1

WHITE POWER

Inter-Allied Women's Conference participants in February: First row, left to right: Florence Jaffray
Harriman (US); Marguerite de Witt-Schlumberger (France); Marguerite Pichon-Landry (France). Second
row: Juliet Barrett Rublee (US); Katharine Bement Davis (US), Cécile Brunschvicg (France). Third row: Millicent
Garrett Fawcett (UK); Ray Strachey (UK); Rosamond Smith (UK). Fourth row: Jane Brigode (Belgium); Marie
Parent (Belgium). Fifth row: Nina Boyle (South Africa); Louise van den Plas (Belgium). Sixth row: Graziella
Sonnino Carpi (Italy); Eva Mitzhouma (Poland)

The Inter-Allied Women's Conference (also known as the Suffragist Conference of the Allied

Countries and the United States)[Notes 1] opened in Paris on 10 February 1919. It was convened
parallel to the Paris Peace Conference to introduce women's issues to the peace process after
the First World War. Leaders in the international women's suffrage movement had been denied the
opportunity to participate in the official proceedings several times before being allowed to make a
presentation before the Commission on International Labour Legislation. On 10 April, women were
finally allowed to present a resolution to the League of Nations Commission. It covered
the trafficking and sale of women and children, their political and suffrage status, and the
transformation of education to include the human rights of all persons in each nation.
Though the women involved failed to achieve many of their aims, their efforts marked the first time
that women were allowed to participate formally in an international treaty negotiation. They were
successful in gaining the right for women to serve in the League of Nations in all capacities, whether
as staff or delegates; and in gaining adoption of their provisions for humane labour conditions and
the prevention of trafficking. The fact that the women were allowed to participate in the formal peace
conference validated women's ability to take part in international policy-making and globalised the
discussion of human rights.