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THE WOMAN'S PEACE PARTY AND QUESTIONS OF GENDER SEPARATISM
Author(s) -
Craig John M.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0130.1994.tb00663.x
Subject(s) - dilemma , political science , principal (computer security) , capital (architecture) , sociology , gender studies , law , political economy , history , philosophy , epistemology , ancient history , computer science , operating system
The Woman's Peace Party (WPP), founded in 1915, represented the first national separate women's peace society established in the United States. Some of its principal founders, though, were uncertain initially about the idea of creating a gender‐exclusive group. Their uneasiness did not prevent the formation of the WPP, but the issue failed to go away. Rather, the separatist question affected WPP actions throughout World War I. Of all the WPP leaders who struggled with the separateness issue, the one who faced the dilemma most directly was Crystal Eastman, the guiding force of the organization's New York City branch. Two years after the WPP was founded, Eastman criticized the group for failing to “capitalize on women's greater regard for life.” She moved the New York City branch in this direction, but the WPP in general failed to make capital out of the fact that it expressed a woman's protest.