyve 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. Sharawi 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 foreign legation quarters of the americans and french and italians in cairo to put forward this demand and ask peacemakers to put pressure on britain to recognize 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 essentially to sexually harass these women, to taunt them and question their honor for being seen out in public. They were left to swelter under the blazing sun for hours on end and their march was ultimately 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. And 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 the letter on the screen, this was signed by in the name of the women of egypt. It says on there, we believe in president wilson and his principles of liberty and human fraternity. We believe in american disinterestedness and 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 crushed in egypt. So clearly the priority for these egyptian women in 1919 was to bring about an end to colonialism and to 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 fighting 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, essentially thank you for your help, now you can return home. Hoda sharawi 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. She would also begin to collaborate with international feminists to forward a global womens rights agenda. So the photograph youre seeing on the screen here is shaarawi in the middle with two other feminist activists from egypt and rome in 1923 meeting with the interNational Womens Suffrage Association. So the passage of the 19th amendment, again, took place against this global backdrop. And there was a movement that was very much aimed directly at americans and at president wilson who claimed 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 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 package of the suffrage amendment. 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 with all the flowers on her arms, shes being congratulated upon passage of 1 t 1th amendment. Carrie chapman cat was not just the president of the National American womens Suffrage Association. She was also the International President of the interNational Womens Suffrage Alliance. And 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 Alliance is here helping us advocate for womens rights at the peace negotiatio negotiations. Catt, however, wasnt going to have anything of it. She wrote back that americans were in the, quote, 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 predominant 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. Now, ive 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 pacifist 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 nurturers of humanity and those who gave birth to the next generations would never, ever allow another war to occur. They believed that women were natural pacifists. So 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 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 American Legislature in the 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 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 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 then took the train back to paris and delivered into the hands of the peacemaker, laying out womens demands that they thought need to be inserted into the peace treaty in order to make it lasting and enduring. Now, in addition to pacifist 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 poor circumstances working in horrific conditions and working their way up through the Union Movement in the United States. One of these you can see in the picture at the bottom of the screen there. Shes surrounded by the sea of hats. Shes looking outwards 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 the part of the russian empire where jews were allowed to settle. She was from a desperately poor jewish family that fled russia to america, fleeing the pogroms in her community. 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 sweat shops on 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 1, which is when this photograph was taken, schneiderman stepped back from her union work in order to advocate for womens suffrage particularly among workingclass men. Now, when world war i was over, she along with another workingclass 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 conference of International Working women which met at the same time as the meeting of the International Labor organization 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 i. L. O. In 1919. It has since been met or surpassed by every developed country in the world, except for the United States of america. So pacifist women and labor women were one of the two groups who traveled abroad rather than staying home to advocate womens rights in 1919. The third group were africanamerican women. These were women who were, again, avid suffragists. Had actively campaigned to try and help women earn the right to vote in the United States, but for whom 9 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 passports to go to paris in 1919 and they were both denied those passports by the state department. So on the left of course youre seeing a portrait of ida b. Wells, the famous antilynching crusader and feminist. 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 Terrell who was invited to go to europe by jane adams and the pacifist women and who shared many of the same goals as them but who also once she got to paris realized she was the only woman of color from anywhere in the world who had been invited to be a dell gatd at that conference in zurich. 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 blurry photograph there, shes seated in the front with a white collar, that is ida gibbs hunt. She was a friend of Mary Church Terrell. The two of them had been roommates in college at oberlin. 