Introduction
Historical and political context: Cold War, nuclear anxiety, HUAC
Gender ideology in the postwar U.S. (Elaine Tyler May’s *Homeward Bound*)
Research question and relevance
Overview of theoretical frameworks (eco-feminism, visual activism, affect theory)
Chapter 1: Maternalist Rhetoric and Ecofeminism as Strategic Resistance
How WSP framed protest through motherhood and care ethics
Ecofeminist language linking radiation to harm against the Earth and children
Use of emotional, embodied logic to claim moral authority
Key theorists: Vandana Shiva, Carolyn Merchant, Adrienne Rich
Chapter 2: Visual Protest and Public Performance
Silent vigils, prams, gloves: photogenic protest as spectacle
WSP’s strategic use of domestic symbolism to subvert militarized masculinity
Surveillance footage as an unintended activist archive
Key theorists: John Tagg, Simone Browne
Conclusion
Summary of findings: visibility as resistance, care as political force
Reflection on WSP’s legacy for today’s feminist and climate movements
Possibilities for future research (digital activism, contemporary peace networks)
Key Sources
Primary: Swarthmore Peace Collection, WSP letters and protest photographs
Secondary: Amy Swerdlow, Elaine Tyler May, JSTOR-based scholarship
Theoretical: Gilmore, Shiva, Tagg, Browne, Rich
Bibliography
Swerdlow, Amy. Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s. University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Taylor, Ethel Barol. We Made a Difference: My Personal Journey with Women Strike for Peace. Camino Books, 1998.
Rich, Adrienne. Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. W. W. Norton, 1976.
Gilmore, Leigh. Tainted Witness: Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives. Columbia University Press, 2017.
Shiva, Vandana. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. Zed Books, 1988.
Browne, Simone. Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness. Duke University Press, 2015.
Tagg, John. The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories. Palgrave Macmillan, 1988.
Tickner, J. Ann, and Jacqui True. “A Century of International Relations Feminism: From World War I Women’s Peace Pragmatism to the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.” International Studies Quarterly, vol. 62, no. 2, 2018, pp. 221–233. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/48618497.
Coburn, Jon. “Basically Feminist: Women Strike for Peace and Memory of the Women’s Peace Movement.” Peace & Change, vol. 46, no. 2, 2021, pp. 191–213. Project MUSE, doi:10.1111/pech.12497.