The Inter-Allied Women’s Conference opened in Paris on 10 February 1919. It was convened parallel to the Paris Peace Conference to introduce women’s issues to the peace process after the First World War. Leaders in the international women’s suffrage movement had been denied the opportunity to participate in the official proceedings. On 10 April, women were finally allowed to present a resolution to the League of Nations Commission.
About Inter-Allied Women’s Conference in brief
The Inter-Allied Women’s Conference opened in Paris on 10 February 1919. It was convened parallel to the Paris Peace Conference to introduce women’s issues to the peace process after the First World War. Leaders in the international women’s suffrage movement had been denied the opportunity to participate in the official proceedings several times. On 10 April, women were finally allowed to present a resolution to the League of Nations Commission. It covered the trafficking and sale of women and children, their political and suffrage status, and the transformation of education to include the human rights of all persons in each nation. Though the women involved failed to achieve many of their aims, their efforts marked the first time that women were allowed to participate formally in an international treaty negotiation. They were successful in gaining the right for women to serve in theleague of Nations in all capacities, whether as staff or delegates; and in gaining adoption of their provisions for humane labour conditions and the prevention of trafficking. In response, French feminists, acting under the leadership of Marguerite de Witt-Schlumberger, invited international colleagues to meet in Paris in a parallel conference scheduled to open on 10February. They sent invitations to delegates from all Allied nations, asking for women’s views to present to the conference to present their concerns and concerns to the delegates of the conference. The fact that the women wereallowed to participate validated women’s ability to take part in international policy-making and globalised the discussion of human rights. The women’s conference was the initial forum for establishing the terms of peace; it was by design a global conference with representation from 33 nations, concerned with a broad mandate extending to the establishment of a new international community based on moral and legal principles.
As such, it was the focus of NGO and lobby groups eager to advance their agendas by vigorous advocacy. The International Women’s Committee organised a special meeting by Rosika Schwimmer, the founder of the Hungarian ambassador to the International League of Permanent Peace, in Berne, Switzerland, between 3 and 8 February. The meeting resolved that they would support a democratically formed League of United Nations and women’s participation in the Paris peace conference. In the aftermath of the war, women’s civil and political rights were domestic issues. A delegation of 80 French women led by Valentine Thomson, editor of La Vie Feminine and daughter of former cabinet minister Gaston Thomson, met with President Wilson on 1 February at Villa Murat to press for their inclusion in the deliberations of the peace Conference. They stressed that because some women had fought alongside men, and many women had provided support for men in the war. They wrote to Wilson again on 25 January, they stressed that women’s rights should be addressed at the conference, and stressed that some women should be included in the peace talks as well as the peace negotiations. The need for restoring stability, secrecy, and speedy progress, however, prevented the public sessions from doing so. The meetings of the Supreme Council, headed by the Prime Minister and foreign minister of each of the Principal Powers, served as the negotiation sessions for delegates in attendance.
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