© The John Rylands University Library, The University of Manchester,
The impetus for an international organisation to promote the enfranchisement of women around the world came from the National American Woman Suffrage Association (N.A.W.S.A.) and from one of its most influential Presidents, Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947).
When Carrie Chapman Catt became President of the N.A.W.S.A. in 1900 the
Association had already played a part in the international women's movement,
hosting a women's congress in 1888 which had led to the formation of the
International Council of Women. But although the International Council of
Women had a Standing Committee on Suffrage and Rights of Citizenship it was
not its principal
As a first step Carrie Chapman Catt invited international delegates to attend the 34th Annual Convention of the N.A.W.S.A. The invitation was accepted by representatives from Australia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey who joined representatives from the U.S.A. and on 12 February 1902 the I.W.S.A. was born. An interim Committee was established, with Susan B. Anthony (1820- 1906) as Chairman and Carrie Chapman Catt as Secretary, to look after the affairs of the new Alliance until they could meet again at Berlin, Germany in 1904, in what was the first of their biennial international congresses.
The Congress at Berlin was attended by 33 delegates who adopted as their
motto "
Affiliation of a country to the Alliance was through the national woman suffrage society of that country. To avoid the confusion which might have arisen in an international organisation if internal differences of methodology and strategy, rife amongst suffrage campaigners in some of affiliated countries, had been allowed to dominate the agenda, only one society was eligible for affiliation from each country. So, in Great Britain, the affiliation was with the constitutional National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (N.U.W.S.S.), which subsequently became the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (N.U.S.E.C.), and not with the militant Women's Social and Political Union (W.S.P.U.). An exception to this rule appears to have been made in Denmark.
Countries which had no national association or which decided not to affiliate to the Alliance could send representatives to Congresses and fraternal delegates from any interested societies in affiliated countries were welcome to attend. Such delegates had no voting rights but it enabled their participation whilst also broadening the scope of the Congresses.
The first countries to affiliate to the Alliance were Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and the U.S.A. and they were soon followed by Denmark and Norway. By the time of the second biennial Congress at Copenhagen, Denmark in 1906 Canada and Hungary had affiliated and Australia expected to join.
It was here that the badge of the Alliance was adopted. This showed the sun rising from behind a woman who holds the scales of justice in her right hand and featured the Latin motto "
The third biennial Congress was held at Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1908 and saw the affiliation of Bulgaria, Finland, Italy, Russia, South Africa and Switzerland. In the following year the first Quinquennial Meeting of the Alliance and its 5th Annual Conference (dated from the first Congress at Berlin in 1904 rather than from the Alliance's inception in 1902) were held in London; Belgium and France becoming affiliated.
The fourth Congress was held at Stockholm, Sweden in 1911. New affiliations up to and including the Congress were Austria, Bohemia, Iceland and Servia.
The fifth Congress was held in 1913 at Budapest, Hungary. Attended by 12 official delegates from each of the 26 affiliated countries, fraternal delegates from other interested societies, representatives from unaffiliated countries, visitors and the press, some 2800 people attended the Congress.
Also in 1913 an International Headquarters for the Alliance was established in London. The address was 7 Adam Street, Adelphi, although during the war they were to move to 11 Adam Street. The English edition of
The next Congress should have been held in Berlin, again, in 1915 but the outbreak of the First World War made this impossible. The war inevitably diminished the activities of the I.W.S.A., not least because the women's organisations in all countries were using their skills, resources and contacts to administer war aid and the mobilisation of women into civilian trades as men were required for military service.
The work of the I.W.S.A. during the period of war should not, however, be underestimated. Their achievement was to maintain limited communications with at least some of the affiliated countries, even enemy nations, and to continue to publish in
The timing of the Congress after the War proved to be controversial with some members feeling that too much time had already been lost and others feeling that national sensibilities were too raw to attempt any kind of international gathering without first allowing time for the reconstruction of countries and the rebuilding of shattered lives.
There were plans for a Congress in Spain but ultimately the venue chosen was Geneva, Switzerland and the date 1920. The late date precipitated the resignation of Mary Sheepshanks, a key figure within the Alliance who had responsibility for the Information Bureau and
At Geneva there were further affiliations with Argentina, Greece, Spain and Uruguay. In the following years there were further affiliations and Congresses held at Rome, Italy (1923), Paris, France (1926), Istanbul, Turkey (1935), Copenhagen, Denmark (1939) and Interlaken, Switzerland (1946). By this stage the franchise had been extended to women in the majority of affiliated countries and after the Second World War the organisation was to find a new role as an advisory group to the United Nations, changing its name to the International Alliance of Women (I.A.W.).
During the period covered by the archive (1913-1920) members of the Board
of Officers, most of whom also played important roles in the national associations
of their respective countries, were as follows:
The Headquarters Secretary at 7/11 Adam Street, Adelphi, London was Mary Sheepshanks, until her resignation in 1919, and then Elizabeth Abbott.
During the same period the affiliated associations, in alphabetical order
of country, and their presidents, were as follows:
The archive was given to the John Rylands Library in September 1923 by Katherine Bompas, then Headquarters Secretary of the I.W.S.A. The files had, by that stage, ceased to be sufficiently up-to-date for the current reference requirements of the Alliance and when lack of storage space made their disposal necessary the N.U.S.E.C. suggested they join the N.U.W.S.S. volumes of news cuttings at the Manchester repository.
The archive consists of 286 files drawn from the I.W.S.A. London Headquarters. There are 3 distinct series of records: Subject Files of the I.W.S.A.; Correspondence Files of the I.W.S.A.; and News Cuttings collected by the I.W.S.A. Information Bureau.
The files were compiled during the period 1913-1920, although a minority of pieces, such as constitutions and biographical accounts are of earlier date; these may have come into the hands of the Alliance as early as its inception in 1902 although it seems more likely that they were collected after 1913.
A summary of the material contained within each seriesis given prior to the description of items within the class. In general terms, the archive contains information relating to the political, social and economic condition of women worldwide with particular emphasis on the campaign for the enfranchisement of women.
The archive contains material relating to
Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Austria
Belgium, Bohemia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma
Canada, Ceylon, China
Denmark
East Africa, Egypt
Finland, France
Galicia, Germany, Great Britain, Greece
Hawaii, Hungary
Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy
Jamaica, Japan
Luxembourg
Macedonia, Mesopotamia, Mexico
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway
Poland, Portugal
Roumania, Russia
Servia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
Turkey
U.S.A., Uruguay
Great Britain is the country most fully represented throughout the archive; but large amounts of material relate to France, Germany and the U.S.A. Information relating to all other countries is valuable but limited.
Information is also to be found relating to other reform movements with which women were intimately involved, notably: the campaigns for an equal moral standard, the reform of the divorce laws, temperance and prohibition; and the campaigns against prostitution, the "white slave trade" and venereal disease.
It should be noted, in particular, that the archive provides a wealth of information on women's work during the war and offers insights, through the workings of an international women's organisation during time of war, into international conditions and attitudes prevailing during the First World War and its immediate aftermath.
The archive does not contain any copies of the Journal
The archive comes from the I.W.S.A. Headquarters in London and for that reason the majority is written in English.
There are however a significant number pieces written in the 2 other official languages of the Alliance, French and German, and in Italian.
In addition, there are small amounts of writing in Afrikaans, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Roumanian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
On an international level the Alliance adopted a motto in Latin and a telegraphic address in Esperanto.
The archive contains a few pieces written in shorthand.
Each seriesconsists of files; the arrangement of files within each seriesis explained at the start of each class. The contents of the files have been placed into new acid-free files but any information recorded on the original file (usually a title) has been recorded in the descriptions.
The archivist found that the original order of the files and of papers within files had been disturbed but there was usually sufficient internal evidence to indicate whether the compilation had originally been chronological, alphabetical, by subject or according to the I.W.S.A. classification scheme; the original order has therefore been reconstituted.
Within files any doubtful items (such as those without a date in a chronological file) have been placed at the end of the file. And in a few instances, where there was no clear evidence of a logical system, the file has been left as it was found, a random order perhaps being original.
Within each file each physically separate piece of paper has been given a simple running number. Thus 2 pieces of paper sewn together have a single number but a single news cutting which has fallen apart into 2 pieces has 2 numbers. The running number governs the order of pieces in the file and is given in the file descriptions as an indication of physical extent.
Where the file contains foreign language pieces the number of pieces affected is contained in the description and, used in conjunction with the number of pieces, the reader can see at a glance the approximate proportion of the file which is written in foreign languages.
When using the list the reader should assume that, where not otherwise stated, the society or person is British and the language is English.
The archive is divided into 3 series:
Archive of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance IWSA/1/7 (etc.), The John Rylands University Library, The University of Manchester.
The collection is open to any accredited reader.
Photocopies and photographic copies can be supplied for private study purposes only, depending on the condition of the documents.
A number of items within the archive remain within copyright under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988; it is the responsibility of users to obtain the copyright holder's permission for reproduction of copyright material for purposes other than research or private study.
Prior written permission must be obtained from the Library for publication or reproduction of any material within the archive. Please contact the Head of Special Collections, John Rylands University Library, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PP.
None.
The archive of the I.W.S.A. is published in Reels 11 to 31 of the microfilm
The collection was filmed before it had been arranged and listed by the archivist. In most cases items from IWSA/1 are found in Reels 26-31, items from IWSA/2 are found in Reels 21 to 26 and items from IWSA/3 are found in Reels 11-20. Please note that, on the microfilm, files, and pieces within them, are frequently not in original order and that there are no demarcations between the contents of different files. These problems are at their worst for items in IWSA/3.
These defects make the microfilm copies almost impossible to use in any coherent research. Readers at the John Rylands Library will usually be issued with originals and readers using the microfilm copies in other institutions are warned of their defects.
The library also holds archives of the Parliamentary Committee for Women's Suffrage (
Select Bibliography
The series apparently consists of the contents of several drawers of a filing cabinet. Letters, notes, news cuttings, publications, advertisements, agendas, minutes, receipts, and so on, are filed according to subject.
The subjects represented cover: the general administration of the office; the preparation and publication of
The series is predominantly written in English but a large proportion of the files contain a small percentage of foreign language pieces and a couple of the files are written exclusively in French or German. The foreign languages represented are Afrikaans, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Roumanian, Spanish and Swedish.
The Drawer Index to the filing system, the first item in this series, gives a list of contents in imperfect alphabetical order. The series also includes a number of files which were presumably added at a date after the index was last amended and which do not appear on it. Where the subject is one not covered on the Drawer Index this is noted in the description.
As the system was clearly supposed to be alphabetical and as the Drawer Index appears to be a guide to what was in the drawer and where it was misplaced on the one day when it was written out, rather than a comprehensive and inviolable structure for contents and location, the files have been arranged correctly according to the alphabet rather than according to the index.
The series finishes with an untitled file, the original position of which is indeterminate. 2 files included at the end of Class 2, IWSA/2/37 and IWSA/2/38, may perhaps have originally belonged to this Class although they were found with files from Class 2 and have been included there.
Incomplete, imperfectly alphabetical, list of contents in the I.W.S.A. subject filing system.
Pages from
A chronological file consisting primarily of agenda for meetings of the I.W.S.A. Headquarters Committee. Also includes: a letter from the N.U.W.S.S. concerning "foreign visitors" and the Agenda for a meeting of the Executive Board of Officers of the I.W.S.A in July 1914; occasional agenda for meetings of the "B.G.C.C. Committee", the I.W.S.A. Committee, the N.U.S.E.C. Committee and the Special International Committee; and flyers for a Conference of the "proposed new Woman Suffrage Union, British Dominions Overseas" in 1914.
See files IWSA/1/19 and IWSA/2/38 for minutes of the I.W.S.A. Headquarters Committee.
Contains speculative letters, applications, notes relating to the selection procedure and copy letters of response to applicants for I.W.S.A. posts of variously secretarial, editorial, translation or organisational responsibility. There is also a flyer advertising the newly formed [probably 1913] "Aëthnic Union (
Original organisation of the file appears to have been to keep related material together in roughly chronological order but the order has been disturbed and its reconstruction can only be an approximation of original order.
From F [T?] Baillay [?], Leopold Mechelin, [Senator in the Finnish Diet], at Badgastein [Austria] and A[ugust] Bébel at Schènberg-Berlin [Germany].
Language: 2 pieces in French and 2 pieces in German.
I.W.S.A. Cash statements for the years ending Dec 31 1916, 1917 and 1918.
The file consists of the biographies of persons with an influential or leadership role within the national societies affiliated to the I.W.S.A. and/or who were national delegates to the International Women's Suffrage Congress at Budapest [Hungary] in 1913. The Congress provided the impetus to compile at least some of the biographies included, although some of the material may have been collected by the Alliance as early as its first biennial congress in 1904, and information was added to the file as late as 1917.
The file begins with an index by country of 'Biographies, Autobiographies & Histories in Possession of the I.W.S.A.'. Each person in the index is allocated a number (1-62) and they appear in numerical order in the file. There are, in addition, biographies for a further 7 women and a flyer for the National Guild of Housecraft. The biographies are a mixture of manuscript, typescript and news cutting pieces.
The biographies are frequently written in a language other than that of the person described. The high proportion of biographical material in Hungarian is explained by the location of the Congress in Budapest.
Index to the file.
Gina Krog, President of the Conseil National des Femmes Norvégiennes.
Sarah Anne Lees, Mayor of Oldham [Lancs], 1910.
Jane Addams, U.S.A., lecturer, [and author, Chairman of the Woman's Peace Party, member of the I.W.S.A. Committee of Enfranchised Women].
Millicent Garrett Fawcett, President of the N.U.W.S.S. and 1st Vice-President of the I.W.S.A.
Language: includes 2 pieces in Hungarian.
Maude Royden, member of the Executive Committee of the N.U.W.S.S. and editor of
Kathleen D Courtney, Honorary Secretary of the N.U.W.S.S.
Mrs Auerbach, Honorary Treasurer of the N.U.W.S.S. and Vice- President of the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage.
Language: includes 1 piece in Hungarian.
Catherine Marshall, Honorary Parliamentary Secretary of the N.U.W.S.S.
Mrs Harley, member of the Executive Committee of the N.U.W.S.S. and Chairman of the West Midland Federation of the N.U.W.S.S.
Mrs Swanwick, member of the Executive Committee of the N.U.W.S.S. and first editor of
Miss I.O. Ford, member of the Executive Committee of the N.U.W.S.S.
Emily M. Leaf, Honorary Press Secretary of the N.U.W.S.S.
Chrystal MacMillan, member of the Executive Committee of the N.U.W.S.S. and 1st Recording Secretary of the I.W.S.A.
Margaret Ashton, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the N.U.W.S.S. and Chairman of the Manchester and District Federation of the N.U.W.S.S.
[Flora] Drummond, Organiser of the W.S.P.U.
Annie Kenney, one of the first militant suffragettes and first Organiser of the W.S.P.U.
Emmeline Pankhurst, militant suffragette and founder of the W.S.P.U.
History of the W.S.P.U.
Klaus Berntsen, former Prime Minister of Denmark and supporter of women's equal rights.
Frau M.W.W. Rutgens-Hoitsema, founder of the women's organisation in the Netherlands ("Bundes Nederländischer Frauenveraine" in German translation).
Language: German.
Herr Lt. Kol. W. Mansfeldt, President of the Mannenbond voor Vrouwenkiesrecht, and Frau N[elly] Mansfeldt de Witt Habents, Netherlands.
