Title: Frauenstimmrecht und Völkersteundigung
Description: German pacifist feminist Lida Gustava Heymann wrote this short book during World War I as part of the series "New Directions in Foreign Politics." Heymann would later become active in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and along with Anita Augspurg published the WILPF German-language monthly Die Frau im Staat (Woman in the State) from 1919 to 1933. In Women's Suffrage and International Understanding Heymann stressed the need for women's suffrage as a deterrent for war. Women, according Heymann, were essentially pacifist because as mothers they held an inherent respect and value for human life that men often lacked. If women participated in political decisions, there would be fewer wars. Heymann also discussed the 1915 meeting of women from across Europe and the United States at The Hague: the founding moments of WILPF. She criticized women in the organized German women's movement for supporting the war and applauded cooperation between women beyond national borders. In particular, Heymann quoted correspondence between English, French, Austrian and German women expressing solidarity with each other while their nations were at war. In the latter half of her book Heymann conducted a systematic survey of the state of women's suffrage around the world including Europe, New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Canada. Although Heymann wrote her book in June 1917 as a response to World War I, it was published in 1919 after the Germans surrendered. In the 1918 appendix, Heymann expressed her hopes that in the midst of German military defeat women would begin to exert political influence. She recognized the importance of female suffrage in Germany, granted in 1918, yet counseled women on their new political responsibilities and urged them to continue the fight against war.
Subjects: International law, Women, Suffrage, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
People: Lida Gustava Heymann (1868-1943)