'Act Now- For Man's Sake'- Gender and the Nuclear Disarmament Campaign

‘Act Now- For Man’s Sake’

‘Act now- For Man’s Sake’, a slogan used by Nuclear disarmament committee SANE. It demonstrates how male dominated the peace movements were and how little perceptions of gender had changed post- World War Two. The Nuclear Arms Race was part of the Cold War, a fierce battle of supremacy between the USA and the Soviet Union. Of course other countries including Great Britain were developing these weapons, but not on the scale of these two superpowers. Even in the 1950's, either side had enough nuclear power to destroy each other and the situation became much more terrifying when in 1954, the US successfully tested a Hydrogen Bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It was a weapon a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bombs used on Japan in 1945. These significant developments of course sparked concern across the entire world, and thus the anti- nuclear movement began to gain footholds throughout the 1960's.

 It is a common to believe that women experienced liberation after the Second World War, but this was not the case. Women still adhered to gender roles and stereotypes for years after the war and this is evident in mixed gender organisations, nearly all of which were led by men. SANE opted to gender its slogans completely which expressed how women were still very much excluded from politics in the sixties. Despite this, it is interesting how often women entered the debate over nuclear warfare.

So how could a female only organization help the nuclear disarmament campaign?

Well, women were decidedly more against the bomb than men, according to public opinion polls in the US. When asked in 1961 if they were worried about the dangers of polluted air, twenty-four percent of women compared to seventeen percent of men answered yes. Additionally, when asked about the powers resuming the atmospheric testing in 1962, fifty-three percent of men answered yes compared to only thirty-eight percent of women.

But why were women more concerned about the dangers of the bomb?

A major factor about the effects of the bomb was the effects of nuclear radiation, particularly strontium- 90. A survey published in 1961 found conclusively that over ground nuclear testing posed a health risk and this isotope was found in many children’s teeth. The WSP (Women’s Strike for Peace) urged women to have their children’s teeth tested. This risk was enough to mobilise a whole different type of people. Mothers.

‘Women have the responsibility for preserving life’

 Many organizations were set up which used the power of woman’s maternal instincts. These types of committees appealed to women’s maternal sides which sparked their propaganda literature. Maternalism was very much a political force used by women to advance their interests. Additionally, these specific organizations highlighted the fact that the two genders, even in the 1960's, occupied two separate spheres.

 Or did they?

Many peace movements such as SANE used the risk to children as their leverage even though childcare was not much of a concern for men in the sixties. Furthermore, they also sought to mobilise women for the peace campaigns, perhaps because they were aware of the political power of maternalism and also what would motivate people and what better way to do this than have real mothers fighting for this cause.

Lucy Bracher