Language: German.
Martina G. Kramers, Netherlands, [Recording Secretary for the International Council of Women and first Editor of
Language: German.
Herr Kehrer-Stuart, founder of the Netherlands Men's Association for Women's Suffrage [probably the Mannenbond voor Vrouwenkiesrecht as in IWSA/1/7/55 above] and the International Men's Association for Women's Suffrage and Frau C. Kehrer-Stuart founder of the [Children's?] Department of the Netherlands Association for Women's Suffrage.
Language: German.
Gisela Urban, author/editor of
Language: Includes 1 piece in German.
Elisabeth Kuyper, musician, Netherlands.
Language: German.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of
Caroline Ruutz-Rees, U.S.A. delegate.
Grayce Druitt Latus, President of the Pittsburg Chapter of the American Woman's League and the Contest Manager for the election of American delegates to the International Suffrage Congress at Budapest.
Andrea Hofer-Proudfoot, [President of the League of International Amity], USA.
Language: German.
Cornelia van Oosterzee, Netherlands.
Language: German.
Dr Aletta Henriette Jacobs, "the first Dutch lady-doctor" and President of the Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht.
Language: includes 9 pieces in Dutch, 7 pieces in German and 1 piece in Hungarian.
Comtesse [Emilia] Pardo Bazán, novelist, Spain.
Language: Hungarian.
Lydia Wahlstrom, President of the Landsforeningen for Kvindens Politiske Stemmeret, Sweden.
Language: Danish.
Signe Bergman, President of the Landsforeningen för Kvinnans Politiska Röstratt, Sweden and 2nd Treasurer of the I.W.S.A.
Language: Danish.
See also article in journal IWSA/1/7/105.
Dr Frida Stéenhof (alias Harold Gote), [author?], Sweden.
Language: Swedish.
Frigga Carlberg, [member of the Landsforeningen för Kvinnans Politiska Röstratt], Sweden.
Language: Swedish.
Mlle Th. Belle, Professor of the l'Universite en Province, France.
Language: French.
Dr Augusta Stowe-Gullen, the first Canadian woman to take a medical degree at a Canadian University and President of the Canadian Suffrage Association.
Margit von Dálnoky-Regéeczy, Hungarian pianist.
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth, [composer: works include
Language: German.
Vera Hjelt, Finland.
Language: Finnish.
Leopold Mechelin, [Senator of the Finnish Diet and influential in the enfranchisement of women of 1906].
Language: Hungarian.
Lucina Hagman, founder and first President of the Kvinnosaksforbundet Unionen, Finland.
Language: Hungarian.
Gerda Planting-Gyllenbaga, Swedish delegate.
Marianne Hainisch and Daisy Minor, founder-Chairperson and Vice-Chair respectively, of the Bundes Österreichscher Frauenvereine, Austria.
Language: German.
Frances Lewis, Glamorgan [member of the Women's Freedom League].
Alix Minnie Clark, Honorary Secretary of the Montgomery Boroughs Branch of the Women's Freedom League.
Kate Harvey, Honorary Head of the Press Department, Women's Freedom League.
Eunice G. Murray, President for Scotland, Women's Freedom League.
[Charlotte] Despard, President of the Women's Freedom League.
Louise Norlund, Correspondent for the Danske Kvindeforeningers Valgretsforbund, Denmark.
Language: 1 piece in German and 2 pieces in Hungarian.
Winnifred Harper Cooley, National President of the Associated Clubs of Domestic Science, U.S.A.
Bertha Hamberg and Anna Bàckstr[om], Kvinnosaksforbundet Unionen, Finland.
Language: Finnish.
Anna Ābergsson, Ellen Hagen, Anna Frisell, Anna Holm, Dr Gulli Petrini and Mrs Anna Wicksell, Swedish delegates.
Briet Asmundsson, President of the I.W.S.A. affiliated Association in Iceland.
Language: German.
Belva Ann Lockwood, U.S.A. [Vice-President of the District of Columbia State Women's Suffrage Association, first woman to practice before the supreme court, and nominated to run for the U.S. presidency].
Language: Hungarian.
Frau Kuneticky, Bohemia.
Language: German.
Stephanie Nauheimer, Austria.
Language: German.
Mildred S. Macfaden, U.S.A.
Language: Hungarian.
Carrie Chapman Catt, U.S.A., President of the I.W.S.A.
Nellie McClung, Canadian author and public speaker.
Marguerite de Witt de Schlumberger, President of L'Union Française pour le Suffrage des Femmes, France and 4th Vice-President of the I.W.S.A.
Language: French.
Jabaum [?] Rambusch [Ramhusch?], President of the Danske Landsforbundet.
Elna Munch, Vice-President of the Danske Landsforbundet.
Lady Rose-Innes, President of the Cape Town Branch of the South African National Council of Women and of the Cape Province Branch of the Women's Enfranchisement League.
Mary Emma Macintosh, President of the Women's Enfranchisement Association of the Union of South Africa.
Julia Frances Soely, Honorary Treasurer of the Women's Enfranchisement League, Cape Province, South Africa and Honorary President of the Seaforth and Waterloo Women's Suffrage Society, Lancashire.
The Objectives of the National Guild of Housecraft.
News cutting reproductions of photographs (with captions in German), mostly of important women within the women's movement. The photographs are reproductions from blocks which the I.W.S.A. could borrow from
Contains a list of books for review in
Contains lists of subscribers, a programme for the Third (Biennial) Conference of the British Dominions Woman Suffrage Union 1918, draft Resolutions for the Conference and addresses of affiliated societies.
This file does not appear on the Drawer Index.
Contains: news cuttings relating to the work of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in New York; information relating to Juvenile Courts internationally but especially France and Belgium; the text of the Union of South Africa `Act to Provide for the Better Protection of Children, and to Consolidate and Amend the Law relating thereto, and to Amend the Law relating to the Industrial Schools and other Institutions for the reception of Children' (English with facing text in Afrikaans); details of legislation concerning juvenile offenders in Roumania; and letters relating to "the boarding out of children with their mothers in Australia".
Language: includes 11 pieces in French.
The file includes circular letters sent out by the I.W.S.A. to their affiliated societies and other organisations and correspondence arising from them. The major issues are: the establishment of Headquarters at 7 Adam Street, Adelphi, London; the transfer of publication of
The file also includes Agenda for the first 9 meetings of the I.W.S.A. London Committee [Headquarters Committee] and a number of Resolutions adopted at the Budapest Congress.
Language: includes 9 pieces in French and 1 piece in German.
The original order appears to have been chronological except in the case of some related material such as the Agenda series (/93-102); in recreating this order the undated letters have been placed in approximate chronology based on internal evidence.
See also file IWSA/2/37.
Contains circular letters sent out by the I.W.S.A. to their affiliated societies, and other organisations, and correspondence rising from them. Includes: reports and papers from meetings of he Board of Officers and Presidents; the I.W.S.A. response to he outbreak of war; and plans for a Congress after the war. Cronological arrangement
Language: includes 19 pieces in French.
See file IWSA/2/37.
Contains circular letters sent out by the I.W.S.A. to their ffiliated societies and correspondence arising from them. The ain issues are: the difficult role of
There are also letters relating to: the resignation [later ithdrawn] of Mary Sheepshanks from the position of Headquarters Secretary and Editor of
Language: includes 5 pieces in French and 2 pieces in German.
See file IWSA/2/37.
Sample copy of a circular letter sent out with gratuitous copies of
The letter must have been sent out after the move to 11 Adam Street but before the Alliance had new headed notepaper. It was clearly written during the war but may perhaps have continued to be used in its immediate aftermath. 61 copies of the letter were wrapped in news paper dated 22 Aug 1919; as they were identical just one copy of the letter has been retained.
See file IWSA/2/37.
Contains circular letters sent out by the I.W.S.A. to members of the Board of Officers and to Presidents of the national societies. Main issues are: the revival of I.W.S.A. activity after the war; the decision not to hold a Congress in 1919 and the resignation of Mary Sheepshanks as Headquarters Secretary in protest; and the attempt to involve South and Central America in the Alliance. Chronological.
Language: includes 2 pieces in Spanish.
Contains: invitations to hold the 1915 Congress in San Francisco; constructive criticisms of the 1913 Budapest Congress; and drafts of a programme for a 1915 Congress in Berlin. Includes a chart of the planned Congress in 6 pieces (/37-42); /37 is the top left hand corner and the pieces are numbered clockwise.
The I.W.S.A. ordering of the file represents the way in which criticisms of the Budapest Congress affected planning for the Berlin Congress; invitations to San Francisco are found at the back of the file.
Includes questionnaires sent out in June 1916 by the I.W.S.A. to gauge the response of its auxiliaries to the Swedish proposal for a post-war Congress.
There are replies from: the Union Française pour le Suffrage des Femmes (France); the Federation of Auxiliaries (Finland); the Danske Landforbundet (Denmark); L'Association Nationale Suisse pour le Suffrage Feminine (Switzerland); the N.U.W.S.S.; the Landsforeningen för Kvinnans Politiska Röstratt (Sweden), the Deutscher Reichsverband für Frauenstimmrecht (Germany); the National Committee of International Affairs (Netherlands); and the Oesterreichisches Frauenstimmrechts-Komitee (Austria); There are undelivered questionnaires to the Fédération Belge pour le Suffrage des Femmes (Belgium) and the National Woman Suffrage Association (China).
There are summaries of the international response, proof reports[for
Language: includes 3 pieces in French and 1 piece in German.
A few pieces are numbered as if originally part of a now incomplete sequence.
Minutes of meetings of the Board of Officers, the International Committee, the Executive Board of Officers and the Headquarters Committee. Chronological.
The file was found, untitled, with files belonging to the C section of the filing system. As the Board of Officers and International Committee meetings of the I.W.S.A. drew together national presidents from around the world it may be the file described, in an Addendum to the Drawer Index, as `Conections' [sic], having been placed in correct alphabetical sequence in the system. Alternatively it may have been filed under C for `Committee Meetings' or, less probably, under C for `Chrystal Macmillan', 1st Recording Secretary, whose copy of the minutes it appears to be.
The file begins with an index, by country, to Constitutions of Women's Suffrage Societies, and related organisations, held by the I.W.S.A. Most of the Constitutions are listed as filed with pamphlets of the country in question [these files do not form part of the archive group IWSA at JRULM]. The file contains constitutions for 9 organisations, in order according to the index.
The constitutions were probably collected around the time of the Budapest Congress in 1913. Many of the constitutions have no date of publication, but where it is given it is between 1911 and 1913.
Index to Constitutions.
The Deutscher Verband für Frauenstimmrecht, later the Deutscher Reichsverband für Frauenstimmrecht, Germany.
Language: German.
National Feminist Party, Cuba.
Societatea, Drepturile Femeii'', Roumania.
Language: Roumanian.
The United Suffragists.
The Liberal Men's Association for Women's Suffrage.
Ligue d'Electeurs pour le Suffrage des Femmes, France.
Language: French.
Union Française pour le Suffrage des Femmes, France.
Language: French.
National Woman Suffrage Association, China.
Language: Chinese.
The Women's Local Government Society for the United Kingdom.
The file contains Reports and Constitutions for women's suffrage and related organisations (/1-18), empires and kingdoms (/19-21) and international organisations (/22-25). Where the constitutions have a date of publication that date is between 1913 and 1919. The Congress referred to in the title was probably Budapest in 1913 but the file was obviously added to later.
There is nothing to indicate the original order of this file; its arrangement has been imposed by the Archivist.
Denmark: Dansk Landsforbund for Kvinders Valgret.
Language: Danish.
France: Comité d'Action Suffragiste.
Language: French.
Great Britain: British Dominions Woman Suffrage Union.
Great Britain: National Council of Women of Great Britain and Ireland Women Citizen's Associations.
Great Britain: National Women's Labour League.
Spain: Union de las Mujeres de España.
Language: Spanish.
Switzerland: Association Suisse pour le Suffrage Féminin/Schweizerischer Verband für Frauenstimmrecht.
Language: parallel editions in French and German.
Uruguay: L'Alliance Uruguayenne pour le Suffrage Feminin.
Language: French.
Denmark: Danmarks Riges Grundlov af 1915.
Language: Danish.
Germany: Die Deutsche Reichsverfassung vom 11 August 1919.
Language: German.
Union Interparlementaire (Revision de 1912 et 1913), based at Brussels [Belgium].
Language: French.
The International Law Association, based in London.
Copy bills payable to the I.W.S.A. for subscription to
Reports, written by members of women's groups in I.W.S.A. affiliated countries, intended for publication in
Language: includes 17 pieces in German, 10 pieces in French and 4 pieces in Dutch.
There was some evidence to suggest an original chronological order but in places reports relating to the same country or event were found together. The archivist has placed dated reports and reports whose date can be surmised in chronological order (except /42-44 which had clearly been placed together) and undated reports by country in alphabetical order of country.
From Percy Brothers Ltd, The Hotspur Press, Manchester to the I.W.S.A. regarding delivery of copies of
Contains lists of dates of birth and death of important persons within the women's suffrage movement and the dates of significant events. A substantial amount of the information has been supplied by the Information Bureau Department of the N.U.W.S.S. Includes
The dates of creation for several items in the file are earlier than 1914 but the date of compilation must be c. 1914.
Language: includes 45 pieces in Dutch, 3 pieces in French and 1 piece in German.
Relating to the 1920 Congress, originally planned for Spain but transferred to Geneva.
See also file IWSA/1/16.
Relates to the formation of a Committee of Enfranchised Women within the I.W.S.A. and their role in the forthcoming Berlin Congress, 1915 [cancelled because of the war].
Includes the questionnaire sent out to presidents of the national societies in 1918 and a large number of American press statements for 1917, perhaps sent in response.
This file is not included on the Drawer Index.
For: stationary; circulars; advertisements; printing of
Contains a letter inviting Rosa Manus, Amsterdam, Holland to take the chairmanship of a new Exhibitions Committee of the I.W.S.A.
This file does not appear on the Drawer Index
Contains letters relating to the appointment of representatives of the I.W.S.A. to attend, as fraternal delegates, the International Conference of the Fédération Abolitionniste Internationale at Portsmouth, the World Conference of the Young Women's Christian Association at Stockholm [Sweden], the 2nd Northern Congress in Copenhagen [Denmark] (2nd Nordiske Kvindesagsmode i Kobenhavn 1914), the Annual Conference of the Union des Associations Internationales at Brussels [Belgium] and the meeting of the Women's Suffrage Union of the British Dominions Overseas in London. Chronological.
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
On women's organisations, women's work and women as victims of war. The emphasis is on France but reference is made to developments in other countries and the international situation and there are a number of reports which relate to, and presumably come from, other French speaking countries such as Belgium and Switzerland.
Some reports appear to be transcripts of news cuttings in the French press but perhaps the majority were intended for publication in
Language: French (includes 1 piece in English).
Most articles are undated. Order is apparently imperfectly chronological; it is not known whether these discrepancies are original and deliberate or the result of later disturbance. This file does not appear on the Drawer Index.
The file consists of articles for publication in
Language: German.
This file does not appear on the Drawer Index.
Letters sent out to governments, care of the presidents of the relevant I.W.S.A. auxiliaries, in accordance with a resolution passed at the Budapest Congress in 1913, asking them to "institute an international inquiry into the extent and causesof commercialized vice". There are acknowledgements and/or responses from Great Britain, Canada, the U.S.A., South Africa and Australia. Chronological.
