ABSTRACT
In February 1915 Aletta Jacobs, Holland’s first woman doctor, pioneer of birth control and leading suffragist, cabled women’s organizations all over the world calling for an International Women’s Congress to protest against the ‘Great War’ and to try to prevent any recurrence: ‘We feel strongly that at a time when there is so much hatred among nations, we, women, must show that we can retain our solidarity’. Four months later, in June 1915, a list was published in London1 with the names of 156 British women who had supported Dr Jacobs in holding that Women’s International Congress at The Hague at the end of April.2 The Congress had set out two aims:
1 To demand that international disputes shall in future be settled by some other means than war.
