Basic Information

Emily Greene Balch (1867 – 1961) was a socialist, a pacifist, a professor, a Nobel prize winner, and an educated sociologist and economist. She devoted her life to advocating for various causes, all interconnected in some way: immigration, poverty, worker’s rights, women’s rights, and of course, peace, though this list is far from exhaustive. Balch was an accomplished author, publishing several articles and arguments, as well as an artist. She enjoyed painting and even published a book of poetry.

Background Information

Born in Massachusetts on January 8, 1867, to wealthy parents Francis V. and Ellen, Balch did not want for much in her early life; her father’s position as a respected lawyer granted them luxuries and comfort, including a private school education (Emily Greene Balch – Biographical, (n.d.)). Balch continued her education, first as member of the inaugural graduating class from Bryn Mawr College in 1889, then spending the following years studying sociology and economics at home and abroad in Paris, Berlin, Chicago, New York, and Boston (Britannica, 2022).

She had three main careers throughout her life: as the founder of a settlement house; as  an educator and professor at Wellesley College from 1896-1918; and as an “international advocate for peace,” her longest devotion, lasting much of her life (Whipps, 2016, p. 122). Her dedication to anti-war efforts was seen as “unpatriotic” and did eventually lead to the dismissal of Balch from her position at Wellesley (Whipps, 2016, p. 125).

After losing her long-term teaching career, Balch refocused her anti-war efforts and helped to create the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). She served as international secretary twice, once from 1919-1922 and briefly again from 1934-1935, and received the title of Honorary International President in 1936 for her service (Britannica, 2022).

In 1946, Balch won the Nobel Prize for Peace for her work with John Mott, for her time with WILPF, and for her lifetime of service to peace (Emily Greene Balch – Biographical, (n.d.)). The prize was split with Mott, with Balch giving her portion to WILPF (Brittanica, 2022). Unfortunately for Balch, she received no praise from the United States government upon receipt of her award; to them she was still a “dangerous radical”, even at age 79 (Emily Greene Balch – Facts. (n.d.)).

Contributions to the First Wave

The main contributions that Emily Greene Balch made to the first wave can be found in the groups and organizations for which she was an activist and/or founder. Balch was a founding member of the People’s Council of America, a “radical pacifist organization”; an active member of the Woman’s Peace Party (WPP), a feminist and pacifist group; Wellesley College representative at the International Congress of Women at the Hague, a conference of woman suffragists; and even worked with both the League of Nations and the United Nations in efforts to broker peace (Whipps, 2016, pp. 122, 124, 125). For Balch, the issue of peace was ”inextricably connected” to social justice, equality, and women’s rights (Whipps, 2016, p 125). She could see no way to separate the causes to fight for one alone.

The lasting effect that she left on the young female students of Wellesley cannot be understated either; the empowerment, enrichment, and education of women is crucial to awakening the activists and advocates within them. She was strong-minded, compassionate, and experienced – and her students were all the better for it (Emily Greene Balch – Biographical. (n.d.)). Her courses focused on “socialism, labor problems, and immigration … issues affecting women and children,” (Whipps, 2016, p. 123). She taught them that lived experience is as important as researched information, and as such, they were asked to visit impoverished communities personally (Whipps, 2016, p. 123). She provided to them a rounded, practiced, feminist learning experience.

For many of the years of the First Wave, she worked with all-women organizations to combat discrimination based on race, gender, and class, though she realized after WWI that “her lifework lay in furthering humanity’s effort to rid the world of war,” (Emily Greene Balch – Biographical. (n.d.)). She argued that these were women’s issues because peace involved all the people of the nation, women included (Whipps, 2016, pp. 126-128). WILPF, though founded at the tail end of the First Wave, is her greatest contribution to the feminist movement, however.

WILPF came out of the WPP, which was created by Jane Addams and others at the International Congress of Women at The Hague in 1915 (Britannica, 2019). The mission of WILPF reflects the lifelong sentiments of Balch: “opposing war and striving for political, economic, social, and psychological freedoms for all … such freedoms [that] are always severely compromised by the threat of war,” (Britannica, 2019). The modern-day objectives of WILPF are “disarmament, racial justice, and women’s rights” proving the necessity and interconnectedness of such matters even today (Britannica, 2019), just as Balch saw them in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

Balch was active outside of WILPF, of course. Throughout her life of activism, “she participated in movements for women’s suffrage, for racial justice, for control of child labor, [and] for better wages and conditions of labor,” (Emily Greene Balch – Biographical, (n.d.)). Though her efforts may have been more focused on labor rights or an anti-war agenda, these causes proved pertinent to the First Wave and the Suffrage movement.

“As the world community develops in peace, it will open up great untapped reservoirs in human nature.” 

~Emily Greene Balch (Emily Greene Balch – Nobel Lecture, 1946)

Analysis and Conclusion

Though she will be remembered primarily as an advocate for peace, Balch’s efforts can be viewed from a feminist perspective, as well. While not directly credited with any substantial suffrage efforts or achievements, Balch was an active advocate for women’s rights in others forms. She helped spread knowledge about the issues of race, gender, class, immigration, labor and more, knowing that each could be connected back to war and peace (Whipps, 2016, p. 125). Through women’s groups and organizations, she helped to advance the causes that involved or were important to women, such as the ones listed previously. She understood that the greatest threat to all humanity, women included, is that of war. Balch’s lifelong focus on peace efforts through “empathy, dialogue, and interactive mediation” was highly influential in the anti-war cause (Whipps, 2016, p. 130). She devoted her life to fighting to create a world safe for women, and the rest of humankind, to grow and thrive – in a period that wanted her to do neither.

References

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2019, October 28). Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Womens-International-League-for-Peace-and-Freedom

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2022, January 5). Emily Greene Balch. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emily-Greene-Balch

Emily Greene Balch – Biographical. (n.d.). The Nobel Prize. Retrieved October 27, 2022, from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1946/balch/biographical/

Emily Greene Balch – Facts. (n.d.). The Nobel Prize. Retrieved October 27, 2022, from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1946/balch/facts/

Emily Greene Balch – Nobel Lecture. (1946). The Nobel Prize. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1946/balch/lecture/

Harris & Ewing, photographer. BALCH, EMILY GREENE, MISS. , None. [Between 1905 and 1945] [Photograph] Retrieved October 26, 2022 from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016859399/

Whipps, Judy (2006). The Feminist Pacifism of Emily Greene Balch, Nobel Peace Laureate. Faculty Peer Reviewed Articles. 7. http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/lib_articles/7