BCRW, Barnard Center for Research on Women From the Collection
Exhibits from the ephemeral archives at the Barnard Center for Research on Women

About the Exhibits

EXHIBITS:

· Gender and Sexuality in Higher Education
· Lesbian Activism
· Women in the Workforce
· Women and Militarism
· Women and Religion
· Feminism and Sexual Health
· Women's Prison Activism

Women and Militarism

Women and the Draft Vietnam: A Feminist Analysis Listen to the Women for a Change
Feminism: The Hope for a Future International Feminist Disarmament Meeting The Greenham Factor
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice Resource Handbook Women's Encampment for the Future of Peace and Justice Flyer 1
Women's Encampment for the Future of Peace and Justice Flyer 2 National Women's Conference to Prevent Nuclear War Woman: Unity and Struggle - August 1990
Woman: Unity and Struggle - November 1990 Battle Dress Okinawa Women's American Peace Caravan
These U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa...

Scroll down for information about each item in the exhibit.

Exhibit curated by Lucy Trainor, '07
Published Spring 2008

Women's movements and anti-militarism movements have a long history of collaboration in the U.S. and worldwide. This exhibit from the BCRW collection highlights some of the linkages between women's activism and protest against war and militarism from a wide range of contexts—from anti-nuclear activism in the United Kingdom, to movements for peace and human rights in El Salvador, to freedom from U.S. imperialism in Japan and many more global efforts to draw attention to and organize around anti-war and antimilitarism causes. From these documents, which provide a glimpse into over 20 years of activism, from 1972-1995, we can see that movements directed by women—which don't necessarily always define themselves as "feminist" movements—have often been at the forefront of broader citizen-led actions for peace and justice.


Women and the Draft

Click image above to download (PDF, 2.7 MB)

Women and the Draft: What does "equal rights" mean?
Published by Women United, 1972

The Equal Rights Amendment, proposed to be the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, was passed by Congress in 1972 but failed to be ratified by the thirty-eight states required to pass a new amendment by the 1982 deadline. The Equal Rights Amendment stated that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex," which would have outlawed all forms of sex discrimination. One of the strategies used by opponents of the ERA to discourage its passage was emphasizing the ways in which women would supposedly no longer be specially protected under the law, especially in the case of military service and the draft. This pamphlet, published by Women United in 1972, explains how the ERA would really affect women in terms of military service. The authors argue that by excluding women from military service, women are unable to receive the benefits available to veterans. They also argue that the increasing level of technology used in combat makes it even more likely that women would be equally physically capable as men in the military. Finally, they encourage the reader to think not just about what it means for women specifically to be drafted in the military service, but to consider how the draft affects men as well and whether it should be abolished.


Libera Article

Click image above to download (PDF, 7.3 MB)

Vietnam: A Feminist Analysis
Libera (Issue No. 3), 1973

Libera was a cultural feminist journal published in association with the Berkeley Women's Collective. One of the aims of this publication was "illuminating not only women's political and intellectual achievements, but also her fantasies, dreams, art, the dark side of her face...." The article "Vietnam: A Feminist Analysis" was written by Lesbian Feminists and was originally given as a speech at an anti-war protest in Boston on May 6, 1973. The article highlights the linkages between violent and aggressive U.S. military actions abroad in Vietnam, and the violence that is perpetrated against women at home in the form of rape and sexual violence, arguing that imperialism, militarism, and misogyny are all products of an American society that encourages male aggression and violence. The authors argue that just like militarism, rape is "the symbolic expression of the white male hierarchy" and we must undergo a complete cultural change in order to bring an end to both war and rape.


Listen to the Women

Click image above to download (PDF, 10.2 MB)

Listen to the Women for a Change
Edited by Kay Camp
Published by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1975

Listen to the Women for a Change was published in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, a feminist antiwar and antiviolence organization which has existed since 1915. According to the WILPF website, their goals are "to achieve through peaceful means world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, an end to all forms of violence, and to establish those political, social, and psychological conditions which can assure peace, freedom, and justice for all." This collection brings together the thoughts and writings of over 50 feminist and antiwar activists, including Bella Abzug, Margaret Mead, Angela Davis, Coretta Scott King, and others who have worked to achieve these goals and to assure human rights for people worldwide.


Feminism: the Hoep for a Future

Click image above to download (PDF, 1.1 MB)

Feminism: The Hope for a Future
Published by the American Friends Service Committee, 1981

"Feminism: The Hope for a Future" was published by the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that was founded in 1917 and is committed to engaging in and promoting social justice and peace programs around the world. This collection features writings about feminist perspectives on the threat of nuclear war, the connections between the feminist and anti-war movements, and the idea of patriarchal culture as the driving force behind all types of war and violence. Like many of the feminist writings on war at this time, this collection expresses the beliefs that the dominant male culture is responsible for the proliferation of violence and that women have a special responsibility to promote peace.


Feminist Disarmament Meeting

Click image above to download (PDF, 1.2 MB)

International Feminist Disarmament Meeting
By Linda Bullard and Mary Noland
Released by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1982

This announcement from May 1982 was an invitation to participate in an International Feminist Disarmament Meeting hosted by the American Friends Service Committee and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Coinciding with the UN Special Session on Disarmament, this meeting, which took place on June 11, 1982, at Barnard College, sought to bring together activists from all over the globe to exchange ideas on how to bring an end to militarism and abolish nuclear weapons, and also provided a platform for feminist positions that were not given voice at the UN Special Session.


