Antiwar women: The role of the Feminist-Pacifist-Internationalist Movement in American foreign policy and international relations, 1898-1930

This dissertation examines the thesis that the Feminist-Pacifist-Internationalist Movement (FPIM) was and is a social movement that has played a continuing role in the development of American foreign policy and international relations. FPIM members were anti-war women who saw themselves as a positive and functional movement attempting to influence both the processes and outcomes of political systems. Using interest group tactics, they attempted to create change within an established political culture that favored tradition and continuity. The first wave of the movement explored in this analysis extended from the 1898 Spanish-American War through 1930 and included efforts to influence decisions relating to World War I, Versailles Treaty and League of Nations negotiations, and the movement to outlaw war that culminated in the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact.;A convergence of social movement, interest group and political culture theory has been used as a framework for exploration of the anti-war goals, strategies and tactics of the FPIM. Jane Addams and the Woman's Peace Party (later the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom) and Carrie Chapman Catt and the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War furnish the primary case studies that establish the existence of the FPIM. Along with many other individuals and groups involved in the movement, these leaders and their organizations faced considerable resistance from both private and governmental forces that were opposed to all three controversial aspects of this movement: feminism, pacifism, and internationalism.;Movements such as the FPIM have been virtually ignored by political historians until very recently. However, as one aspect of the current wave of the ongoing women's movement, with its focus on women's studies, feminist scholars are now exploring women's participation in political processes historically and in contemporary societies. As part of that new tradition, this dissertation examines the first generation of enfranchised women college graduates who participated in Progressive era politics through articulation of their concerns, creation of public awareness, and provision of ideas and information into the decision-making system. An examination of their activities and responses to them indicates that although FPIM women failed to attain immediate goals, they contributed to the evolution of twentieth-century diplomatic thought and policy.