Mary Sheepshanks

Overview

Mary Sheepshanks born Bilton, Yorkshire, England October 25, 1872 (d. 1960). Pacifist; Socialist; suffragist; feminist; strongly opposed World War I which she called "organized international suicide." WILPF founding member; WILPF International Secretary, 1927-31; Fight the Famine Council Secretary, 1918; lobbied for disarmament.

Quotations

"Each nation is convinced that it is fighting in self-defence, and each in self-defence hastens to self-destruction. The military authorities declare that the defender must be the aggressor, so armies rush to invade neighbouring countries in pure defence of their own hearth and home, and, as each Government assures the world, with no ambition to aggrandise itself. Thousands of men are slaughtered or crippled. . . art, industry, social reform, are thrown back and destroyed; and what gain will anyone have in the end? In all this orgy of blood, what is left of the internationalism which met in congresses, socialist, feminist, pacifist, and boasted of the coming era of peace and amity. The men are fighting; what are the women doing? They are, as is the lot of women, binding up the wounds that men have made." (Jus Suffragi, Oct. 14, 1915; photo c. 1907 NYPL Schwimmer Col.)