To Meet or Not to Meet: Mending the Bonds of International Sisterhood after the First World War

When World War I ended in 1918, international feminist organizations entered an era ripe with promise and fraught with difficulties. The impending peace negotiations offered a rare opportunity to champion women’s rights on the international stage. To do so effectively, however, feminists from belligerent states would have to transcend wartime animosities and come together around a common agenda. The question of whether to meet proved an anguished one for Western feminists, as the public and private correspondence of the leaders of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance amply demonstrates. Although the moderate suffragists of the IWSA ultimately found it prudent not to bring former “enemy women” together in 1919, this essay argues that the organization’s acrimonious debate over if, how, and when to meet after World War I was a cathartic one, allowing French, Belgian, and German feminists to air grievances, express remorse, reaffirm shared ideals, and mend the frayed bonds of sisterhood.