Teachers
Wives and MothersWork and LeisurePolitics and PacifismQuiz

Politics and Pacifism

Peace Camp Ticket

Find out about how war and the need to prevent war has motivated some women to take political action.

Look at the photographs, read the fact file then print the sources and try the worksheets.

What do you think?

  • If you had been a suffragette would you have supported the war or not?
  • Why do you think the Greenham Women felt so strongly about nuclear weapons?
  • Did you agree with the war on Iraq?

Printable worksheets and source material:

Suffragettes:
worksheet | source material

Greenham Women:
worksheet | source material

Alice Mahon:
worksheet | source material

*   *
  1. ‘Votes for Women’ was the slogan of the suffragettes and the movement grew among women of all ages and social class. Some went to great lengths to fight for their cause including chaining themselves to railings and going on hunger strike in prison.
  2. When the First World War started in 1914 many members were very patriotic – they believed that it was right for Britain to go to war and that it was women’s duty to support the war effort. Others felt strongly that women should work for peace and these differences divided the movement into two.
  3. Florence Lockwood was a leading suffragette from the Colne Valley and as a mill owner’s wife found herself on the ‘Linthwaite War Distress Committee’ doing her bit to help her country. However her diary records her true thoughts – she privately believed that war was futile and that woman shouldn’t support it unquestioningly.
  4. In 1981 four members of the ‘Women for Life on Earth’ walk took their inspiration from the suffragettes and chained themselves to the fence at the Greenham Common Airbase where nuclear missiles were being stored. This soon grew into a permanent peace camp and became a focus for protest against the threat of a nuclear war.
  5. Some women believed Greenham Common should be women only and in 1982 men were banned from the camp. The women grew in numbers and used unusual, non-violent methods to attract attention to their campaign. On 12th December 1982 around 30,000 women from all over Britain held candles and encircled the base to publicise their opposition to nuclear weapons.
  6. War is still a major issue today. Alice Mahon is the Labour MP for Halifax and has been an anti war campaigner all her life - most recently speaking out in opposition to the war against Iraq. She convened the No War on Iraq Liaison bringing politicians, trade unions and other organisations together to discuss alternatives and coordinate action against the war.
  7. On Saturday 17th February 2003 more than a million people came together in London to take part in the UK's biggest ever anti-war march, Alice Mahon, was one of the key speakers and spoke of her belief in a peaceful settlement to the conflict.
* *