ABSTRACT
In 1981 a group of women marched from Wales to the US Air Force cruise missile base at Greenham Common to establish a peace camp. Greenham Women or Greenham Wimmin was rapidly adopted as the collective term for those involved in the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Movement which was a diverse and constantly changing group of women. The idea to march to the base was inspired by a Nordic women’s march from Denmark to Paris in 1980. Reading of this march in Peace News Ann Pettit announced her intention to march from Cardiff to Greenham and issued an open invitation for others to join her (Pettit 1983). The initiating march included a few men and the initial camp was at first maintained with a male presence until a second march from London was held. The decision to make Greenham a women-only peace camp reflected women’s experience of the sexism within other campaigns and a feminist analysis linking patriarchy, militarism, violence and war. Whilst this is a UK example, broadly similar initiatives occurred in other countries around this time. These included Women for Peace in the then West Germany, Women’s Pentagon Action in the USA and the Shibakusa in Japan.
