Dr. Marilyn Fischer at Peace & Justice Studies Association Conference

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom has a long history of sponsoring peace and ‘fact-finding’ missions. Since their first assembly at The Hague, WILPF has often delegated members to travel to conflict areas to assess the local situation and the possibilities for peace. Dr. Marilyn Fischer presented at the annual conference of the Peace and Justice Studies Association in Winnipeg, Manitoba, October 2010 on the missions Jane Addams, Emily Balch, and colleagues undertook to speak to heads of state and foreign ministers throughout Europe in May and June 1915 regarding neutral mediation during World War One. In describing this mission Dr. Fischer was guided by two questions: to what extent were these women inspired by feminist principles? What makes a mission ‘feminist’ and what difference does feminism make? She and the other members of the session then brought the legacy of this missions to bear to the present, by drawing lessons for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in current UN peacekeeping operations.