Kvinnor mot krig : aktioner och nätverk för fred 1914–1940

Sammanfattning: The aim of this dissertation is to investigate how and why women established peace actions during World War I and the period between the wars. I have examined how women were mobilized, how the actions were carried out, what kind of opposition was awakened, and what happened afterwards. My startingpoint is collective actions based on individual standpoints and temporary mobilizations. Organizations are included only as recruiting networks for mobilizations. The following actions are included in the study: Women´s Peace Sunday (1915), which gathered about 88,000 women to meetings in 343 locations across Sweden; Women´s unarmed revolt against war (1935), where approximately 20,000 women participated in protests against a possible chemical war and a system of war that needed a civil defence at all; and lastly, the new action plans in 1937 and 1938 in connection with civil defence laws and the rallies in 1939 and 1940 at the outbreak of World War II. As policies of peace, these actions were not unique for their times. The manner in which they were formulated was not special, but their content was. The mobilizing message, which can be described as feministic anti-militarism, was based on the civil rights of women, the political and military isolation of women, mother´s right to say no to violence, and the support of an international female public opinion.