Language: includes 8 pieces in French and 2 pieces in German.
For commercialized vice see also files IWSA/1/57, IWSA/1/71 and IWSA/3/118-119.
The file includes letters: lamenting the outbreak of war; concerning the placement of advertisements; arranging for delegates to attend various international meetings; relating to income tax; corresponding with The Civil Union for the Right Understanding of International Interests; and relating to the compilation of an International Speakers' List.
Also included are: a telegram from the Feministàk Egyesuelete in Budapest [Hungary] wishing the I.W.S.A. many happy returns on the occasion of its 10th birthday; and a list of Honorary Associate Members of the I.W.S.A. resident in London.
Includes 2 pieces in French and 2 pieces in German.
Alternative file title: `Old letters - file with 1914 letters when files come'. Possibly this file was never intended as a permanent home for its contents but provided a temporary repository for letters which were to be brought to the notice of the Headquarters Committee and which should subsequently have been refiled either in the files which constitute the subject filing system or in a general correspondence filing system, a class of material which is not found in the Archive of the I.W.S.A. for the period 1913-1915. This might explain the apparent lack of order in the file. This file does not appear on the Drawer Index under either of its titles.
Agenda for meetings of the Headquarters Committee can be found in file IWSA/1/3; for Minutes see files IWSA/1/19 and IWSA/2/38.
Statistics on infant mortality supplied by the Information Bureau Department of the N.U.W.S.S. and a rough design for I.W.S.A. advertising based on the premise that infant mortality is higher where women, through lack of the vote, are unable to influence child welfare.
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
Enquiries received by the I.W.S.A. Information Bureau and correspondence resulting from it. The attempt to answer questions frequently involves reference to other information sources such as the I.W.S.A. auxiliaries or other Information Offices such as the N.U.W.S.S. Information Bureau Department and the Nationaal Bureau voor Vrouwenarbeid (Holland).
The file begins with a record of enquiries received which is effectively a guide to the contents of the file. Correspondence relating to each enquiry is grouped together and the groups appear in roughly chronological order of the date when the enquiry was made. Major subjects of inquiry include: American states and woman suffrage; and the age of consent internationally.
Language: includes 5 pieces in German, 1 piece in French and 1 piece in Dutch.
The file does not appear to be exclusively unanswered enquiries but more a simple continuation of the Inquiries file. The largest inquiry relates to numbers of women electors in American states and Norway. Correspondence relating to each enquiry is placed together and the groups appear in roughly chronological order of the date when the enquiry was made.
Includes 3 pieces in German.
The file title was originally spelt `Enquiries' but the file had obviously been kept with file IWSA/1/37.
Report of the I.W.S.A. sent to L'Union des Association Internationales, Brussels [Belgium] for inclusion in the new issue of the
Language: includes 20 pieces in French.
Two articles for publication in
Language: 7 pieces in French and 5 in Italian.
Relates to distribution 1913-1915. Includes an article dated 1919 on the Guardianship of Infants Bill. Chronological.
Relating to Germany, the U.S.A., France, Italy, Finland, Ceylon, Switzerland and Holland. Many reports are undated; order may be approximately chronological.
Language: includes 21 pieces in French, 6 pieces in German and 6 pieces in Italian.
Contains information relating to subscription and distribution procedures. Also includes a 'Plan of the Index' [to the news cuttings] giving main subject headings and classification letters. Information on the workings of the news cuttings index is given in more detail in file IWSA/3/1.
The file relates mostly to California but also to Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Correspondence relating to the speaking engagements of Mary Sheepshanks. Approximately chronological but grouped by engagement.
Relates to the exhibition and to the procurement of English woman suffrage exhibits. Chronological.
Language: includes 2 pieces in German.
Records of supply and acknowledgement of
Lists of: Subscribers to
Lists of books and pamphlets on feminist issues published in England, France, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Poland, South Africa and the U.S.A. The file has no apparent order.
Language: includes 7 pieces in French, 7 pieces in Swedish, 3 pieces in German, 1 piece in Hungarian and 1 piece in Polish.
Literature Report giving numbers of I.W.S.A. publications which have been sold or otherwise distributed. Includes 2 letters written in anticipation of the planned Berlin Congress and making suggestions relating to
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
Orders, receipts, records of supply, outstanding accounts, and price list. The file appears to have been kept by grouping together receipts relating to the same organisation. The groups are roughly chronological.
The file consists primarily of publications of the Women's Local Government Society but there are also: publications of the Women's Municipal Party; a copy of "questions sent by M. Buisson of the Chamber of Deputies, Paris, to Mrs Lees, ex-Mayor of Oldham, and her replies to the same"; and lists of women returned at the Town Council Elections of 1913 and the County Council elections of 1919.
Coming from the I.W.S.A. Headquarters Office, the file was almost certainly compiled during the period 1913-1919 but the publication dates of some of its contents are earlier, dating from 1908 onwards.
Language: includes 7 pieces written partially in French.
There was no apparent original order; dated material from 1908-1914 has been placed in order of date of publication, followed by undated material from this period. The file concludes with material from 1919.
Draft versions of the I.W.S.A. Memorial to the Peace Conference. Also includes a few vote slips returned by I.W.S.A. auxiliaries authorising the Headquarters Committee to prepare the memorial.
Contains significant information relating to the nationality of married women in Switzerland, South Africa, the U.S.A. and France and some information relating to Australia, Canada and Finland, sent in response to an I.W.S.A questionnaire, and correspondence with other countries, not however leading to the dispatch of much information.
Also included are Minutes of a Special Meeting on the Nationality of Married Women on 17 April 1917 and a copy of a Memorial on the Nationality of Married Women in the British Empire addressed to the British Imperial Conference in June 1918. The file begins with information supplied, continues with correspondence and then becomes miscellaneous.
Language: includes 10 pieces in French.
This file does not appear on the Drawer Index.
The file relates to the I.W.S.A. stand in the Woman's Kingdom Exhibition, organised by the N.U.W.S.S., at the second Children's Welfare Exhibition, held at Olympia [London] from 11-30 April 1914. It includes a Souvenir Handbook, advertising material, plans for the stalls and correspondence relating to the exhibition. There is some evidence that the correspondence was grouped by corresponding organisation but this does not appear to be consistent. There is little evidence of chronology.
Lists of members of the Foreign Press Association in London and of the principal daily London papers and the principal evening papers.
Relates to: the undue leniency shown by judges in the case of offenses against children; state regulation of prostitution; and the "white slave traffic". Refers in particular to supplements on prostitution to be published by
Language: includes 2 pieces in German.
See also files IWSA/1/34, IWSA/1/71, IWSA/3/117-119 and IWSA/3/123.
Replies to questionnaires about women in government service. There are answers from Finland, France, Galicia, Germany, Iceland, Italy, South Africa, Switzerland and the U.S.A. The questionnaire was apparently designed to generate information for an article in the January 1914 edition of
Language: includes 8 pieces in German and 5 pieces in French.
Correspondence with Senator Helen Ring Robinson of Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. regarding the possibility of her attendance at the Conference of the Interparliamentary Union, Stockholm in August 1914; and correspondence relating to her lecture programme in Britain and on the Continent. All correspondence relating to Senator Robinson is dated 1914 but the file begins with a few letters dated 1913 which relate to an advertisement of "Mrs Swanwick's book".
Language: includes 3 pieces in German.
This file does not appear on the Drawer Index.
Article on the famine in Russia, presumably intended for publication in
This file does not appear on the Drawer Index.
List of publications of the Workers Socialist Federation; information releases and flyers issued by the People's Russian Information Bureau throughout 1919, covering matters of military, political and economic importance, only occasionally with specific reference to women; and an appeal by Ukranian women to women throughout the world issued by the Ukranian Press Bureau in London.
The file consists primarily of an extensive list of women in the U.S.A. to whom Carrie Chapman Catt wanted sample copies of
Returns from an I.W.S.A. appeal in May 1914 for information to prepare a "speakers' list in English, German and French for the benefit of all our affiliated countries" to fulfil the demand for international speakers. Includes details of speakers, where they could speak, in what language(s) and on what subject(s). Includes biographical information and photographs for some of the speakers.
Original order of the file was indeterminate. The archivist has arranged the file in alphabetical order of speaker.
Letter from Rosika Schwimmer appealing for names for the I.W.S.A. Speakers' List.
Hermann Bahr, Austria.
Lanuage: German.
Miss [Th.] Danguard, [Netherlands].
Alma Dolens, Italy.
Language: includes 8 pieces in Italian and 4 pieces in French.
Dr Hans Dorn, Germany.
Language: German.
Jean Finot, France.
Language: French.
Hellnett [?] Garlech [?], Germany.
Language: German.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, U.S.A.
Cicily Hamilton (and Mr Dugdale, Miss Boissevain and Mrs Malinberne [or Malmberg?]).
Lawrence Houseman.
Louise Keilhau, Norway.
Language: includes 4 pieces in French.
Betzy Kjelsberg, Norway.
Language: includes 1 piece in German.
Nelly and W. Mansfeldt de Witt Habents, Netherlands.
Language: German.
Jeanne Mélin, France.
Language: includes 8 pieces in French.
J. Malcolm Mitchell.
Elna Munch, Denmark.
Maud Nathan, U.S.A.
For the N.U.W.S.S.; Helen Fraser, Miss Hay-Cooper, Eden Lewis, Violet Martin, Muriel Matters, Mrs Nott Bower, Thirza Potts, Mabel Ramsay, Rosamund Smith, Mrs Swanwick and Miss Willcocks.
F[rantiska] Plaminkova and M. Tumova [?], Bohemia.
Adele Schreiber-Krieger, Germany.
Language: German.
Frida Stéinhoff (alias Harold Gote), Sweden.
Language: includes 2 pieces in French.
Nils Robert af Ursin, Finland.
Language: includes 3 pieces in German and 1 piece in French.
M. Vandervelde, Belgium.
Language: includes 2 pieces in French.
Frau Voss Zietz, Germany.
Letters and query forms sent out in English, French and German with regard to the Speakers' List; lists of persons to whom they were sent and a summary of some of the responses.
Language: includes 3 pieces in French and 12 pieces in German.
Responses from those regretting that they are not currently in a position to be included on the I.W.S.A. Speakers' List. The file is in roughly the order in which replies were received.
Language: includes 4 pieces in German.
Figures relating to the circulation of
Snippets of news touching on the question of women's suffrage in the U.S.A., supplied by Anna Cadogan Etz of the Up-State Woman Suffrage Press.
Contains information relating to: Austrian Committees; the Consultative Committee of Constitutional Women's Suffrage Societies (in a paper on `Electoral Reform and Women's Suffrage'prepared by the N.U.W.S.S. Information Bureau); feminist societies in Denmark; suffrage societies in South Africa; the Woman Suffrage Union British Dominions Overseas; societies in Finland (including a Swedish Women's Association in Finland); societies in the Netherlands, including addresses for all 134 branches of the Vereeniging Voor Vrouwenkiesrecht; the SwedishSociety; and Italian societies.
Language: includes 6 pieces in Swedish, 4 pieces in Finnish and 1 piece in German.
Press releases relating to women's employment issues in the U.S.A. Most have been issued by the National Women's Trade Union League Washington Press Service.
Lists of volumes and indexes of
The title of this file is misleading.
The file begins with correspondence regarding the placement of I.W.S.A. advertisements in women's suffrage journals dated 1913 and 1914 and a leaflet extolling the virtues of Mary Church Terrell, a lecturer and "the first colo[u]red woman to serve on a Board of Education in [the U.S.A.]".
The file continues with a circular letter from the W.S.P.U., dated July 1918, warning of the "very grave danger" that, in perpetuation of "a double standard of morality for men and women", the Government would pass a measure to extend the State Regulation of Vice and the compulsory medical examination of women operational under Regulation 40D, an Order in Council issued under the Defence of the Realm Act which would expire automatically at the end of the war.
The file concludes with an appeal for donations to fund a Women's After-Care Hostel "for the reception of girls and women suffering from venereal disease and undergoing treatment".
For further material relating to the issues of prostitution and venereal disease raised in this file see also files IWSA/1/34, IWSA/1/57, IWSA/3/118-119 and IWSA/3/122.
Following a Conference of the British Committee of the International Women's Congress at the Caxton Hall, Westminster, in May 1915 it was decided that a permanent organisation should be formed in the United Kingdom to carry on the work begun by the International Women's Congress at the Hague, April 1915. The result was the foundation of the Women's International League.
The contents of the file are primarily concerned with the foundation of the League in 1915 and then, in 1919, the "international meeting of women...held in the same place and at the same time as the Conference of the Powers which shall frame the terms of the peace settlement after the war, for the purpose of presenting practical proposals to that Conference".
Includes publications relating to the National Council Against Conscription, the German Babies' Teats Fund and the Scheme for the National Endowment of Mothers and Children.
Language: includes 9 news cuttings in German, 2 hand bills in French, and 42 sheets of biographical information and resolutions partially in German and French but predominantly in English.
See also files IWSA/3/106, IWSA/3/129, IWSA/3/164 and IWSA/3/166.
The file contains errata and addenda to the English edition of
Includes also: some corrections to an International Report; a German article `Das Frauenstimmrecht in der Praris'; and an Agenda for a meeting of the British Geneva Congress Committee (1920).
Language: includes 2 pieces in German.
The file contains information on: suffrage gains in Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland, the U.S.A. and Canada since the war; maternity insurance in Germany, France and Norway; women judges in Australia, Norway and the U.S.A.; enfranchised women and women eligible for Parliament internationally; and a letter touching upon the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene.
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
As there is no title it is impossible to know the place of the file in the filing system, but it was found with a number of files originally indexed under A.
The correspondence files, which are arranged in alphabetical order, relate mostly to the period 1918-1920. The correspondence represents transactions of the I.W.S.A. The subjects range from purely operational matters such as the processing of subscriptions to
The amount of correspondence varies from single letter to an extended interchange of thoughts and ideas and the subjects addressed range from invitations to tea and quick enquiries to formulating a feminist programme.
Language: throughout the files there are a few pieces in French, German and shorthand.
The internal arrangement of the correspondence files is usually by alphabetical order of the correspondent's name, except where the file contains correspondence with a sole person or organistaion in which case the arrangement is approximately chronological. It should be noted that sometimes the correspondent is taken to be the organisation and is at other times taken to be the signatory.
The descriptions below indicate major series of correspondence, notable correspondents or subjects which may be of particular interest, and corresponding organisations are usually mentioned except where they are simply subscribing to
The original position of files IWSA/2/37 and IWSA/2/38 in the series is uncertain. They may perhaps belong to Class 1 although they were found with files from Class 2.
Includes: details of the Adult School Forward Movement Campaign; a transcript of an Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries' interview with the Prime Minister on the subject of the demobilisation of women from Government Offices to make way for men after the War; and a substantial correspondence with the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene.
Also touched upon are: the return of Lady Astor, M.P. to the House of Commons; the preliminary issue of a newspaper called
Letters of application for the post of Headquarters Secretary [to take over from Mary Sheepshanks who had handed in her resignation] in 1919. Includes a copy letter of Mrs Elizabeth Abbott's letter of appointment. There was no evidence that the letters had ever been arranged chronologically or alphabetically and they have been left as they were found.
Apparently unrelated, is a sheet of paper with a list of "people wanting 2 copies of circular letters sent" and a note on the back that Constitutions had been received from the Associations in Uruguay and Denmark.
