Women's Rights on the World Stage: Feminism and Internationalism in the Life of Chrystal Macmillan (1872-1937)

Abstract

This article seeks to explain how and why feminists engaged with internationalism during the first half of the twentieth century by exploring the life of the Scottish feminist Chrystal Macmillan (1872–1937). Adopting an understanding of "personal history" as a form of microhistory, it explores the development of her internationalist approach by focusing on her campaigns for women's suffrage, peace, economic equality, and nationality rights. Macmillan initially saw cross-border cooperation between women as a way to buttress local efforts. Yet during the interwar period, she came to see the new intergovernmental institutions as sites of both opportunity and additional contestation. Through building a transnational women's movement, Macmillan brought a feminist vision of internationalism into dialogue with state-led internationalism, aiming to challenge and shape the fledgling norms of interwar international political life. The evolution of her approach illustrates how internationalist feminism at this time was characterized by innovation, reaction, hope, and disillusionment. Show more