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 who won vooend a Panafrican Congress in paris in 1919 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. I will say up front. W. E. B. Du bois who is a obviously remarkable figure is given really all of 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, pacifist women were no less committed to womens suffrage than Carrie Chapman catt or mary alice paul, the women who stayed behind in 1919, but their commitment to suffrage intersected with a commitment to other pressing causes. Pacifism, economic justice, Racial Justice, which they felt to be inextricably linked to womens rights, campaigns and dignity and had a better chance of advancement they thought wouts of americas borders than within. So 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 catt and paul for their resilience and leadership, but remember that 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 interests of a full half of humanity. When women were demanding peace on our terms in 1919, they were arguing that womens rights but in fact spoke to the most pressing question of the day, peace, stability, and democracy. I think those issues are just as pressing today as they were 100 years ago. Thank you so very much for your patience, as i work to all of this material. Mola, thank you so much. With a great conversation, to so deeply specifically, an exquisitely show when we talk about at the National Bullet material for the life and the world the concern of 100 years ago, is still so very similar to the conversation that we have today. It is not just about a pandemic, it is truly about so much more. Now, whether you are joining us via zoom, or joining us on facebook live, we would invite your questions, we would invite your conversations to continue a bit of this delving into the global battle for womens rights. I would also at this time i ask if you are taping 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 the World History teachers who have 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 and some new information, you individuals that you can be highlighting that i can almost guarantee either are not included in your textbook, or are included with a flat inversion. If some of their story, and some of their contribution to history, and contribution to who we are as a nation and as a Global Community today. Do you take a look at that, also, they consider joining us for the teacher workshop version of this a little bit later on. Check it out on the world war dot or august 4th, dr. Seagull, if im not mistaken. So your first question is actually going to come from lets see. Ashley cunningham. I mean the Temperance Movement converged very much with the Suffrage Movement in the United States. The womans Christian Temperance Union with a single largest Womens Organization in the United States in the late 19, and early 20th centuries. It drew many, many women into the American Suffrage Movement. By the same token, though, it did push the more radical women in the movement to the margins, it made it larger, more popular, and it made it more mainstream. So, there were some women who no longer felt as comfortable in the National American Suffrage Association by the early 20th century which had largely embraced the cause of temperance along with a much more moderate stance. I am going to read this is bridging a little from the past to the present, we will see how comfortable you are with this. This question comes from kevin, what is the likelihood, of seeing a equal rights amendment to the constitution adapted anytime soon . I. E. , the next decade . I like kevin, your idea of anytime soon. Back is a tenyear time span, from a majority and perspective. First political actor signing a petition for the er. I was less than ten years old, and a radical aunt of mine said i needed to sign this petition which i did. And i got a thank you note signed by my colorado legislators here at the time, side with a smiley face. Somehow she knew what my age was. The ari has been around for a very long time, in fact it has been around since the 1920s were alice paul, the National Womans Party took it up after having won the passage of the 19th amendment. It was actually extremely controversial among suffrage is in the americas in the twenties and thirties. Labor suffrage is in particular will fundamentally opposed to the e. R. A. They were afraid that they would lose some of the special protection, and gain and counted on in order to fight of the rampant exploitation that they suffered in the workplace. By the 1970s, though, that was no longer the case. Then in this were fairly united around an e. R. A agenda. The question is not about the past, it is about the future. There is a lot of constitutional and legal hurdles to get be on the e. R. A, not the least of which is the fact that most of these route roadmap ramifications have expired. As much as i would like, and be able to fight a e. R. A in the United States, i am not holding my breath unfortunately, even for the next ten years. Maybe i will be proven wrong. All right, this question comes from shriek, where did the inter war suffragists land by the end of the Second World War . In other words, how do they reconcile the diverse demands from the more inclusive concern of international women, egyptian, indian, working class women of color. I African Americans. So, there were three major interNational Womens organizations by the twenties and thirties. The two most not necessarily the two largest, but the two most acted in that time, where the alliance, it became the womans alliance, and the Womens International lead for peace and freedom which was founded by jane adams and all of the radical rattle coal passes and zurich. Of the two organizations, the seconds, when its International Lead for peace and freedom or the wealth, was by far the more inclusive. And not just in terms of welcoming women of color, or women of formally colonized countries, but also making an issue, imperialism and Racial Justice. The Womens International lead for peace and freedom for example sponsored a delegation to go to haiti, under American Military occupation in the 1920s. And another African American women who had been in paris in 1919 who did not talk about today, was one of the women included in a delegation. They sent another delegation to indo china, japan, and china and the late 19 twenties. I actually, the woman who served their as their interpreter in china was a woman by the name of who is by far the most interesting girl 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 peace conference, on the chinese delegation. She was a former bomb smuggler, a former nationalist, she became chinas first female lawyer and judge, and was involved in interNational Womens suffrage as well. Now i completely lost track of the conversation, and question, i think looking at the Womens International league of peace and freedom, well it remains predominantly western angry predominantly white, it was a space in which both African American women, and women of former colonies countries, or still colonized countries began to have map work and battles in five battles that were most important to them. Weeknights this month, we are featuring American History tv program and here is a preview of what thats martha jones author vanguard. A black woman insisted on a for all. Talks about sof