Includes: correspondence with Lady Frances Balfour regarding the attitude of the King and Queen of Spain to the suffrage question; information relating to the 10th British Esperanto Congress, Liverpool 1919; letters regarding the Indian Women's Association, the Government of India Bill and the Britain and India Association; letters touching on the nationality of married women, especially American women; and a letter from the Board of Trade (Commercial Relations and Treaties Department) regarding the I.W.S.A. licence to purchase copies of German suffrage journals.
Includes correspondence with: the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society; the Church League for Women's Suffrage (later the League of the Church Militant); the Colonial Office, regarding the enfranchisement of women in Jamaica; the Common Sense Office; the Conservative Women's Reform Association; the Consultative Committee of Constitutional Women's Suffrage Societies, regarding legislation on venereal disease; Messrs. Thomas Cook, regarding arrangements for the post-war Congress; and the Czecho-Slovak Legation, seeking news of the Vybor pro volebni pràvo zen, the I.W.S.A. auxiliary in Bohemia.
Also includes: information on conditions in Serbia (see Christitch); the exchange of international suffrage news with the
The file contains correspondence with Adela Stanton Coit, 1st Treasurer of the I.W.S.A. Most letters relate to financial transactions - there are a lot of cover letters enclosing cheques, of subscription and donation, for endorsement. Other matters of interest to Mrs Coit, as Treasurer and as a member of the Executive Committee, are also touched upon.
The file consists primarily of correspondence relating to
The letters relating to the journal include correspondence with E. [Bice?] Dobelli concerning the suffrage situation in Italy and the withdrawal of her subscription in an act of disassociation from the "attitude so tersely defined by Mrs Fawcett" and which summarises the response of the English and French Suffrage Societies to "the outcry of distress of the German Women".
The correspondence with the daily papers includes a letter, of April 1918, from the
The file consists primarily of subscriptions and terminations of subscriptions to
Includes correspondence with: the Federation of University Women; the Fight the Famine Council; and the Emergency Committee of the Society of Friends (see Friends Emergency Committee).
The file consists primarily of correspondence between Millicent Garrett Fawcett, 1st Vice-President of the I.W.S.A. and the Headquarters Secretary. The file is illustrative of the process of policy formulation within the Executive of the I.W.S.A.
It includes some information relating to the Millicent Fawcett Scholarships, to be established at Bedford College for Women, University of London as a permanent memorial to the work of Millicent Garrett Fawcett and to help to provide "better facilities for University training for women".
Copies of letters sent out in January 1920 giving notice of the Eighth Congress of the I.W.S.A., to be held in Madrid [the location was later changed to Geneva], and inviting recipients to subscribe to
Correspondence with Frances Fuller, the I.W.S.A. Advertising Agent. Includes one letter to Miss Fuller touching on a disagreement between the I.W.S.A. and the International Franchise Club regarding the status of Marie Stritt and Rosika Schwimmer (German and Hungarian respectively) as Vice-Presidents of the International Franchise Club.
Also includes correspondence with a Mrs Catherine Fuller regarding the situation in France and Scandinavia, which should presumably have been filed in the F File.
Includes: letters from Irene [?] and Agnes Garrett, cousins of Millicent Garrett Fawcett; a letter from
Includes: a mass produced letter, of unknown provenance, concerning the proposed Ministry of Health; correspondence with the High Commissioner for the Union of South Africa, relating to the Wyndham Motion for Woman Suffrage; information relating to, and an appeal for the relief of, post-war conditions in Germany, Austria and Hungary forwarded to the I.W.S.A. by Emily Hobhouse; correspondence with Margaret Hodge regarding "the Indian meeting"; and correspondence with Edith How Martyn concerning, amongst other things, her election campaign in Hendon [Midd].
Language: includes 1 piece in German.
Includes correspondence with: the India Office; the Indian Women's Education Association; the International Federation of University Women;
Also includes: Income Tax queries; a report of the Quinquennial Meeting of the International Council of Women; parallel English, German and French editions of a pamphlet
Includes: correspondence with Claudine Jacquot, a woman of French nationality seeking teaching work; and a letter from the Young Citizens' Council in Bangalore regarding the possibility of Indian women attending the Madrid Congress [actually held in Geneva] (see Josyer).
Includes correspondence with: the Save the Children Fund, regarding a "Famine Day" street collection (see Keeling); the Kensington Society for Equal Citizenship, regarding supporters of women's suffrage in the Punjab; and Franklin Kidd, regarding a Malthusian text,
Also includes 2, apparently unused, tickets for the British Esperanto Congress in Liverpool in June 1919 (see Kongres-Bileto).
Includes correspondence with: the Labour Party; Charles Lane, concerning "the effect of women's suffrage on the drink question"; Mrs Pethwick Lawrence; the League of the ChurchMilitant (formerly the Church League for Women's Suffrage); the London, Provincial and South Western Barclays Bank; the London School of Economics; the London Telephone Service; the London Units of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Home and Foreign Service, regarding its involvement with the Serbian Army on the Macedonian front and in Sarajevo, Bosnia (see also S File under Scottish Women's Hospitals).
Also includes: a copy letter to the Lady Mayoress' Depot Committee regarding relief work and the Fight the Famine Council; information about the League of Faith and Labour; a letter from the League of Nations; an address to the German people from the League of World Friendship, London, urging that "all mankind is woven of one warp and one woof"; and correspondence with Dolores Lucas, regarding translations and summaries of news from theDanish and Norwegian papers.
The file contains a chronological run of correspondence generated by Mary Sheepshanks' controversial reading, at a dinner of the Lyceum Club in February 1918, of a letter from Marie Stritt, of the Deutscher Reichsverband für Frauenstimmrecht, congratulating British women on their enfranchisement and expressing their hope that the enfranchisement of women meant "the dawn of a new and brighter day" for the present "tortured humanity".
The Executive Committee of the Lyceum Club subsequently passed a resolution stating that "the reading of this letter from an enemy alien was a deliberate insult to British women present at the dinner" and barred Mary Sheepshanks from future admission to the Club.
The bulk of the file consists of: Mary Sheepshanks' letter to the press; her letter to the Executive Committee of the Lyceum Club in response to their resolution; and the letters of encouragement sent to her by members of the Lyceum Club outraged by the statement of their Executive.
There is also: a letter from Mme E. Loppé expressing the opinion of herself and of Marguerite de Witt de Schlumberger, President of L'Union Française pour le Suffrage des Femmes, that Germany "by countless lapses from moral rules...has lost her right to speak on the same plane as other nations" and that the German message showed a lack of "tact"; and an account of the episode for Carrie Chapman Catt, drawing her attention to the implications of the Loppé letter.
Includes correspondence with: Manchester and District Societies for Women's Suffrage, including details of a Conferenceon the Endowment of Motherhood and notice of their proposed Information Bureau in Manchester; the Volunteer Service League, regarding their move from war work to social work (see Milman); the Minerva Publishing Company Limited, publishers of
Also includes correspondence: with Jessie Mackay,
Language: includes 1 piece in German.
The file consists primarily of correspondence between Chrystal Macmillan of Edinburgh, First Recording Secretary of the I.W.S.A., and the Headquarters Secretary. The file contains correspondence relating to a wide variety of I.W.S.A. policy decisions and to all manner of matters arising within the Headquarters Office.
Includes 2 pieces in shorthand.
Includes correspondence with: the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child; the National Council of Women of Great Britain and Ireland; the National Union of Women Workers of Great Britain and Ireland; the National Women's Labour League; the National Peace Council; Miss Nettlefold, regarding the nationality, illegitimacy and inheritance status of the children of an English mother and a deceased French father; W.T. New, regarding the possibility of her coming as a Chinese delegate to the Geneva Congress; and Catherine van Dyke Nornabell, regarding the Ladies Home Journal, an American magazine.
Also includes circular letters from: the National Anti-Vaccination League; and the National Council for Civil Liberties.
Correspondence between Harriet Newcomb, Honorary Secretary of the British Dominions Woman Suffrage Union (later the British Dominions Women Citizens' Union) and the I.W.S.A. Headquarters Secretary and her assistants.
For a while Harriet Newcomb had the use of an office at the I.W.S.A. Headquarters and some of the letters relate simply to the forwarding of mail. A large proportion of correspondence relates to new subscribers to
Includes a programme for the Girl and Boy Welfare Conference, Perth, Australia, November 1919.
Correspondence with the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (later the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship), the I.W.S.A. auxiliary in Britain.
The file includes a regular exchange of news and enquiries between the I.W.S.A. and the N.U.W.S.S./N.U.S.E.C., and their respective Information Bureaus and Journals, regarding: the worldwide progression of emancipation; women's societies; biographies of suffragists; and subjects such as women's work in medicine and agriculture, equal pay for equal work, women in the police and the I.W.S.A. International War Relief Committee.
There are lists of women on government committees, women in "Important Positions", women holding salaried positions in public departments and members of the N.U.S.E.C. Executive Committee. Also included is the I.W.S.A. recommendation that the N.U.W.S.S. should consider the plea of Marie Stritt and the Deutscher Reichsverband für Frauenstimmrecht to their "sister societies in the International Woman Suffrage Alliance to use all their influence with their governments against the continuation and increased pressure of the hunger blockade during the Armistice" and the N.U.W.S.S. response.
Also included are: a Report of a Conference held in March 1919, attended by representatives of women's groups, to hear a report of the Inter-Allied Suffrage Conference; a draft `Convention Creating a Permanent Organisation in Connection with the League of Nations for the Improvement in the Status of Women'; a suggested scheme for widows' pensions; correspondence relating to an embryonic Greek suffrage society; a circular letter regarding the N.U.S.E.C. £10 000 Appeal; and details of the N.U.S.E.C. Election Fighting Fund.
Language: includes 1 piece in French and some endorsements in shorthand.
Includes: correspondence with the Oliver Typewriter Co. Limited; and a letter referring to the Women's After Care Hostel (for the rehabilitation of reformed prostitutes).
Includes correspondence with: Sylvia Pankhurst of the Workers Socialist Federation; Cedar Paul of the Women's International Council of Socialist and Labour Organisations; Pinja Powallah regarding the I.W.S.A. and India; the Polish Information Committee; the Postal Censor; and Reginald Pott who was funding a series of advertisements for
There is also: correspondence relating to the Millicent Garrett Fawcett/N.U.W.S.S. response to the Marie Stritt/Deutscher Reichsverband für Frauenstimmrecht appeal for international women's support for the lessening of the Armistice blockade (see Playne); information provided by the Proportional Representation Society; and a very substantial run of correspondence with Mrs E. Ayres Purdie, Certified Accountant and Auditor, regarding assets of the I.W.S.A., annual accounts, the general state of their finances and their financial management.
Correspondence relating to the appointment of a secretary with good shorthand and typing and a shorthand typist to the I.W.S.A. Headquarters Office. There was no evidence that the original order of the file was chronological or alphabetical; the file has been left as found.
Includes correspondence with: Mildred Ransom of the Shorthand and Typewriting Office; Mr Reynier, regarding translations from the Dutch papers; Mrs E. Ruffin, regarding Spanish translations; and the Birmingham Society for Equal Citizenship, regarding relief for the European Famine, especially in Hungary (see Ring).
Also includes: the Radical Council Manifesto and related papers; and notes on the Pioneer Educational Movement (see Rubinstein).
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
The file contains letters announcing the Eighth Congress of the I.W.S.A. which were sent to Lady Chance and, care of the Society of Friends' Emergency Committee for the Assistance of Germans, Austrians and Hungarians in Distress, to Mrs Rachel Mounsey, Mrs Russell Rea, Mrs Lyndon and Mrs Cecil Wilson. In each case the recipient could not be found and the letters were returned to the I.W.S.A.
Each envelope contained a circular letter dated January 1920, an advertisement for
The letters to Mrs Lyndon, Mrs Russell Rea and Mrs Cecil Wilson were returned sealed to the I.W.S.A. and were filed in this state. They have been opened by the Archivist.
Duplicate copies of the circular letter and the advertisement for
Includes correspondence with: the Save the Children Fund; the London Units of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Home and Foreign Service (see also the L File under London Units); Mary Sheepshanks, whilst she was away from the office in Devon; H.M. Stationary Office, regarding the receipt of publications from enemy countries; various organisations regarding relief for the destitute British-born widow of a Czechoslavakian Austrian subject (see Stern); and Mrs Swanwick, including a letter on women's role now "the dreadful sound of guns is at length stilled".
Correspondence relating to the distribution of
Includes considerable miscellaneous correspondence with Miss M.A.R. Tuker and Miss E. Picton Turberville touching on militancy and legislation in America and the possibility that Sophia Chang, Secretary of the Chinese National Woman Suffrage Association, has been beheaded.
There is a suggestion from the Rev. Tisdall, Vicar of Stainton-cum-Hillaby [location unknown] that a suitable new motto for the I.W.S.A. is "Freed to Free" or "Liberata Liberatura" and a prospectus for the launch of a new periodical,
Correspondence with the Central Association of Welfare Workers (Industrial) and
Includes correspondence with: the Union of Democratic Control; the Union of Jewish Women; Oskar Unruh, regarding communications with Germany; Constance Villiers Stuart, regarding Indian women's voting rights;
The largest constituents of the file are the series of correspondence with the Women's Freedom League, the Women's International League (British Section of the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace) and Lady J. Georgina Wright.
The correspondence with the Women's International League includes their response to the Marie Stritt letter appealing for an ease of the Armistice blockade, a paper on the importance of deputations, resolutions passed in conjunction with the 1918 Executive elections and details of a conference to set a minimum Feminist Programme.
The correspondence with Lady Wright refers to her sponsorship of the supply of
There are also series of correspondence with: the Women's Industrial Council; the Women's Local Government Society; the Women's Municipal Society; and the Women's Service. Correspondence with the Women's Service includes a letter expressing Headquarters' fears that "[Marguerite de Witt de Schlumberger and Jane Brigode] intend to break up the I.W.S.A.".
There is a letter (filed under Walsh) to the Belgian Ambassador suggesting that Ellen Walsh should receive decoration from the Belgian Government for her part in the I.W.S.A. International Women's Relief Committee work with Belgian refugees in Holland with a copy of a letter to Millicent Garrett Fawcett (in French) from Jane Brigode, President of the Fédération Belge pour les Suffrage des Femmes and Second Corresponding Secretary of the I.W.S.A., on this same matter.
Other correspondents include: the
There is some correspondence with Helen Ward (see also next File).
Language: includes 3 pieces in French.
See also WXYZ File.
Correspondence with Helen Ward, mostly regarding arrangements for the Geneva Congress to be published in
there is more correspondence with Helen Ward in file IWSA/2/34.
Includes correspondence with: the Young Women's Christian Association, including reference to their proposed Working Women's College; Alice Zimmern, regarding the possible translation into Spanish of her book
The vast majority of W letters are filed separately in file IWSA/3/34.
The list gives the names and addresses of all those to whom a circular letter dated July 8th, in an unspecified year, was sent.
The list was found with the class of Correspondence Files, rather than with the circular letters in the class of Subject Files, and has been retained in this class although it does noseem to belong to it. There does not appear to be a circular letter dated July 8th in any of the files of Circular Letters (IWSA/1/12-16).
