"Peace Comedy": The 1915 International Congress of Women

Using the personal papers of participants and published accounts, this paper highlights the gendered nature of international politics and law in the early twentieth century. In 1899, at the First Peace Convention at The Hague, no female delegates were permitted to attend. In 1907, at the Second Peace Convention, the leadership of the International Council of Women (ICW) was determined to attend and to speak. A deputation of women presented a petition with two million signatures affirming their belief in arbitration. The ICW’s intervention was headlined in the press as “Peace Comedy at The Hague,” a mocking dismissal of their peace activism. However, this ridicule did not deter them, and by 1914, the ICW had become the most influential international women’s organization. Frustration over the start of the war and the marginalization of their peace efforts led to the 1915 Congress of Women held at The Hague. Over 1,000 women from 12 countries including neutral and belligerent states convened to discuss how to end the war and to draft a new international legal system to prevent future wars.  Remarkably, a ridiculed and politically powerless group of women used the opportunity to draft a concrete proposal for a new international legal system.  While their proposals were not adopted at the time, the Congress laid the foundation for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), which later successfully implemented many of the proposals highlighting the visionary objectives of the women at the 1915 Congress.