--- title: World War I Anniversary: American Women Who Changed WWI description: These two clips from the new American Experience documentary 'The Great War' showcase the work of Alice Paul and Jane Addams. canonical: https://time.com/4717087/women-wwi-video/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-04T15:00:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:29.187Z article:section: History og:title: World War I Anniversary: American Women Who Changed WWI og:description: Two clips from a new American Experience documentary showcase the work of Alice Paul and Jane Addams og:url: https://time.com/4717087/women-wwi-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f05c73053f6c28e/6988c081cd1bba9aef704816/great-war-screenshot.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: Great War screenshot og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: World War I Anniversary: American Women Who Changed WWI twitter:description: Two clips from a new American Experience documentary showcase the work of Alice Paul and Jane Addams twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f05c73053f6c28e/6988c081cd1bba9aef704816/great-war-screenshot.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How World War I Helped Women Win the Right to Vote > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=571389ca-12a0-4a4f-9c94-bffb6ad5c7e5&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=571389ca-12a0-4a4f-9c94-bffb6ad5c7e5&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Jane Addams and the Great War - PBS American Experience [Watch (HLS stream): Jane Addams and the Great War - PBS American Experience](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Yv065xXZ.m3u8) (3:52)  _Published 2017-04-04. See a clip from the new PBS American Experience documentary on World War I_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 4, 2017 3:00 PM UTC  PBS American Experience  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 4, 2017 3:00 PM UTC Nailing down the cause of World War I is [notoriously tricky](http://time.com/vault/issue/1939-08-14/page/26/), as are the factors that led the U.S. to join the fight—which it did 100 years ago this week, on April 6, 1917, after years of striving to remain neutral. But even those who remember [Franz Ferdinand](http://time.com/vault/issue/1934-07-09/page/16/) and the [Zimmermann Telegram](http://time.com/4673502/zimmermann-telegram-100/) may not know the surprising, and often contradictory, role that American women played in that story. One of the key roles women played was campaigning against joining it, as shown in the clip above, from the new PBS American Experience documentary _The Great War_. [Alice Paul](http://time.com/vault/issue/1977-07-25/page/67/), a suffrage leader who was jailed for her protests, led the National Woman’s Party in demonstrating against the war. The case made by Paul and many other women was that the U.S. had no business fighting for democracy abroad when it didn’t live up to ideals at home. “\[World War I\] changed not only our role in the world but changed us at home,” says executive producer Mark Samels in a statement on the film. “It was a time of stark choices — between pacifism and building up our military, between equal rights for everyone or for only a few.” Wilson would eventually declare his support for suffrage for women, putting an end to the intense protests that had left women behind bars. But the role of women pushing a had gone beyond the suffragists, especially when it came to pacifism. As this second clip shows, women had been trying to keep the U.S. out of war for years. (The first woman in Congress, Jeannette Rankin, was [likewise](http://time.com/4549800/jeannette-rankin-100/) a force for pacifism.) American women had traveled to the Hague to try to do what they could to stop the war. Their leader Jane Addams, the “pioneer social worker, lecturer, pacifist, reformer,” as TIME once [called](http://time.com/vault/issue/1935-06-03/page/53/) her, would eventually share a Nobel Peace Prize for her work against war. _Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_ _The Great War_ premieres April 10–12. ## Transcript Horrified by what the war had become, in April of 1915, a group of delegates from the Women's Peace Party set off for the International Congress of Women in The Hague. The WPP numbered more than 40, 000 women nationwide. And their goal was the creation of an internationally sanctioned framework for an end to the war. The president was Jane Adams. Jane adams was in some ways the preeminent progressive. She founded a settlement house in Chicago called 'Hull House'. That was a place where immigrants and poor people could go to get help, to get education. She toured the country as a lecturer in the name of peace. She was one of the most visible women in America at this time. [ MUSIC ] We do not think that by raising our hands, we can make the armies cease slaughter. Adams admitted. But we do think it is fitting that women should meet and take counsel to see what may be done. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] One of the peace movement's harshest critics, former President Theodore Roosevelt, lashed out at Adams and her fellow pacifist It is based in evil to clamor for peace in the abstract, he thundered, when silence is kept about concrete and hideous wrongs done to humanity at this very moment. The women were undeterred. Roosevelt was a barbarian, they responded. Out of his element and half a century out of date. [ MUSIC ] More than a thousand women from 12 different nations attended the conference. They included representatives from Germany, And Austria Hungary. Adams and women from many nations gathered to say war must end and we must not engage in this conflict. The world has come too far to allow a [ UNKNOWN ] were it like this to happen, and to really destroy what we have built. [ MUSIC ] She saw alliances among women across national boundaries, to be a very important pathway to peace. [ MUSIC ] The reason why Jane Adams and other pacifists go to the [ UNKNOWN ] is to put pressure on Wilson to get involved in really backing up, with actions, what he's been saying all along. Which is that it is the role of the United States to help mediate the war. And so in a sense, this is a citizen's peace initiative We're just trying to nudge Wilson to do the right thing. [ MUSIC ] On a return to America, Jane Adams met with Wilson six times. He hears from her about what's she seen in Europe. And I think it clearly influences him by making him think that his instinct That America should have a leadership role in settling piece is a correct one. [ MUSIC ] The time has come for intervention, and it is only by intervention that the war will be ended, Adams argued. Left to themselves, the warring nations will fight on and on. And every day that peace negotiations are delayed. 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