Minutes of Headquarters Committee Meetings held 6 January, 23 January, 6 February, and 18 February and of an Emergency Committee Meeting held 16 February. The minutes relate the process by which the decision was taken to alter the location of the Congress from Madrid to Geneva.
The file does not really seem to belong in this class but it was found with items from this class and so it is included here. There is no evidence that it originally belonged in Class 1 although its presence there would seem more logical. The related files in Class 1 are IWSA/1/3, IWSA/1/19 and IWSA/1/35.
Extreme care is required in handling the collection and staff may withhold access to items for reasons of conservation.
Files of mounted news cuttings relating to all aspects of the women's movement worldwide were collected by the I.W.S.A. Information Bureau. News cutting mounts record the date of the cutting and its source. The files also include some unmounted news cuttings and some manuscript and typescript items.
Some news cuttings have been supplied by news cutting agencies but the majority were almost certainly cut by the staff at the I.W.S.A. Headquarters Office. Some of the cuttings from foreign papers may have been supplied by members in the relevant countries but, except in the case of American news cuttings, if this was the case nothing is known of the women who supplied the information.
In the case of some of the cuttings from American papers the cuttings were supplied by Ida Husted Harper, Chairman of the Department of Editorial Correspondence of the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission Inc., U.S.A. (L.W.S.C.) of which Carrie Chapman Catt was President.
Language: the series is predominantly written in English but a minority of items are written in French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Russian and Spanish.
The archivist found that the original order of the files and of the news cuttings within the files had been thoroughly disturbed but the existence of I.W.S.A. indexing rules has allowed accurate reconstruction. It should be remembered, however, that the I.W.S.A. did not always follow their own indexing rules to the letter and where non-compliance was apparently original, as in the case of an incorrectly allocated subject code or an incorrect but logical filing, the inconsistency has been retained, with cross references.
According to the `Plan of the Index' the news cuttings were filed under 12 main subject headings:
Later another index letter, X, was introduced which took some of the cuttings which had previously been filed under P.
Within each main heading were a series of sub-headings, which can be found in the `Plan of the Index'; sub-headings were arranged alphabetically under their main heading. There were around 140 sub-headings.
News cuttings were also indexed by country. Except where a cutting refers to many countries or where the question of country is of no importance the news cutting mounts were supposed to record: main heading subject letter (eg S); sub-heading (eg Electoral Reform); and country (eg Great Britain).
In accordance with the `Rules for Making Index Cards', for index letters S, V and W the country was supposed to be entered in the first line and the subject heading in the second line - leading to the creation of country files - but for all other index letters the subject heading was to be given in the first line and the country in the second line - leading to the creation of subject files.
Thus for codes S, V and W the files are arranged first by country and then within that by subject classification whilst all other files are arranged first by subject classification and then by country.
According to the `Guide to Card Index and Cuttings File' "the headings (both subject headings and countries)...are arranged alphabetically except that subject headings beginning with a given guide letter precede countries beginning with the same letter eg `C Maternity Assistance' precedes `China'".
Each file begins with cuttings which have just the initial heading or sub-heading and are then followed by those which are sub-headed by subject or country. Within each subject the archivist has placed cuttings in chronological order since this is the order in which they must have been collected. Any undated items appear at the end of the relevant classification section.
Where a file contains cuttings relating to a number of countries, unless otherwise stated, the majority of the cuttings usually relate to Great Britain followed by France, Germany and the U.S.A.
The file contains: `Rules for Making Index Cards'; 3 pieces of an incomplete `Guide to Card Index and Cuttings File'; and 2 versions of a `Plan of the Index', the second copy introducing some new sub-headings.
S Electoral Reform
S Franchise Bills
V Congresses
V Constitutions
V Legislatures, Women Candidates
V Referenda
V Results of Woman Suffrage
V Societies
V Votes of [Women]
V Voting Women
W Biography
W Government Appointments
W Honours for Women
W Societies
Many of the articles relate to the Australian Federal Election of 1917 in which Vida Goldstein, President of the Women's Political Association, and Henrietta Greville were standing as candidates and in which soldiers and nurses serving overseas were eligible to vote.
Language: includes 1 piece in German.
For children's playgrounds in Australia see file IWSA/3/159.
S Elections
S Local Government
S Press
S Woman Suffrage
W Biography
W Honours for Women
W Women's Movement
The article filed as S Press gives an interesting insight into an Austrian perception of the Women's Suffrage Movement in England.
[Unclassified]
Australia
Austria
France
Germany
Great Britain
The file begins with a single cutting classified as B Birth Control - it refers to a woman imprisoned in the U.S.A. for distributing pamphlets on the subject of birth control and who was being force fed because she was on hunger strike.
The rest of the file relates to the Birth Rate. The articles deal with the declining birth rate, especially in time of war, and there is some consideration of social and economic reasons forthe trend. Much is made of the need to turn the trend around and various methods to increase the birth rate are discussed. These range from moral and patriotic persuasion to financial incentives and polygamy.
The belief that, in time of war, nature compensates for the loss of men in battle by increasing the numbers of boys born, to the expense of the numbers of girls born, is shown to be based on dubious evidence. The file includes a `Special Review' of the British Birth-rate Commission Report in
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
There is some overlap of subject matter with file IWSA/3/11.
Australia
Austria
France
Germany
Great Britain
Hungary
India
New Zealand
Included are: statistics; suggested reasons for changes in the infant mortality rate such as living conditions, the availability of midwives, the employment of the mother and the availability of milk; and praise of "the mother-fed infant".
In Britain there was a fear that if insufficient babies were born then it would be impossible to protect the country against Germany which was "straining every nerve to restore her broken fortunes by battalions of babies" and there was some disquiet about the shortfall of babies in Scotland. There is some reference to the proposed conversion of the Department of Health into the Ministry of Health. Includes details of the National Association for the Prevention of Infant Mortality and for the Welfare of Infancy.
Language: includes 2 pieces in German.
[Unclassified]
Australia
Bulgaria
France
Germany
Great Britain
Hungary
Includes birth and death statistics and the balance between them, especially in time of war.
The cutting relating to Australia suggests a state home for mothers of illegitimate children to give birth "without one relation or friend ever being the wiser" in order that the State can "regard every prospective mother as a valuable asset to the State".
The cuttings relating to Germany include an article in the
The cuttings relating to Britain include a perceived need for the British Empire to increase its white population. There is some discussion of the validity of Malthusian doctrines.
Language: includes 2 pieces in German.
There is some overlap of subject matter with file IWSA/3/11.
Germany
Great Britain
Hungary
P War and Peace
S Electoral Reform
S Franchise Bills
S Societies
S Woman Suffrage
V Voting Women
W Biography
W Women's Movement
The file includes several articles relating to the post-war extension of the franchise under which war widows and women who had been imprisoned by the enemy for patriotic acts were granted the vote. There are also reports of the refusal of the Belgian Federation for Women's Suffrage to accept a Dutch invitation to an international women's suffrage meeting which would include German delegates.
The file concludes with a pamphlet
Language: includes 2 pieces in French.
According to the I.W.S.A. indexing rules cuttings classified as P War and Peace should appear in file IWSA/3/169; this file is classified X, but its former reference was P.
Canada
Great Britain
U.S.A.
The cuttings relate to school leaving age and child employment.
Australia
France
Germany
Great Britain
U.S.A.
Cuttings relate primarily to "the terrible scourge of infantile paralysis".
[Unclassified]
Australia
Austria
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain to February 1917
The cuttings cover all aspects of child welfare and include such topics as: Baby Clinics; "Mothercraft" skills; creches for the children of female munitions workers; and the treatment of juvenile offenders. Some of the articles address the same issues as those in files IWSA/3/4 and IWSA/3/6.
Great Britain from February 1917
India
New Zealand
U.S.A.
A lot of the cuttings for Great Britain relate to the 1917 Baby Week.
Germany
Great Britain
The cuttings address issues of illegitimate status.
Great Britain
Relates to the censorship of films.
Australia
Germany
Great Britain
There are reports of: individual cases of assault; and objections against the leniency of penalties for sexual crimes (especially against children).
Canada
Great Britain
U.S.A.
Great Britain
One article relating to the educational value of the kinematograph show within schools and churches, with some reference to censorship, and one article relating to
The code C is supposed to denote Children; Cinemas appear to have been added in here in the absence of an allocated position in the classification schema.
Australia
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
India
New Zealand
Switzerland
U.S.A
The cuttings relate to the provision of monetary payments, free food and milk, midwives and maternity centres.
Language: includes 1 piece in Italian (with an abstract in English) and 1 piece in German.
Great Britain
U.S.A.
The majority of the file relates to the supply of midwives in Great Britain.
A lot of the cuttings are classified as Ia Midwives but they appear to have been removed from the Ia Occupations files at some stage and added to this file. Their original home was probably in file IWSA/3/95.
Great Britain
Italy
Language: includes 1 piece in Italian.
Church Vote
Deputations
Elections
Electoral Reform
Franchise Bill
Legislature
Local Government
Petitions
Referenda
Societies
Support, Men's
Victories
Woman Suffrage
Conference
Eligibility
Legislatures, Women Candidates
Legislatures, Women Members
Voting Women
For Legislatures, Women Members see also file IWSA/3/146.
Biography
Compulsory Service for Women
Government Appointments
Honours for Women
Housewives
Married Women
Women's Movement
Societies
S Woman Suffrage
V Legislature, Women Members
W Women's Movement.
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
Canada
Great Britain
The cuttings relate to: prohibition in Canada; rates of drunkenness in Great Britain; the links between inebriety and infant mortality; and the Women's Freedom League challenge to the exclusion of women from public houses in Hartlepool [Durham].
For India see file IWSA/3/105.
Canada
U.S.A.
The cuttings cover arguments for prohibition and the effects of prohibition in practice, especially in time of war.
Canada
Great Britain
U.S.A.
Most cuttings are for the U.S.A. The cuttings relate to: referenda on prohibition; "dry" life in states with prohibition; and the links between "women voters and the teetotal party".
Great Britain
The file refers to the evils of increased drinking amongst women and includes a report of an experiment in female prohibition in Hartlepool [Durham].
S Electoral Reform
S Eligibility
S Legislature
S Victories
V Legislatures, Women Candidates
V Legislatures, Women Members
V Voting Women
W Biographies
The cuttings relate primarily to the introduction of universal suffrage in 1915 and the subsequent election in 1918, the first at which women could vote.
For W Reviews see file IWSA/3/167.
Australia
Canada
France
Great Britain
India
U.S.A.
The majority of the cuttings relate to India. The cuttings relate to educational policies in general but mostly with an emphasis on a suitable education for girls now that "the necessity and importance of female education" has been admitted. This is frequently tied up with the idea that "all education of girls should...aim at the production of better wives, better mothers and better members of the society". Some of the cuttings relate to general movements within education whilst other refer to unique instances such as the School for Married Hindu Ladies in Bombay.
There is one cutting for Great Britain which relates to the Millicent Garrett Fawcett Scholarships at Bedford College for Women.
For India see also file IWSA/3/105.
Great Britain
The cuttings report the appointment of Winifred Mercier as Lecturer in Education at the University of Manchester and Mrs Rackham as Director of Social Studies at Bedford College[London].
France
Great Britain
India
A number of cuttings deal with the training of women to take over the duties of men during the war. There are cuttings relating to training in commerce, professions and domestic science and there are a couple of scholarships available, two sponsored by
Australia
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
India
U.S.A.
The cuttings address issues such as the admission of women as students to universities and report instances of female students' successes and the appointment of women to academic posts.
Language: includes 2 pieces in German.
For India see also file IWSA/3/105.
Contains a report of a petition of the East Africa Women's League to the East African Legislative Council requesting equal suffrage for white men and women.
Contains a report, classified as W Women's Movement, recording the "excesses" of the riverside Beduin and the "patriarchal influence for good" that English women have been having over the women of the community.
S Constitution
V Legislature, Women Members
V Voting Women
W Women's Movement
The file includes a report of an interview with Annie Furuhjelm, M.P., President of the Federation of Auxiliaries (the Finnish society affiliated to the I.W.S.A.) and 2nd Vice-President of the I.W.S.A.
Congresses
Deputations
Franchise Bills
History
Legislature
Local Government
Press
Societies
[Unclassified - includes the I.W.S.A. and the Union Feminine Française]
L'Union Française pour le Suffrage des Femmes
Support, Mens
Language: includes 32 pieces in French.
S Woman Suffrage
W Biographies
W Congress
W Government Appointments
W Honours for Women
W Housewives
W Societies
W Women's Movement
W Women's Work after the War
Language: includes 36 pieces in French.
For W Honours for Women see also file IWSA/3/165. For W Reviews see file IWSA/3/167. For W Women's Movement see also file IWSA/3/168.
Adult Suffrage
Congresses
Constitution
Electoral Reform
Franchise Bills
History
Legislature
Local Government
Periodicals
Political Parties, Socialists
Societies
Woman Suffrage
Cuttings include reports relating to the (promised) extension of the franchise, the women's movement and socialism in Germany. The cuttings classified as Societies are reports, in English papers, of the letter sent by Marie Stritt of the Deutscher Reichsverband für Frauenstimmrecht congratulating English women on their enfranchisement, the reading of which letter at a dinner of the Lyceum Club plunged Mary Sheepshanks into controversy.
Language: includes 13 pieces in German.
Details of the episode at the Lyceum Club are found in file IWSA/2/18.
V Anti-Suffrage
V Legislatures, Women Members
V Votes of [Women]
W Administrative Committees
W Biography
W Compulsory Service for Women
W Dress
W Government Appointments
W Housewives
W Married Women
W Societies
W Socialist Women
W Women's Movement.
Language: includes 7 pieces in German.
For V Voting Women see file IWSA/3/163.
Adult Suffrage
Anti-Suffrage
Covers the case and demand for universal adult suffrage and the arguments of (male and female) anti-suffragists as to why the enfranchisement of women was neither necessary nor desirable.
Church
Cuttings refer primarily to the "church franchise" and the debate as to whether women should vote on parochial church councils. There is some discussion of the claim of women to be priests.
Church
Deputations
The Church cuttings look at the work and position of women within the contemporary church and there is a substantial article on the role of women in the early church. The cuttings classified as Deputations report various women's suffrage deputations made to the Prime Ministers Asquith and Lloyd George.
Electoral Reform
The cuttings relate to: electoral registration in 1916; the question of votes for soldiers, sailors and munitions workers; the possible enfranchisement of women; and the possible introduction of proportional representation.
Electoral Reform
The cuttings cover the period 8 February to 3 April 1917. A lot of the reports relate to the Speaker's Conference on Electoral Reform and its aftermath. Some articles deal with the Unionist attitude to women's suffrage and to the merits of proportional representation.
Electoral Reform
The cuttings begin on 5 April 1917 and continue to the end of the year. The cuttings record the ongoing debate around the subject of electoral reform and exactly what form it should take, with specific reference to the possibilities of the enfranchisement of women and of proportional representation. The cuttings follow the progress of the Representation of the People Bill.
Electoral Reform
The cuttings relate to the passing of the Representation of the People Act on 6 February which increased the franchise by around 8,000,000 of whom around 6,000,000 were women.
Eligibility
Following the Representation of the People Act of February 1918, the cuttings record the progress of the Bill to enable women to be full members of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Franchise Bills
History
The Franchise Bills cuttings include reports of: the Special Register Bill, 1916; the nature and progression of the various Bills to reform the franchise (with or without women) which were introduced in the Commons during 1917; the position, with respect to the franchise, of women in receipt of Poor Relief; a Bill for Universal Adult Suffrage in the Isle of Man to be submitted to the Manx Legislature; and the Women's Charter (Sex Disqualification Removal) Bill, 1919.
