Pacifism and feminism have been considered antithetical ideas. An historian, Bernice Carroll, of the University of Illinois, at the meetings of the American Historical Association last winter, discussed the subject by saying that today’s activists were confronted with the old question of “whether to sacrifice pacifism for feminism or feminism for pacifism.”
Yet nonviolence and feminism are defined as sister aspirations by the Gathering of Women in the Nonviolent Movement, sponsored jointly by the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and the War Resisters’ International. The initial statement of the Gathering pointed out that there are “links between feminism and nonviolence — we are feminists because we are nonviolent and vice versa — but there is a generally hostile attitude in the women’s movement towards ‘declared nonviolence’ . . . Acting nonviolently does not mean losing our newfound strength or returning to a position of weakness. On the contrary, it means discovering our own new and liberating ways of working which do not imitate traditional male structures: small groups, coordinated autonomy, respect for and caring about each individual (not just their politics.)”
If the goal of feminism is a life-oriented world in which women’s sensitivity and nurturing interests become acceptable attributes of both sexes, the attitudes of nonviolence and pacifism (not passivism), are basic values for a non-exploitative society in which neither sex dominates and aggression is no longer a survival skill.
Pacifism is not spineless acceptance of whatever will be, but practice of the nonviolent method of combating evil and misplaced force. In its essence, pacifism is a nonviolent way of life which recognizes the religious truth that means and ends are the same.
Feminism to me is a logical and meaningful extension of my concerns as a pacifist and a believer in nonviolence. Pacifism for me has been clarified and enriched by feminist understanding. If the potential of women is to be realized, then true equality will be needed. If the potential of individuals is to be realized, then violence — as organized into war, institutionalized in society and practiced in private — will also have to end.