The Greenham Factor

Click image above to download (PDF, 11 MB)

Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp

Click image above to download (PDF, 6.6 MB)

The Greenham Factor
Published by Greenham Print Prop, 1983

Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
1983

Greenham Common was an airfield located about 45 miles West of London, used by the British and American militaries during World War II. During the Cold War, it was the site of intense protest in the early 1980s when the United States Air Force was given permission by the British government to base cruise missiles there as a protection against the perceived threat of the Soviet Union. In a movement that came to be known as the "Women's Peace Camp," British women from all walks of life staged a variety of acts of civil disobedience and protest, from pinning photographs, protest flags, and baby clothes to the fences that enclosed the military site, to breaking into the base and dancing atop a missile silo. The first actions began in September 1981, and anti-military and anti-nuclear protests continued there through the 1990s, even after the U.S. removed their forces and missiles from the base in 1992. These two documents detail the actions of the Women's Peace Camp and give voice to the women who protested there, many of them for months at a time, facing arrests and police harassment. The movement encouraged women to "use our imaginations to combine our politics with the personal" and fight for a more peaceful world.


Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice Resource Handbook

Click image above to download (PDF, 13.3 MB)

Women's Encampment for the Future of Peace and Justice Flyer 1

Click image above to download (PDF, 2.7 MB)

Women's Encampment for the Future of Peace and Justice Flyer 2

Click image above to download (PDF, 176 KB)

Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice Resource Handbook
1983

Women's Encampment for the Future of Peace and Justice Flyers
1983

With the impact and success of the protests at the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp in England, anti-nuclear activists in the U.S. began to use similar civil disobedience tactics to garner support and attention to their cause. The Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice was located at the Seneca Army Depot in Seneca, NY during the Summer of 1983. The Seneca Army Depot was a location at which nuclear weapons were stored by the U.S. Department of Defense. The women involved in this action organized a march to the Depot and staged many protests and acts of civil disobedience while the Camp was in operation, from July-September 1983. These flyers and this Resource Handbook give information on the Camp and background on the connections between the feminist and the antiwar movement.


National Women's Conference to Prevent Nuclear War

Click image above to download (PDF, 1.2 MB)

National Women's Conference to Prevent Nuclear War
Conference Program and Proclamation
1984

This National Women's Conference to Prevent Nuclear War, which took place September 11-12, 1984, was sponsored by the Women's Project of the Center for Defense Information. The Center for Defense Information, founded in 1972, is a non-profit and nonpartisan organization and "provides expert analysis on various components of U.S. national security, international security and defense policy [and] promotes wide-ranging discussion and debate on security issues such as nuclear weapons, space security, missile defense, small arms and military transformation" (CDI website). The Reagan administration's foreign policy agenda and emphasis on increased militarism and nuclear weaponry as a defense against the Soviet Union was of great concern to many U.S. citizens. The women's anti-war and anti-nuclear movement had already received great attention and popular support worldwide, especially in the wake of the Greenham Common and other women's "Peace Camp" movements, prompting the organization of this conference in 1984. The conference program lists the many speakers and perspectives which were represented at this event and the "Proclamation" against nuclear war asks participants to demonstrate their commitment to ending the threat of nuclear war by signing a petition.


Woman: Unity and Struggle - August 1990

Click image above to download (PDF, 392 KB)

Woman: Unity and Struggle - November 1990

Click image above to download (PDF, 284 KB)

Woman: Unity and Struggle
Published by ADEMUSA, August 1990

Woman: Unity and Struggle
Published by ADEMUSA, November 1990

These two volumes of Woman: Unity and Struggle were published by ADEMUSA, the Association of Salvadoran Women, an organization that was founded in El Salvador in 1988 and briefly maintained chapters in the U.S. in the early 1990s. ADEMUSA was founded at the height of the Salvadoran civil war, a conflict between the right-wing government that was sponsored financially by the U.S. and the leftist revolutionaries who were supported by the Soviet Union. Government repression of the leftist forces led to the assassination and disappearance of thousands of Salvadorans who spoke out against the military regime and against the U.S. for providing aid and training to the government. The two issues of Woman: Unity and Struggle describe many aspects of the conflict in El Salvador, and how women in particular have organized to fight government repression and promote human rights.


Battle Dress

Click image above to download (PDF, 3.1 MB)

Battle Dress
Published by Women in Black, 1994

This 'zine, published by Women in Black, comments on the use of rape as a form of terrorism during war, specifically focusing on the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which Serbian forces systematically raped Muslim women and girls. Women in Black is an anti-war organization that conducts street protests and vigils worldwide to demonstrate against the harmful effects of war and militarism on women and to call for peace and human rights. Most recently, they have been involved in staging silent protests against the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in cities all over the world. This 'zine features articles and commentary on the use of rape as a tool of war, in particular in the Bosnian War.


Okinawa Women's American Peace Caravan

Click image above to download (PDF, 4 MB)

These U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa

Click image above to download (PDF, 6.5 MB)

Okinawa Women's American Peace Caravan
February 1996

These U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa...
Published by Okinawan Women Act Against Military Violence, 1995-1996

In September 1995, three U.S. soldiers stationed at the U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan, brutally beat and raped a twelve year old local Japanese girl. The U.S. military authorities refused to turn over the accused rapists to the Japanese government, and the Okinawan people, outraged by this response, organized a number of protests and organizations dedicated to fighting U.S. imperialism and militarism in Japan. As an article from the Japan Times Weekly, reprinted in "These U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa" states, this rape was not an isolated incident and represented a larger problem with the military base, citing the fact that although Americans constitute just 4.2% of the population in Okinawa, they "comprise 11.5% of the suspects in serious felonies, including murder, rape, robbery and arson." Among the activism that sprouted up around this incident, the Okinawa Women's America Peace Caravan was one of the organizations that was able to spread awareness of this problem to the U.S., by traveling through San Francisco, Washington, New York, and Honolulu in February 1996.

Back to top
©2008 Barnard Center for Research on Women