The cuttings relating to the History of the Women's Suffrage movement include information on "Pioneer Women", a published list of organisations and authorities supporting the enfranchisement of women and details of the 7 Bills to extend the franchise to qualified women which passed their second reading in the Commons prior to the introduction of the Representation of the People Bill, passed in 1918.
Local Government
Militancy
Ministers
Periodicals
Political Parties
The Local Government cuttings, which make up the majority of the file, relate to the appointment and work of women as mayors, councillors and Guardians of the Poor and women's role in such matters as housing and street cleaning.
Press
The cuttings relate mostly to women's work during the war and the way in which it has proved their entitlement to the vote. According to the reports, "the women are splendid" and "the war has changed it all". There are also some reports relating to franchise reform.
Societies
The cuttings relate to the policies, resolutions, statements and activities of the various societies.
Support, Men's
Support Societies
The cuttings include statements of support for the enfranchisement of women made by men's organisations and prominent individuals.
Tax Resistance
Victories
Woman Suffrage
The cuttings classified as Tax Resistance are reports of bankruptcy proceedings against Dr Winifred Patch and Evelyn Sharp in an attempt to claim unpaid income tax which they have withheld on the basis that when a woman is "debarred from her social rights she is clearly relieved from the discharge of her social obligations".
The cuttings classified as Victories report the celebration of the passing of the Representation of the People Act in February 1918. Cuttings classified as Woman Suffrage give arguments for and against the enfranchisement of women and reports of the Bill for adult suffrage on the Isle of Man.
Congresses
Elections
Eligibility
Legislature, Woman Candidates
The Congress in question was held in October 1918, under the auspices of the Labour party, and related to the civil and political rights and responsibilities of women. For Elections there is an analysis of results for the December 1918 elections. The cutting on Eligibility relates to the second reading in the House of Lords of the Bill which would make women eligible to sit in the House of Commons.
The cuttings classified as Legislature, Woman Candidates relate to the women seeking election in the Parliamentary election of December 1918. Also included, mixed with these cuttings, are some classified as V Legislature which should presumably have been classified as S Legislature and thus have found their way into another file; these cuttings address women's position as voters rather than as candidates.
The demarcations between files IWSA/3/55-57, as found by the archivist, had been lost and their contents jumbled; the files have been reconstituted according to the I.W.S.A. indexing rules.
Political Parties
Societies
The single piece which relates to political parties is an account of the Labour Women's Conference in June 1919.
The demarcations between files IWSA/3/55-57, as found by the archivist, had been lost and their contents jumbled; the files have been reconstituted according to the I.W.S.A. indexing rules.
Votes of [Women]
Voting Women
Voting Women, Elections
Voting Women, Laws Supported by
Voting Women's Societies
Most cuttings are classified as Voting Women and these include reports concerning the compilation of the new register, speculation as to how women will vote, and photographs of women voting in the December 1918 election.
The demarcations between files IWSA/3/55-57, as found by the archivist, had been lost and their contents jumbled; the files have been reconstituted according to the I.W.S.A. indexing rules.
See also file IWSA/3/116. For V Voting Woman see also file IWSA/3/163.
Administrative Committees
Appointments
The cuttings relating to Administrative Committees refer to: a proposed Censorship Board under Home Office Control; a Central Billeting Board appointed by the Minister of Munitions; the Select Committee on Luxury Tax; a Welfare Advisory Committee appointed by the Minister of Munitions; and the women serving on these committees.
The appointments include: Elaine Jenkins, Chairman of the Swansea and Mumbles Railway Company; and Irene Warner and Mary Proctor, Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society. There is an article regarding "seats for women" in the Co-operative Union.
Biographies
Compulsory Service for Women
Congresses
Exhibitions
There are articles, and letters to the press, discussing the merits of compulsory service for women and whether hard physical labour would be damaging to women who should be "conserved" for motherhood. The Congress in question is a "small private conference of representative Labour and Socialist women" in Switzerland in 1915. The exhibitions include exhibitions of women's work during 1915 and 1916, which display "the triumph of British women's brains over Prussian militarism" and a War Museum Exhibition in 1918 to raise money for the Red Cross.
Girl Scouts
Government Appointments
Honours for Women
The first piece in the file was originally classified as Girls' Clubs and was subsequently changed to Girl Scouts; the cuttings in fact refer to luncheon clubs for working women and have nothing to do with the Scouting movement.
The cuttings relating to government appointments relate to the increasing numbers of women employed in Government offices and other posts during the war, their terms of employment and the benefits of employing women in certain roles - notably as assessors in tribunals held under the Munitions Act.
The cuttings relating to Honours for women, which make up the larger part of the file, include: details of women "mentioned in despatches" for outstanding nursing services at the front and rescuing wounded soldiers; some discussion of women's eligibility for honours traditionally awarded to men; and reports of honours, both civil and military, awarded to British women for their services during the war.
For W Honours for Women see also file IWSA/3/165.
Housewives
Housing
Juries
The cuttings relating to housewives advocate the benefits of central kitchens to achieve economies in food and fuel and to assist the lot of working women; there are also cuttings relating to the ideal home and the Women's Housing Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction.
The articles classified as Juries reflect that the duty of jury service is coupled with the right to vote and discuss implications for women on juries.
For Juries see also file IWSA/3/88.
Married Women
Married Women, Income Tax
Ministry of Health
Pensions to Widows
Prison
Public Offices
Reviews.
The cuttings refer to: the need to feed at school the children of married women workers; the injustice of a system in which income tax is levied on the joint incomes of husband and wife; women's consultative role in the establishment of the Ministry of Health; "pensions for mothers"; demands of the Penal Reform League; women assessors in tribunals held under the Munitions Act; and reviews of
Societies
The file consists of news cuttings relating to the Women's Co-operative Guild and other matters. Most of the cuttings are taken from `The Women's Corner' of
The cuttings include reports on: food shortages, rationing and co-operative food kitchens; women's suffrage; creches; income tax; education; welfare work; trade unions; moral and social hygiene; alien women; Guild activities, including their Congress at Torquay in 1917 and women's role in the Co-operative Congress at Liverpool in 1918; the Bill for Establishing a Ministry of Health; municipal elections and women's role in them; female co-operative employees; registration for the new Parliamentary register in 1918; maternity and child welfare; and "the co-operative woman voter".
Societies
Women's Movement
One piece, which appears to be classified as Societies although the writing is near illegible, does not relate to societies but to "two ladies who during the whole of the campaign in Palestine remained in a village on Mount Lebanon, sharing all the privations of the Syrians and doing their utmost, as long as food and medicine lasted, to alleviate the suffering due to starvation and disease"; their names are not given.
The cuttings classified as Women's Movement include an article on `Women at Home and Beyond the Seas', articles on the removal of the grille in front of the Ladies Gallery of the House of Commons and an article `Women and the New Era: Her Influence and Responsibilities in the Future'.
For W Women's Movement see also file IWSA/3/168.
S Demonstrations
S Electoral Reform
S Franchise Bills
S Suffrage Bills
S Woman Suffrage
W Biography
W Government Appointments
W Women's Movement.
There is a report of a 1917 strike, during which even munition factories closed, as part of a franchise demonstration, and there are articles relating to the extension of the franchise to include additional men and selective categories of women (war widows, women passing examinations and women running businesses). There is an article, by Rosika Schwimmer, on the history of women's position in Hungary.
Language: includes 1 piece in Hungarian and 2 pieces in German.
For V Voting woman see file IWSA/3/163.
Great Britain
U.S.A. (1 piece only)
The cuttings report the process of "demobilising the women's army". Some of the articles touch on the demobilisation of women engaged in war work at the front and work in munitions factories but a lot of the cuttings relate to the dismissal of women from jobs in government offices, administration, industry and agriculture in order to make way for the returning men whom they had replaced.
Articles relate to: unemployment pay for women; a scheme to train wives and fiancées of soldiers in "household accomplishments"; wage levels; the problem of "displaced women" who "never want to relapse into a state of semi-idleness"; and the possibilities of emigration.
See also file IWSA/3/79. There is some overlap between the files but, on the whole, IWSA/3/79 contains speculatory articles, dated 1915-1918 whilst this file contains reports of actual experience once the war had ended.
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Finland
France
The cuttings report the kinds of work in which women were engaged, their conditions of work, their wages, and industrial relations. A major feature in the French cuttings is the strike of the "midinettes" and their demands for "an English week" i.e. with a half day on Saturday.
Language: includes 3 pieces in German and 27 pieces in French.
Germany
The articles refer to women's work in industry, their conditions of work and the "trail of famine" in Germany during the blockade.
Language: includes 7 pieces in German.
Great Britain
The file contains reports on economic conditions, usually with specific reference to women, in Britain during the First World War. Subjects include: women's work during the war; conditions of work and the health of women workers; "pocket money workers" and a minimum wage; and speculation as to women's work after the war - which trades should be open to women, as potential mothers, and the danger of flooding the market with excess labour.
Language: includes 1 piece in German (with manuscript English translation).
Great Britain
The file is a continuation of IWSA/3/70, but this time dealing specifically with economic conditions as they related to women in the aftermath of the war. Includes articles relating to the payment of "the out-of-work donation" to the huge numbers of women rendered unemployed by the end of the war.
Hungary
India
International
Russia
South Africa
Switzerland
U.S.A.
All the cuttings relate to women workers. The cutting representing Hungary appears to relate primarily to Germany.
Language: includes 2 pieces in German.
Great Britain
The file contains: a photograph of the Plumstead Hotel for Women War Workers; an article relating to the registration of women at employment exchanges; and news of a vocational library established in London to assist women who wish to read government publications and to research the kind of careers that are open to them.
Great Britain
International
U.S.A.
A large number of the cuttings relate to the strikes of women tramway, omnibus and tube employees in London demanding equal pay for equal work.
The articles reflect the undeniable justice of women's claims for equal remuneration but also address the major changes which the adoption of such a principle would cause in society, arguing that "anything which tends to undermine the position of man as the breadwinner, anything which tends to throw the burden of family maintenance as well as motherhood on the woman, is a grave danger to society".
Examples are given of "some bad cases of sweating".
The piece classified as International reports a Draft Convention for the International Regulation of Labour in 1919.
The cuttings relating to the U.S.A. give assurances that women employed to do men's work during the war will receive men's pay and details are given of a labour charter "making strikes and lock-outs virtually impossible for the duration of the war".
Germany
Great Britain
Articles relate to sick pay, maternity pay and "marriage benefit" for women.
Language: includes 1 piece in German.
Great Britain
U.S.A.
The reports cover the British regulation of wages during and after the war, particularly in the sewing trades and with specific reference to women. The cutting relating to the U.S.A. reports on a Bill for a minimum wage for women in Louisiana.
Australia
Great Britain
The subjects covered are hours and wages and industrial relations.
France
Great Britain
Switzerland
U.S.A.
The cuttings detail the demands of women's Trade Unions for their workers to be paid "in terms of skill, not of sex" and include reference to dressmakers' strikes in France and the promotion of trade unionism amongst women workers in Britain.
Language: includes 1 piece in French and 1 piece in German.
Welfare Work
Women's Work After the War
The Welfare Work cuttings relate to: the health and safety of the working environment; the especial need to protect women, as actual or potential mothers, within that environment; child welfare; and the beginning of welfare work as a profession.
The Women's Work After the War cuttings speculate on the future role of women once the war is over. Opinions expressed range from the idea that "all their gentleness, their womanliness, must return when their sons come back from the war" to a prediction that the role played by women in the war will produce lasting changes in industrial, commercial and professional life, thus fundamentally changing the position of women within society.
The first piece in the file is dated 1912 but this is almost certainly an error on the part of the secretary. The I.W.S.A. Information Bureau was not established until the following year and the cutting refers to 1912 as if in the past tense.
Language: includes 2 pieces in German.
For Women's Work After the War see file IWSA/3/67. There is some overlap between the 2 files, but on the whole this file contains speculative articles from the period 1915-1918 whilst file IWSA/3/67 has reports based on actual experience during the first months after the war.
Australia
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
U.S.A.
The cuttings report successful farm work being carried out by the Women's National Land Service Corps and "super cowgirls".
Language: includes 1 piece in French and 2 pieces in Italian.
Great Britain
Clergy
Dentists
The British Clergy news cuttings discuss the rights and wrongs of women as preachers, much of the controversy centring round the reported ministry of Maude Royden, "the woman peace rank", and her disagreement with the Bishop of London; in Norway women were already legalised to preach in the State Church and in Denmark a Bill to this end was introduced to the Danish arliament.
The cuttings relating to Dentistry refer to the current shortage of dentists and the advantages of women of "considerable nervous srength and good physique" entering this profession.
Denmark
Great Britain
Subjects include "the difficulties of domestic service" and the need to improve the status and training of domestic servants in order to entice reluctant girls "of a better class", and who had obtained other work during the war, to take up house work, thus replenishing the pool of labour in this field.
France
Great Britain
U.S.A.
The main subjects are wages and working hours in the dressmaking trades.
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
The article relating to the U.S.A. is classified as D Dress, although it was found in this file. This is an anomaly; D is the index code for Drink, the appropriate classification would appear to be Ia Dressmakers or W Dress. The article in fact relates to the action of shopkeepers in displaying "enticing" underwear in shop windows, creating an offence against decency.
Germany
Great Britain
U.S.A.
The main subjects are women as workers in engineering and other allied metal trades.
The cuttings for Germany, despite being classified as Engineering, refer to engine drivers and electricians.
Australia
France
Germany
Great Britain
India
Russia
U.S.A.
Women are reported to be engaged in a wide variety of government employments including positions in the Civil Service, the Post Office, municipal services of local authorities, clerical and other non-military posts within the army, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, the Women's Royal Naval Service, the Royal Airforce Nursing Service, and the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps. There is an article about Claire Alison, the only woman representative at the Peace Conference at Versailles in May 1919.
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
2 pieces are classified Ia Factory Inspectors. These are found in their chronological positions amongst the other cuttings as it does not seem to have been I.W.S.A. practice to arrange the file by type of government employment.
Great Britain
U.S.A.
The articles relate to patents for inventions by women in Great Britain and "an ingeniously-designed leg-hammock" invented by an American artist, Miss Gasette, now in use in British Hospitals.
Judges
Juries
Lawyers
The Judges cuttings refer to the appointment of women as justices of the peace, magistrates, judges and members of local tribunals held under the Military Service Act; and legislation making this possible. Juvenile Courts and cases involving women and children are suggested as situations in which the woman judge may be peculiarly suitable.
The 2 pieces classified as Juries discuss the merits and demerits of opening the "last masculine stronghold" of the jury-box to women.
The Lawyers cuttings relate to women practising as barristers, solicitors and solicitors clerks.
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
For Juries see also file IWSA/3/62.
Australia
Austria
Canada
Great Britain
India
Russia
U.S.A.
Articles stress: the increasing demand for more women doctors to replace men; possibilities for training; and the achievements of practising women doctors.
At the back of the file there is an article on the place of women in the history of medical science and one piece, classified as Scientific Research, which gives details of women engaged in war time medical research at the Lister Institute.
Language: includes 1 piece in German.
For India see also file IWSA/3/105.
