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The International Relations of Women of the Americas 1890-1928

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Francesca Miller*
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis, California

Extract

There is perhaps no area of historical literature where women—other than monarchs and Mata Haris—have been less visible than in the literature of international relations. Yet women of the western world were active at the international level by the last half of the nineteenth century, and in numbers commensurate to those of their male counterparts. The record of their organization, deliberations, tactics, correspondence, public statements and delegations to designated representatives of their governments adds a new dimension to the history of international relations.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1986

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References

* An earlier version of this article was presented at the American Historical Association Conference, San Francisco, California, December 29, 1983. The research was supported in part by the Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University, and by the Department of History, University of California, Davis. I would like to thank Rollie E. Poppino, Cynthia Brantley, K. Lynn Stoner, Mary Lombardi and Asunción Lavrin for the comments, and Lawrence J. Andrews and Research Assistant Cesca Wellman for their support and encouragement in this endeavor.

1 In this paper the phrase “international relations” is used in a general sense to describe various activities carried out at the international level. The term “diplomacy” is employed only in its formal sense of the art of conducting negotiations between governments.

2 Equal Rights, April, 1942, stated: “The IACW, funded by the National Woman’s Party, is now an official Pan American body.” Also, Doris Stevens to Alma Lutz, April 23, 1942, Doris Stevens Collection, Archives of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College.

3 Letter from Bertha M. Honoré Palmer to Peixoto, Josefina April 23, 1892, Arquivo Histórico do Itamaraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Google Scholar

4 Letter from Josefina Peixoto to Palmer, Bertha M. Honoré June 30, 1892, Arquivo Histórico do Itamaraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Google Scholar

5 Letter from Custodio Jose de Mello to Palmer, Bertha M. Honoré September 8, 1892, Arquivo Histórico de Itamaraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Google Scholar

6 Miller, FrancescaBrazil’s Relations with Russia: A Study in the Formation of Foreign Policy.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Davis, 1977.Google Scholar

7 For example, the Pan American Society of the United States, whose members were businessmen; or the Pan American Association of Nurses, whose members were U.S. citizens who had worked in Latin America.

8 Swiggett, E.B.Report of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress”, July 1, 1916,Google Scholar Archives of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College.

9 Ibid.

10 The participation of Argentinian, Brazilian, Chilean and Uruguayan women was not a geographical imperative, but a reflection of the entrance of women into the professions in those countries. See also, Little, Cynthia JeffressEducation, Philanthropy, and Feminism: Components of Argentine Womanhood 1860–1926,” in Latin American Women: Historical Perspectives, Lavrin, Asunción ed. (Greenwood Press, 1978).Google Scholar

11 Report of the Delegation of the United States to the Pan-American Scientific Congress, Santiago, Chile, December 25, 1908-January 5, 1909. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1909.

12 Relatório Geral, Imprensa Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, 1906, quoted in E. B. Swiggett, “Report …”

13 Ibid.

14 Eduardo Poirier, Reseña General, Santiago, Chile, quoted in E. B. Swiggett, “Report of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress.”

15 Shepherd, W.R.The Pan American Scientific Congress,” Columbia University Quarterly, June, 1909.Google Scholar

16 The Fifth Conference of Ar, crican States was held in Santiago in 1923.

17 At this time, the diplomatic agents accredited to Washington were also their government’s delegates to the International Conferences of the American States.

18 “The Second Pan American Scientific Congress,” Bulletin of the Pan American Union, Vol. XLV, No. 6, December 1915, p. 762.

19 Ibid., p. 760.

20 Ibid., p. 761.

21 Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. X, p. 609.

22 E. B. Swiggett, “Report …”

23 “The Second Pan American Scientific Congress,” PAU, p. 777.

24 E. B. Swiggett, “Report …”

25 Eleanor Foster Lansing, Foreword, Bulletin of the Women’s Auxiliary Committee of the United States of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress, Number One, February, 1921. Alice Park Collection, Archives of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, California.

26 Ibid.

27 For a discussion of the contemporary (1915) definition of Pan Americanism, see Williams, Mary Wilhelmine The People and Politics of Latin America, 3rd ed., 1945,Google Scholar Chapter 15.

28 Eleanor Foster Lansing, “Bulletin …”

29 “Second Women’s Pan American Conference,” Third Pan American Scientific Congress. Lima: Imprensa Americana, 1924. Alice Park Collection, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. Stanford, California.

30 Ibid.

31 The women noted that it was “the first function ever given by women in that building.” Ibid.

32 Ibid.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Lutz, Bertha Homenagem das Senhoras Brasileiras a Illustre Presidente da Uniao Inter-Americana de Mulheres, Rio de Janeiro Rodrigues & Co., 1926, p. 10:Google Scholar “Fomos recebidas nos Estados Unidos, nao como soe acontecer com os representantes des pequeñas países nos congressos internacionaes do Velho Mundo, mas com a mais franca cordialidade e com a mesma considerção que tinham as mulheres americanas para com as suas pioneiras patricias.”

38 “Delegates to the Pan American Conference of Women,” Bulletin of the Pan American Union, Vol. LIV, No. 4, April, 1922, pp. 350–351. Also, Pamphlet, “A Permanent Pan American Association of Women,” n/d, Alice Park Collection, Archives of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. Also, “A Significant Pan American Conference,” PAU, LV, No. 7, July, 1922, pp. 10–35.

39 Doris Stevens, unpublished notes on the Sixth International Conference of American States, Havana, 1928. Doris Stevens Collection, Archives of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College.

40 Wood, Bryce The Making of the Good Neighbor Policy. New York: W. W. Norton, 1961, p. 6.Google Scholar

41 de Oliveira Lima, ManuelPan Americanism and the League of Nations,” Bulletin of the Pan American Union, Vol. 52, No. 2, February, 1921, p. 136.Google Scholar

42 In the aftermath of the conference, a number of new suffrage societies were formed in the Latin American nations.

43 “A Permanent Pan American Association of Women,” Pamphlet, n/d, Alice Park Collection, Archives of the Hoover Institution.

44 “A Significant Pan American Conference,” PAU, LV, No. 7, July, 1922, p. 48.

45 Whitaker, Arthur P. The Western Hemisphere Idea. Cornell University Press, 1954,Google Scholar Chapter VI.

46 Máximo Soto Hall, quoted in the pamphlet, “Discusion sobre la Condición de la Mujer” en la Quinta Conferencia de los Estados Americanos Celebrados en Santiago de Chile en el Año 1923, Alice Park Collection, Archives of the Hoover Institution.

47 Ibid.

48 Alice Park, 1928 Diary, Alice Park Collection, Archives of the Hoover Institution. Also, Park, Alice quoted in “One Woman’s View of the Pan American Conference,” San Francisco News, April 4, 1928.Google Scholar

49 See for example, La Lucha (Havana, Cuba), January 17-February 8, 1928; New York Times, January-February, 1928.

50 Will Rogers, “Will sez Cal will have to be more punctual,” clipping, Alice Park Collection, Archives of the Hoover Institution.

51 La Lucha (Havana, Cuba).

52 Unprocessed papers, Doris Stevens Collection, Archives of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library.

53 Scott, James Brown ed., The International Conferences of American States, 1889–1928. Oxford Press, 1931.Google Scholar Appendix IX.

54 Anonymous, from poem written for the Women’s Pavilion, Chicago Exposition, 1892. Alice Park Collection, Archives of the Hoover Institution.