Rise of Global Feminism in 1919 as New World Order: Peace on Our Terms

In 1919, statesmen and representatives from across the globe gathered in Paris to end the war to end all wars and remake the world based on the principles of equality and peace. For all their talk of social justice, however, women from all nations were notably excluded from these peace talks and their relentless activism during that year has been seemingly left on the cutting room floor of history. Mona L. Siegel’s newest work, Peace on Our Terms: The Global Battle for Women’s Rights After the First World War, restores these women to their rightful place in the history of global feminism and recounts the lives and work of women that many readers will be unfamiliar with. With its focus solely on the year 1919, only briefly discussing later developments in the epilogue, Peace on Our Terms offers a unique and previously untold narrative of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference as a catalyst for global feminism that would shape the new world order for generations to come.

Peace on Our Terms begins immediately following the armistice of 1918 and the end of World War I when men and women from all over the world flocked to France to make their voices heard in the Paris peace talks. Despite being denied a seat at the table, Siegel argues that it was not for lack of trying on the part of women. Readers will learn that feminists like Marguerite de Witt Schlumberger met with United States President, Woodrow Wilson, on numerous occasions to lobby for representation at these talks as well as for their own Women’s commission. Siegel makes it clear that these women were not going to be silenced by President Wilson or anyone else. All throughout 1919, these global activists would organize separately, on their own terms, with the approval of their fellow men or without.

Usually placed at the forefront of the suffrage movement, white Western suffragists are instead forced to share the spotlight with feminist activists from all over Europe, the Middle East, North America, and Asia. The scope of Peace on Our Terms’ global account is extensive, covering important meetings and events that took place anywhere from Zurich to Cairo to Beijing to Washington and elsewhere. Peace on Our Terms is also nothing if not inclusive, with stories from women of all different racial, class, and religious backgrounds given their due. These feminists ranged from Egyptian nationalists to African American civil rights activists to Japanese labor advocates. Along with the aforementioned Marguerite de Witt Schlumberger, Siegel includes intimate anecdotes from the lives of other such activists as Mary Church Terrell, Ida Gibbs Hunt, Huda Shaarawi, Jane Addams, Soumay Tcheng, Rose Schneider-man, Jeanne Bouvier, and dozens of other trailblazers. Their stories are tragic and powerful, including one woman who experienced sexual violence during the Armenian Genocide and another who was entered into a polygamous marriage as a child bride. Accounts such as these feel personal and readers will grow to like and respect these women for their struggles as well as their accomplishments.

Given its relatively short length, there is an incredible amount of detail included in the descriptions of these women and the events they were involved with and, as a character-driven historical narrative, it is in the personal stories that Peace on Our Terms really shines. Siegel does a phenomenal job of explaining what each of these women brought to the table due to their different backgrounds. For instance, there is an enlightening anecdote about Mary Church Terrell being the only member of the American Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Records (WILPF) to speak out against a petition to remove African American colonial troops from the Rhine-land due to rumors and concerns that black soldiers were likely to rape German women. As the only woman of color on the board, Terrell had a perspective that white women did not and she wrote to Jane Addams explaining that women of her race had been assaulted by men of all races with impunity and that there was no actual evidence to suggest that black soldiers were any more violent than those of other races. It was only due to Terrell’s initiative and her principles that Addams and the American WILPF board declined to endorse the petition. This is just one example of the unique perspectives readers will gain insight into as they learn about these incredibly diverse activists.

Despite its brevity, readers will appreciate Peace on Our Terms’ extensive note section, as well as its detailed timeline of women’s activism in 1919, and its accompanying pictures and illustrations that further serve to transport the reader back in time. Considering the scope of what Siegel set out to accomplish with Peace on Our Terms, one must appreciate the diligent transnational and multilingual research that goes into a book as involved and complex as this. The academic scholarship and interpretation presented here are exceptional and it is easy to envision Siegel’s work being cited in future academic publications.

Peace on Our Terms also features a unique structure of six lengthy chapters broken into sections based mostly on events in the aforementioned timeline. This makes for easy finding of specific events but it does not present in the typical chronological order to which readers might be accustomed and may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Despite this, Siegel’s style leans towards contemporary, and even non-academic readers will find Peace on Our Terms to be an accessible and engaging historical account.

Peace on Our Terms presents readers with a deeply researched, engrossing account of the rise of global feminism in 1919. As a character-driven narrative, it succeeds in reintroducing the stories and accomplishments of women who worked together on an international scale to shape the new world order, in spite of language and cultural barriers in addition to significant resistance from statesmen and legislators. Excluded from the formal Paris peace talks, these women demanded to be heard, formed their own organizations, and fought for a lasting peace that would include people of all races, genders, and classes. With its unique retelling of a much written about a year, Peace on Our Terms: The Global Battle for Women’s Rights After the First World War offers readers a broader understanding of the role of the Paris Peace Conference in sparking a rise in global feminism that would endure for generations.