Canada
France
Germany
Gives accounts and photographs of work being carried out by women in munitions factories.
Language: includes 1 piece in French and 3 pieces in German.
Great Britain
Italy
Russia
U.S.A.
The articles cover: the work being done by women; health and safety issues; hours and wages; and other concerns such as accommodation for women working away from home.
Language: includes 1 piece in Italian.
Australia
Canada
France
Greece
Great Britain
Russia
U.S.A.
The main subjects are: the need for additional nurses; and pay and pensions for nurses.
Language: includes 2 pieces in Russian.
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
France
Germany
The file holds cuttings relating to miscellaneous women's wartime occupations which are not filed by occupation elsewhere in the Ia files. The cuttings for each country are in chronological order.
Language: includes 3 pieces in French, 4 pieces in German and 1 piece in Italian.
Great Britain A-E
Great Britain F-S
For Midwives see IWSA/3/19.
Great Britain T-Z
Great Britain Unclassified
The cuttings report women's work in miscellaneous occupations. Mostly they relate to those occupations which do not have a file devoted to them and which do not appear in the Occupations files IWSA/3/94, IWSA/3/95 and IWSA/3/96. Where the cuttings relate to an occupation covered elsewhere this may be because the cutting relates to diverse occupations. Or it may simply be that the Secretary decided not to or did not have the time to classify the cuttings in question.
This file is arranged chronologically, not by occupation. The majority of the cuttings relate to 1916 and 1917, perhaps because by 1918 and 1919 the novelty of women doing "men's work" had begun to wear off and there were few occupations left which women had not already entered.
Language: includes 2 pieces in Spanish.
Italy
Japan
New Zealand
Russia
Turkey
U.S.A.
The file holds cuttings relating to miscellaneous women's wartime occupations which are not filed by occupation elsewhere in the Ia files. The cuttings for each country are in chronological order.
Australia
Great Britain
U.S.A.
The main subjects are: the need for women police; the training of women police; and the work done by policewomen. There is some comment on the suitability or otherwise of women for "unpleasant work".
France.
Language: French.
Australia
Great Britain
The cuttings include reports of: women entering professions previously only open to men; demand for equal pay; and "girls of leisure" who desire to be "useful" during the war.
Sailors
Soldiers
The cuttings include reports of: official appointments of women to the armies and navies of their respective countries; and women masquerading as men in order to join the ranks.
There are a number of cuttings which refer to the unfounded reports of 1000 British suffragettes arriving to serve as "Amazons" in France and articles about Sergeant-Major Flora Sandes, an Englishwoman serving in the Serbian Army. The largest group of cuttings, however, refers to the exploits of "Russian Warrior Women".
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
For soldiers in Russia see also file IWSA/3/140.
Australia
Great Britain
U.S.A.
The main issues are: salary levels for women teachers; women teachers in boys schools; and whether a woman should be allowed to return to work after a leave of absence to perform "her highest duty to the community", motherhood.
Contains one article relating to the enfranchisement of women over the age of 40 in Iceland.
For W Reviews see file IWSA/3/167.
[Unclassified]
D Drink
E Education
E Universities
Ia Medical Women
M Prostitution
P War Work
S Deputations
S Local Government
S Woman Suffrage
W [Unspecified]
W Biography: Her Highness Nawab Sultan Jahan Begum, sovereign-ruler of Bhopal
W Congresses
W Honours for Women
W Obituary:Sarah Highley, American Baptist Mission in the Far East
W Women's Movement
The largest groups of cuttings relate to: E Education; M Prostitution; and W Women's Movement. Concern is expressed that "indentured emigration" is in fact a "legalised form of prostitution" and there are reports of resolutions, passed by groups such as the All-India Ladies Conference, to provide women with education and greater social and professional liberty.
According to the I.W.S.A. rules for indexing, cuttings relating to Drink should be in file IWSA/3/25, Education in file IWSA/3/30, Universities in file IWSA/3/33, Medical women in file IWSA/3/89, Prostitution in file IWSA/3/118 and War Work in file IWSA/3/136.
For S Woman Suffrage see also file IWSA/3/141. For W Women's Movement see also file IWSA/3/168.
The majority of the cuttings relate to the International Congress of Women held at the Hague [Holland] in April 1915 to discuss terms for peace and questions which women would wish to see addressed in any peace treaty.
Then there are 2 pieces relating to the April 1918 Women'smInternational Congress at Berne [Switzerland] which was not attended by British delegates.
The file then moves on to 1919 and there are cuttings relating to: the Inter-Allied Women's Conference held in Paris [France] in February to formulate demands to be placed before the Peace Conference; an impromptu Women's Conference held at Berne [Switzerland] in February; the women's deputations to the Commission of the League of Nations; the International Congress of women in Zurich [Switzerland] in May organised by the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace; and the International Labour Conference in May.
The file concludes with various cuttings classified as "International" which relate to international relations and the international women's movement but which do not refer to Congresses; these cuttings do not really seem to belong in the file but their place in the file is probably original.
Language: includes 2 pieces in French and 1 piece in German.
See also files IWSA/1/72, IWSA/3/129, IWSA/3/164 and IWSA/3/166.
S Local Government
S Societies:Irish Women's Franchise League
S Woman Suffrage
V Voting Women
W Societies
Ulster Women's Unionist Council
Includes a report of the first Irish woman to vote in a Parliamentary election, her right to vote having been established when her name was accidently included in the register of voters.
[Unclassified]
P War Work
S Electoral Reform
S Ministers
S Press
S Suffrage
S Support, Men's
S Woman Suffrage
W Biography: Corvini, Dr Filomena, medical officer with the rank of lieutenant at the Italian front
W Congress
W Honours for Women
W Woman Suffrage
W Women's Movement.
Language: includes 12 pieces in Italian.
According to the I.W.S.A. indexing rules, P War Work should be found in file IWSA/3/136.
The file contains a series of cuttings from the
Representatives at the meeting included: Marguerite de Witt de Schlumberger (as President of the Assembly) and Marie Verone for France; Reverend Anna Shaw for the U.S.A.; Vilma Glücklich for Hungary; Mrs Creighton for Great Britain; Frau Deutch for Germany; Frau Auker for Norway; and Professor Teresa Labriola and Signorina Dobelli Zampetti for Italy.
International speakers included: Jane Brigode (Belgium); Marguerite de Witt de Schlumberger (France); Baroness Junch (Germany); Frau Deutch (Prussia); Chrystal Macmillan (GreatBritain); Vilma Glücklich (Hungary); Dr Aletta Jacobs (Netherlands); F.M. Qvam (Norway); Frel. Honegger (Switzerland); Reverend Anna Shaw (U.S.A.); and Madame Minor (Austria).
Language: Italian.
S Electoral Reform
S Woman Suffrage
W Women's Movement
The subjects are the roles of Japanese girls, women and wives in the family and in society and the "limited agitation" for women's suffrage and greater freedom of employment in Japan.
Australia
Burma
Great Britain
India
Italy
Poland
Russia
U.S.A.
The subjects include: in Australia and the U.S.A., police courts for women; in Burma, the freedom and equality enjoyed by women; and in Great Britain, surnames of divorced women, separation allowances and pensions for wives and widows of soldiers, the story of Alice Roberts who "killed a man in defence of her honour", the "financial subjection" of women to their husbands, proposed changes in divorce law and taxation of married women.
The cuttings for Russia report a Bolshevist system under which women occupied a position "little different from that of a breeding animal on a stud farm", becoming "the property of the whole nation" and available for the "use" of men in order that children might be produced as property of the State.
Language: includes 3 pieces in Italian and 1 piece in German.
Austria
Great Britain
U.S.A.
The file includes: divorce statistics; articles relating to the increased demand for divorce; the permissible grounds for divorce; and the objections of various churches to alterations to the divorce laws which would act to lessen the sanctity of marriage.
Problems discussed include: separated persons living a life of celibacy at a time when loss of life through war made procreation an activity of national importance; divorces arising from the separation of husbands and wives during the war; and the need for "poor persons divorce".
Australia
Brazil
Denmark
Germany
France
Great Britain
Italy
Russia
U.S.A.
Subjects include: marriage by proxy; the right of married women to property; alterations to divorce laws; a scheme for "secondary marriage" or polygamy to increase population in Germany; the merits of love and suitability in marriage; speculation as to whether hasty war marriages are a good thing; the custody of children of mixed nationality marriages; the sanctity of marriage; arguments against wives going out to work; the relation of income tax to marriage; and the Bolshevist nationalisation of women.
Language: includes 1 piece in Italian.
France
Germany
Great Britain
U.S.A.
Most of the cuttings relate to the nationality of British women married to aliens.
Language: includes 1 piece in German but an English translation is provided.
Great Britain
The file contains a cutting reporting the "grave mischief" caused by the naturalisation of foreigners in Great Britain and the recommendations of the Enemy Influence Sub-Committee of the Unionist War Committee.
Great Britain
The cuttings relate primarily to clauses in the Criminal Law Amendment Bill of 1917 which would raise the age of consent of girls to sexual intercourse from 16 to 17 and which would raise the age of consent in the case of indecent assault from 13 to 16.
There is also a report of a case before Nottingham Assizes in 1919 in which a Captain Beer Brockenshaw R.F.A. was found not guilty of the abduction of Margaret Annie Kennedy, aged 14.
The file also includes 4 cuttings supplied by Durrant's Press Cuttings, dated 5-6 December 1918, which relate to the forthcoming British parliamentary election in which women would have the vote, and could stand as candidates, for the first time. These cuttings appear to be misfiled but they do not appear to originally belong to any other file in the class. They may have originally been classified as "W" or "Suff[rage]" but their subject matter suggests their inclusion in file IWSA/3/57
Germany
Great Britain
A single article concerning Germany gives figures for domestic crime, including sexual offenses, in Germany as against comparable figures for Great Britain.
The articles for Great Britain deal with issues of "social morality" and public health. The key problems were perceived to be "commercialized vice and promiscuous immorality", particularly amongst men. Some of the articles centre around the high incidence of venereal disease, the circumstances of its transmission and, in particular, the role of men who "indulge in immoral practices", become diseased and then transmit such disease to their innocent wives and children. The reformers demand "exactly the same moral standard from men as from women".
For prostitution see also files IWSA/1/57 and IWSA/3/118-119. For venereal disease see also file IWSA/3/122.
Germany
India
South Africa
Turkey
U.S.A.
The cuttings relate to: the medical examination of prostitutes in Germany; the indentured labour system leading to prostitution amongst Indian women in Fiji; the possible repeal of Contagious Disease legislation in South Africa; increased prostitution in Turkey and its possible relation to "the doffing of the veil"; the American "Women's Night Court" where women charged with prostitution are brought for trials run on the basis that "a painted and obviously vicious huzzy cannot have her word taken as against that of a respectable policeman"; and "the dangers of camp life" to which U.S. and Allied soldiers are exposed.
See also files IWSA/1/34, IWSA/1/57, IWSA/1/71 and IWSA/3/117. For India see also file IWSA/3/105.
Great Britain
The reports outline the principle problems as: the spread of "diseases directly due to immorality"; "wastage" in the British Army due to this cause; military complicity in the provision of "maisons tolérées" close to British camps in France; the "army of...potential prostitutes" found wherever troops are in training; "the menace of the amateur prostitute"; and the need to protect soldiers from the "temptations with which they are assailed by certain women and girls".
Solutions are advocated in: the "suppression of disorderly houses"; "the cleansing of London"; the Contagious Diseases Act, the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1917 and Regulation 40D under the Defence of the Realm Act, all of which made transmission of the disease an offence and instituted compulsory medical examinations for those under suspicion; the decision "to place tolerated houses in France out of bounds"; and the provision of rescue homes for the reformation and rehabilitation of prostitutes.
See also files IWSA/1/34, IWSA/1/57, IWSA/1/71 and IWSA/3/117.
Australia
Great Britain
The cuttings include news of a group of American women visiting Britain as part of a tour to "study sex problems in Europe". The articles stress the need for teaching to be both religious and scientific and the importance of the equal moral standard.
Germany
Great Britain
Subjects are: the position of the unmarried mother; and assistance available to her.
Language: includes 1 piece in German.
Australia
Canada
Germany
Finland
Great Britain
International
Norway
U.S.A.
The file includes discussions of the symptoms, transmission and medical treatment of venereal disease and the need for "a clean fatherhood and a protected motherhood"; articles include scientific, social and moral commentary on the problem.
Major subjects include: the arguments for and against the compulsory notification of cases of venereal disease; and issues of professional secrecy as against the need to warn the wife, husband, fiancé or the community at large of the danger latent in an infected person.
Major legislation discussed includes: the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 1917, which made conscious communication of venereal disease a criminal offence; the Venereal Disease Bill, 1917; and Regulation 40D of the Defence of the Realm Act. Articles highlight the injustice inherent in Regulation 40 D under which "hundreds of innocent girls and women have been subjected to a degrading ordeal on the unsupported accusation of some man who, from any motive which suited him, sought to incriminate her" and under which women could not similarly name a man for infecting her.
Other subjects include: the danger of treatment by quacks; the need to educate boys and girls on the dangers of impurity; the expedience of advocating early marriages - also a good method of making up the national shortfall in babies; the treatment of women with venereal disease in "lock wards"; and the call for an equal moral standard.
See also files IWSA/1/71 and IWSA/3/117.
Great Britain
Reports charges of "procuring a girl under the age of 21 for an improper purpose".
See also file IWSA/1/57.
V Legislature, Women Members
Relates to Hermila Galindo.
S Electoral Reform
S Government Action on
S Legislature
S Victory
S Woman Suffrage
V Legislature, Women Candidates
V Legislature, Women Members
W Housewives
W Societies
The main subject is the extension of the franchise to women in Holland and there are 2 articles relating to Suze Groeneweg, Holland's first woman M.P.
Language: includes 2 pieces in French.
S Eligibility
S Legislature
S Local Government
V Results of Woman Suffrage
V Voting Women
VW [Unspecified]
WV [Unspecified]
The articles relate to: the 21st anniversary, in 1915, of the enfranchisement of women in New Zealand; the Legislative Council Reform Bill, 1915, which contained a clause making women "eligible for election to the Legislative Council when the law was amended to entitle them to be elected to the House of Representatives"; and women's war work in New Zealand including a "Poor of Britain Fund" to feed the "starving in the Homeland" and a Belgian Jewish Relief Fund for refugees in Britain.
Language: includes 1 piece in German.
S Eligibility, Cabinet Ministers
S Press
W Biographies
Language: includes 1 piece in Norwegian.
For W Reviews see file IWSA/3/167.
The cuttings relate to the work of the International Women's Relief Committee founded in 1914 by the I.W.S.A. in conjunction with the Friends of Foreigners in Distress, the Francis Josef Society, the Frauenverein, the World Young Women's Christian Association and other bodies.
The cuttings report: the assistance offered to stranded foreign women; the plight of British wives of enemy aliens; the role of the Committee in the urgent withdrawal of British girls from schools in Belgium; and the Committee's function as a missing relatives department.
Language: includes 1 piece largely in German and 1 piece largely in French.
The cuttings relate to: the proposed International Working-Class Conference to be held concurrently with the official Peace Conference, the British delegation including Mrs Snowden as one of the Labour Party representatives; the Women Voters' Council of Great Britain Charter to the Peace Conference; the Inter- Allied Women's Conference to be held in Paris to "consider the question of putting women's views on certain international questions before the Peace delegates"; women's demands to the International Labour Legislation Commission; and the admission of women to the Peace Conference "at a side door".
