Keywords

Women Strike for Peace, feminism, second-wave feminism, Cold War, peace activism, anti-nuclear movement, women's history

Subject Categories

Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | History | Women's History | Women's Studies

Abstract

Women Strike for Peace (WSP) has traditionally been understood as a maternalist peace movement that emerged in response to atmospheric nuclear testing during the early Cold War era. This thesis argues that WSP’s history reveals a more nuanced relationship between motherhood, feminism, and political activism than existing scholarship has suggested. Rather than operating in distinct stages, maternalism and feminism operated simultaneously, working alongside one another throughout the organization’s history. Furthermore, this thesis builds upon Ednie Kaeh Garrison’s concept of feminist “radio waves,” arguing that WSP functioned as a transmitter of feminist consciousness, where ideas, organizational practices, and different political identities were received and adapted in response to changing political currents. Through this concept, this study challenges the conventional feminist oceanography metaphor, which often portrays feminist activism as a series of concrete, separate historical movements. It also examines how members later interpreted and reinterpreted the organization's history and relationship to feminism. By using WSP as a case study for the radio-wave model, this thesis discusses how the movement fostered collaboration among women with differing political identities while transmitting feminist ideas across generations. In this sense, this study repositions the organization within the histories of both feminism and peace activism, arguing that the radio-wave metaphor provides a more flexible framework for understanding continuity, change, and the circulation of feminist thought than traditional ocean-wave-based narratives.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Summer

Committee Chair

Foster, Amy

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

History

Format

PDF

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

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