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Women and Militarism |
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Click image above to download (PDF, 11 MB)
Click image above to download (PDF, 6.6 MB)
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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.
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Click image above to download (PDF, 13.3 MB)
Click image above to download (PDF, 2.7 MB)
Click image above to download (PDF, 176 KB)
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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.
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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.
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Click image above to download (PDF, 392 KB)
Click image above to download (PDF, 284 KB)
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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.
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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.
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Click image above to download (PDF, 4 MB)
Click image above to download (PDF, 6.5 MB)
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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.
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