See also files IWSA/1/72, IWSA/3/106, IWSA/3/164 and IWSA/3/166.
Australia
Austria
Bulgaria
France
Germany
Great Britain
International
Italy
New Zealand
Sweden
Turkey
U.S.A.
Cuttings relate to women's campaigns for peace. The file concludes with a cutting classified as P Peace Work which reports the "insidious enterprise" of the Women's International League who are "promoting the idea of an internationalized world, with Germany as a partner".
Language: includes 3 pieces in French and 1 piece in Italian.
France
Great Britain
The cuttings detail the heroic deeds and distinguished services of Marcelle Semmer, Louisa Taylor, Dorothy Eden and Lady Murray.
France
Great Britain
Italy
Russia
Serbia
U.S.A.
Most of the cuttings relate to the work of British women, under the auspices of the N.U.W.S.S. and the Scottish Woman's Hospital, in running military hospitals, especially in Serbia, Russia and Roumania.
This file has been reconstituted, according to the I.W.S.A. rules for indexing, from 2 part files which appeared to be separated by default rather than by design.
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
France
Germany
The cuttings relate to women's work during the war. Articles focus on: charitable fundraising; canteen work; hospital work; welfare work; work in other traditional women's roles; and the employment of women in traditionally male occupations, notably agricultural work in France.
Language: includes 7 pieces in French and 5 pieces in German.
Files IWSA/3/133-136 have been reconstituted, in accordance with the I.W.S.A. rules for indexing, from 2 apparently disturbed files. 4 files have been created for ease of handling.
Great Britain
The cuttings report women's work at home and at the front in articles which prove that "weeping and waiting and even nursing are no longer regarded as the only things women can do in war time".
Files IWSA/3/133-136 have been reconstituted, in accordance with the I.W.S.A. rules for indexing, from 2 apparently disturbed files. 4 files have been created for ease of handling.
Great Britain
The file is a continuation of IWSA/3/134. It includes details of Neville Chamberlain's plans for National Civilian Service and a lot of the cuttings relate to the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. The final piece in the file, included with the undated cuttings, is dated 1911 but this appears to be an error for it is clearly referring to an event during the war.
Files IWSA/3/133-136 have been reconstituted, in accordance with the I.W.S.A. rules for indexing, from 2 apparently disturbed files. 4 files have been created for ease of handling.
See also file IWSA/3/173.
Greece
Italy
Macedonia
New Zealand
Russia
South Africa
U.S.A.
Cuttings relate to women's work at the front and at home; occupations range from canteen work and nursing to roadmaking.
Language: includes 3 pieces in Italian.
Files IWSA/3/133-136 have been reconstituted, in accordance with the I.W.S.A. indexing rules, from 2 apparently disturbed files. 4 files have been created for ease of handling.
For U.S.A. see also file IWSA/3/173. For India see file IWSA/3/105. For Italy see also file IWSA/3/108.
S Woman Suffrage
V Legislature, Women M.P.s
W Biography
W Women's Movement
Reports M. Adolpho de Silva Lopes' address on `Le Portugal' to the French Section of the Bradford United Foreign Circles.
[Unclassified]
S Electoral Reform
W Women's Movement
Includes reports of: Roumanian nationality; British influences on Roumanian women; and the introduction of equal universal suffrage because "the peasants must be rewarded for their gallantry".
[Unclassified]
Ia Soldiers
S Constitution
S Electoral Reform
S Local Government
S Suffrage
S Woman Suffrage
V Members of Legislatures
V Voting Women
W [Unspecified]
W Biography
W Government Appointments
W Housewives
W Women's Movement
The file includes reports of the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917 and the freedoms of the new regime, including women's suffrage and freedom of the press.
Language: includes 2 pieces in Russian, 1 piece in Hungarian and 1 piece in German.
According to the I.W.S.A. indexing rules cuttings classified as Ia Soldiers should be found in file IWSA/3/102.
British Dominion's Woman Suffrage Union
India
Jamaica
The British Dominion's Woman Suffrage Union cuttings include reports of suffrage developments in the Dominions and of their biennial Congresses; there is a programme for the Third (Biennial) Conference in 1918.
There is no file for Jamaica.
For S Woman Suffrage in India see also file IWSA/3/105.
The file includes: a photograph of the Board of Officers and Presidents in 1914; reports of the postponement of I.W.S.A. biennial Congresses on account of the war; and reports of suffrage victories, mostly in the U.S.A. The last piece in the file is sub-classified S Victories and reports a summary made by Mary Sheepshanks, Headquarters Secretary of the I.W.S.A., of "gains made in the cause of women's suffrage during the war by countries all over the world".
Language: includes 3 pieces in German.
Some of the articles give news relating to international women's work, quoting their source as
[Unclassified]
Belgium
Bohemia
France
Hawaii
Hungary-Roumania
India
Japan
Luxembourg
Poland
Switzerland
The file begins with a feature on `The Woman Suffrage Movement and the War: Some of its Leaders and their Ideals' from
The feature article in
Pictured are: the Countess of Selborne; the Countess of Fingall; Mrs Gilbert Samuel; Emmeline Pankhurst; Mary Adelaide Broadhurst, Margaret Milne Farquharson; the Lady Aberconwy; Mrs Strickland; Millicent Garrett Fawcett; Alice Abadam; Emily Davies; the Hon. Mrs Alfred Lyttelton; Lady Strachy; Lady Constance Lytton; Signe Bergman (Sweden); Signora Pasini (Italy); Mary Emma Macintosh (South Africa); Carrie Chapman Catt (U.S.A.); Eline Hansen (Denmark); Julie van den Plas (Belgium); Marguerite de Witt de Schlumberger (France); Alva Ertskin Belmont (U.S.A.); Annie Furujelm (Finland); Jane Brigode (Belgium); Vida Goldstein (Austria); Senator Helen Ring Robinson (U.S.A.); Flora Denison (Canada); Rev. Anna Howard Shaw (U.S.A.); and Christabel Pankhurst.
The rest of the cuttings relate to demands for and concessions to women's suffrage in the above-mentioned countries.
Language: includes 1 piece in German.
W Honours for Women
W Women's Movement
Articles refer to the position of Serbian women within the home and society and the nursing work being done in Serbia by English girls.
The file begins with a cutting classified as South Africa/Canada and which reports the election of Roberta MacAdams as an M.P. in Alberta [Canada] and which has an article on national unity in South Africa on the dorse. The rest of the cuttings relate to South Africa only.
S Electoral Reform
S Franchise Bills
S Societies
S Woman Suffrage
W Biographies
W Societies
S Women's Movement.
A number of the cuttings refer to the passing of a motion in the Union Parliament in April 1919 that "the sex qualification for the exercise of the Parliamentary franchise should be removed".
The file contains one cutting for Argentina which reports the formation of a woman suffrage union and one cutting for Uruguay reporting the congratulations and "enthusiastic acclamations" sent by the "distant sisters" of the Women's Council of Uruguay to the National Union of Women Workers of Great Britain on the occasion of their enfranchisement.
S Bills
S Electoral Reform
S Franchise Bills
S Societies
S Victory
S Woman Suffrage
S Woman Suffrage Victory
W Biography
W Women's Movement
Most of the cuttings are from the period between Signe Bergman's statement in April 1917, as President of the Landsforeningen för Kvinnans Politiska Röstra, that "the great wave carrying women's suffrage on its crest had also reached Sweden" and the enfranchisement of women in 1919.
For W Reviews see file IWSA/3/167.
S Legislature
S Local Government
S Societies
S Woman Suffrage
W Administrative Committees
W Women's Movement
Language: includes 6 pieces in French and 9 pieces in German.
[Unclassified]
W Women's Movement
Includes an account of `Life in Constantinople Today', an article primarily concerned with the clothes worn by Turkish women. The other cuttings refer to the increased presence of women in Turkish employment and society.
Anti-suffrage
Congresses
Demonstrations
Deputations
Elections
Electoral Reform
Government Action on
History
Legislature (includes 2 pieces relating to Hawaii)
Legislature, Women Members
Local Government
Militancy
Ministers
Periodicals
Political Parties
Press
Referenda
Societies
Suffrage
Suffrage Demonstrations
Support, Men's
Victories
Woman Suffrage
Language: includes 2 pieces in French.
For Franchise Bills see separate file IWSA/3/152.
Franchise Bills
The file contains a mixture of the usual I.W.S.A. mounted news cuttings and a large number of unmounted news cuttings, from the American press, sent to the I.W.S.A. by Ida Husted Harper of the L.W.S.C.
The majority of the cuttings relate to the vote taken in the House of Representatives on 10 January 1918 on the joint resolution for the submission of the Susan B Anthony amendment to the constitution for complete national woman suffrage in the several states.
Some of the unmounted news cuttings have explanatory manuscript annotations made by Ida Husted Harper of the L.W.S.C. for the benefit of Mary Sheepshanks and other non-American readers.
Legislatures, Women Candidates
Legislatures, Women Members
Political Parties
Results of Woman Suffrage
Voting Women
Women Candidates
V.W [Unclassified]
Also includes unmounted news cuttings, on various subjects including prohibition, sent by Ida Husted Harper of the L.W.S.C. and described by her as "specimen
For V Voting Women see also file IWSA/3/163.
Biography
Congresses
Dress
Government Appointments
Honours for Women
Housewives
Juries
Prison Reform
Public Offices
Reviews
Societies
For W Honours for Women see also file IWSA/3/165.
The file consists of copies of letters sent to editors of U.S. newspapers between July 1917 and July 1918 by Ida Husted Harper, Chairman of the Department of Editorial Correspondence of the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, Inc (L.W.S.C.). The letters usually point out errors of fact or interpretation which have appeared in articles relating to the women's suffrage movement. The file includes a [draft?] leaflet which outlines thedifficulties faced in trying to amend state constitutions to support the federal suffrage amendment.
Unmounted American news cuttings sent from Ida Husted Harper of the L.W.S.C. to Mary Sheepshanks of the I.W.S.A. The cuttings appear to be those which were rejected by Ida Husted Harper, as being duplicates, when she was compiling her scrapbooks and some of them have manuscript annotations made by her. A lot of the cuttings are incomplete and a lot are undated or only partially dated.
The principal subjects are women's suffrage and the 1918 presidential elections. Also included is a letter to Mary Sheepshanks from Miss I.B. O'Mally, Editor of
Unmounted American news cuttings telling the "Story of the [Susan B Anthony] Woman Suffrage Amendment" during September and October 1918 and relating to Prohibition in 1919. The cuttings have been supplied by Ida Husted Harper of the L.W.S.C. and some have manuscript annotations made by her.
Unmounted American news cuttings supplied by Ida Husted Harper of the L.W.S.C. Consists primarily of the Picture Section of the
For the death of Theodore Roosevelt see also file IWSA/3/160.
Unmounted American news cuttings supplied by Ida Husted Harper of the L.W.S.C.; any manuscript annotations are hers. The cuttings refer to women's suffrage, prohibition and other subjects, including children's playgrounds in Adelaide [Australia]. The file includes 2 cards, apparently taken from a card index, which describe the contents of volumes of news cuttings compiled by Ida Husted Harper (which do not form part of the I.W.S.A. archive).
Unmounted American news cuttings supplied by Ida Husted Harper of the L.W.S.C. Various subjects are covered including the death of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.
For the death of Theodore Roosevelt see also file IWSA/3/158.
Unmounted American news cuttings supplied by Ida Husted Harper of the L.W.S.C. and annotated by her. They refer primarily to the "splendid victory for Prohibition", but other subjects are touched upon, and the file includes a letter from Ida Husted Harper to Millicent Garrett Fawcett with the request that it also be shown to Mary Sheepshanks.
Although they appear to have been kept separately their subject matter and date suggest that the cuttings in IWSA/3/162 may have arrived in the same batch from Ida Husted Harper.
Unmounted American news cuttings supplied by Ida Husted Harper of the L.W.S.C. and annotated by her. They refer to Prohibition Legislation subsequent to the Women's Suffrage Amendment.
Although they appear to have been kept separately their subject matter and date suggests that these cuttings may have arrived from Ida Husted Harper with those in IWSA/3/161.
Germany
Great Britain
Hungary
Luxembourg
U.S.A.
Includes an article in
According to the I.W.S.A. indexing rules this file should not exist, but it appears to be original. The cuttings for Germany should be filed in file IWSA/3/40; the cuttings for Great Britain in file IWSA/3/57; the cutting for Hungary in file IWSA/3/66; and the cuttings for the U.S.A. in file IWSA/3/153. The cutting for Luxembourg should be in a Luxembourg file but no such file exists.
One article relates to the International Congress of Women at the Hague in 1915; the other article refers to the Allied Conference on Pensions held in London in 1917.
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
See also files IWSA/1/72, IWSA/3/106, IWSA/3/129 and IWSA/3/166.
France
Great Britain
U.S.A.
Cuttings report women's distinguished service in military and related duties.
Language: includes 1 piece in French.
According to the I.W.S.A. indexing rules this file should not exist, although it appears to be original. The cuttings relating to France should be in file IWSA/3/38; the cuttings for Great Britain should be in file IWSA/3/61; and the cuttings for the U.S.A. should be in file IWSA/3/154.
The cuttings relate primarily to the International Congress of Women at the Hague [Holland] in 1915 but also refer to the International Conference of Socialists held at Berne [Switzerland] in 1915 and the International Conference of Women for Permanent Peace.
Language: includes 2 pieces in Italian and 1 piece in French.
See also files IWSA/1/72, IWSA/3/106 , IWSA/3/129 and IWSA/3/164.
The file contains a review of
Arrangement: Reviews are supposed to be filed by country; the cutting in this file was probably kept separate because it refers to several countries. There are other reviews of the same book in file IWSA/3/168. For other reviews refer to country files under the code W.
[Unclassified]
France
Great Britain
India
Luxembourg
Mesopotamia.
The final piece in the file is classified as W Women Travellers and relates to Great Britain.
Language: includes 2 pieces in French.
The cuttings which are not classified by country include reviews of
Austria
Belgium
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
New Zealand
Russia
Switzerland
U.S.A.
The heading War and Peace encompasses miscellaneous issues with relation to the war including the treatment of prisoners of war, the plight of refugees and the work of the peace movement.
Language: includes 1 piece in French and 1 piece in Hungarian.
For War and Peace in Belgium (classification P) see also file IWSA/3/8.
Australia
Belgium
France
Germany
Poland
Russia
Serbia
South Africa
U.S.A.
Most of the cuttings are concerned with German treatment of prisoners of war and those in conquered territories, especially women.
Canada
Great Britain
The principal subjects are thrift, war loans and reconstruction.
Belgium
Germany
Great Britain
Subjects include: aid for refugees and for enemy aliens stranded in allied countries; and separation allowances for dependents of soldiers.
Great Britain
Inter-Allied Countries
U.S.A.
The cuttings refer to women's work in military and related work and in civilian occupations.
For War Work see also files IWSA/3/133-136.
Austria
France
Germany
Italy
U.S.A.
The file consists primarily of manuscript and typescript translations of articles in French, German, Austrian, Italian and Dutch newspapers (not always referring to the country of the newspaper's origin). Cuttings relate to both the plight and the achievements of women, and above all their rights, against a backdrop of world war. The information was, perhaps, to be used in
Language: includes 2 pieces in Italian.