Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citizens: Women and Subversion During World War I (review)

BOOK REVIEW Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citizens: Women and Subversion During World War I by Kathleen Kennedy (Indiana University Press, 1999) In Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citizens, Kathleen Kennedy analyzes the arrests, trials, and public discussions of women charged under the wartime Espionage Act and Sedition Act, which "virtually outlawed free speech" during World War I by defining any criticism of American war policy or the president as "disloyal, profane, scurrilous.....ind abusive" (xiii). Not only were these women, like other Americans, subjected to the forerunner of "the modern surveillance state," argues Kennedy; they were criticized for their failure to live up to the ideal of "patriotic motherhood" that prevailed during the war years (xv—xvi). None of these women remained passive victims of government repression and gender conventions; rather, they resisted all efforts to categorize them as cither "disloyal mothers" or dangerous subversives and instead claimed full and equal citizenship. "Most women charged under the wartime laws did not define their political behavior within the terms set by matcrnalism" but, rather, used liberal arguments of equality, justice, and citizenship to defend ?heir actions (xviii). As a result of these hi¿hl\· publicized debates, Kennedy argues, "the war sharpened debates over women's citizenship and its implied relationship between women's obligations to the state and to their families" (I). Following the lead of scholars such as Gail Baderman (Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880—1917), Kennedy demonstrates that the war effort carried both gender and ethnic implications. Male nationalists branded women's efforts on behalf of international peace "silly" and sentimental, but they predicted that the war would strengthen the nation's character by replacing political and ethnic differences with an emphasis on masculinitv and strength. An American ambassador explained to his son that the war would "unhorse our cranks and soft brains . . . kill the Irish and German influence . . . revive our real manhood . . .make our policies frank and manly . . . make the boy [a] vigorous animal and . . . [b ring men [of] a higher type [into] our political life" (6—7). By eliminating both foreign and female influence in politics, many pro-war thinkers believed they would retain (or regain) the manly characteristics they associated with Anglo-Saxon heritage and with the democratic process itself. Women, however, also claimed a role in national politics. Women's preparedness organizations offered a version of female political participation that complemented the views of male nationalists. One group asked its members to sign a pledge in support of "patriotic motherhood" that read, in part, "I pledge to think, talk, and work for ptriotism, Americanism, and . . . national defense. ... I will make my home a center of American ideals and patriotism, and endeavor to teach the children in my care to cherish and revere our country and its history and to uphold its honor and fair repute in their generation " (I). Such matcrnalist politics gave women a public— albeit indirect—role in wartime politics as the mothers of soldiers, without challenging cither nationalists' conMiuction of the war aims or politicians' prosecution of the war effort (16, 60). Other women, however, asserted their right to speak as concerned citizens rather than as patriotic mothers. In the process, they often ran afoul of the law, which supported women's political involvement only so long as they were possessed of "the right sort of ptriotism in times like these" and were "loyal unto death for their country" (60-61). Detractors and supporters alike called attention to gender in their discussion of women arrested under the wartime ordinances. Women such as Kate Richards O'Hare, Emma Goldman, and Rose Pastor Stokes were "disorderly women": not only did they criticize and undermine the war effort; they deviated from the commonly accepted roles of women in the early twentieth century (xix). Critics were scandalized by the unconventional gender behavior of the "miserable Female characters" who, far from sacrificing their sons to the war effort, gave speeches and distributed pamphlets urging 16 BOOK REVIEW men to resist the draft (106). Dr. Marie Equi, professional, birth control advocate, and lesbian, was convicted for calling soldiers "dirty, contemptible scum"; at her trial, the judge laid more emphasis...