The Suffragist Peace: How Women Shape the Politics of War

Description

A deep and historical examination of how the political influence of women at the ballot box has shaped the course of war and peace. In the modern age, some parts of the world are experiencing a long peace. Nuclear weapons, capitalism and the widespread adoption of democratic institutions have been credited with fostering this relatively peaceful period. Yet, these accounts overlook one of the most dramatic transformations of the 20th century: the massive redistribution of political power as millions of women around the world won the right to vote. Through gripping history and careful reasoning, this book examines how the political influence of women at the ballot box has shaped war and peace. What would a world ruled by women look like? For more than a hundred years, conventional wisdom held that women's votes had little effect. That view is changing - it turns out that women voters had a profound effect on the world we know and in ways we hardly understand. A world ruled by women's voices is a world that is less willing to fall in love with war as a noble end in itself, less prone to lapse into violence for the sake of maintaining an image. In other words, it is the world we live in now, more so than we have ever realized. Cover Series Page The Suffragist Peace: How Women Shape the Politics of War Copyright Contents List of Figures List of Tables Introduction 1: The Hope for Democracy Britain and the Fate of the Ottoman Empire The Sun Never Sets In Another Democracy Far, Far Away . . . Conclusion 2: The Hope for Suffrage and Peace in the New Century Conclusion 3: Gender and Aggression: Nature or Nurture? Defining Sex Gender, Aggression, and Preferences about War and Peace But Why the Gender Gap? The Role of Biology How Different Are Male and Female Brains? Conclusion 4: Suffrage, Democracy, and War Women’s Suffrage and Peace What Else Might Explain These Patterns? Conclusion 5: Women’s Votes and the World Wars Wilson and Women in the West A Western Comeback Women in Britain and the Rise of Hitler Women and the End of the Cold War Conclusion 6: Do Women Leaders Spell the End of War? The Historical Record of Women Leaders and War Kings and Queens The Leaders of Today Leaders Are Not Average Incentives to Misrepresent Conclusion 7: Women and War in the Modern Era The Four Mothers Shaping an Election Shifting the Debate Liberian Women for Peace A Country Terrorized Mobilizing for Peace An Enduring Peace Women and Japan’s Constitutional Pacifism The Origins of the “No War” Clause Article 9, Reinterpreted Women as Roadblocks to Revision The Slow Erosion Conclusion 8: The Future Who Votes Matters Activists Put Peace on the Ballot Communities Build Peace Protecting Women’s Representation around the World Changing the Face of Leadership or Changing the Narratives Appendix Data on Women’s Suffrage The Relationship Between Measures of Democracy and Suffrage Other Possible Explanations Notes References Acknowledgements Index