[1] Another group action was led by Dagmar Wilson, with about 1,500 women gathering at the foot of the Washington Monument while President John F. Kennedy watched from the White House.
[4] The group initially was part of the movement for a ban on nuclear testing[5] and to end the Vietnam War, first demanding a negotiated settlement, and later total United States withdrawal from Southeast Asia.
Their tactics included different forms of legal pressure such as petitions, demonstrations, letter writing, mass lobbies, and lawsuits.
They also had a few forms of illegal, nonviolent direct action activities that included sit-ins in congressional offices, and statements of complicity with draft resisters aimed at tying up the courts.
[1] About 1,500 women led by Dagmar Wilson gathered at the foot of the Washington Monument while President John F. Kennedy watched from a window at the White House.
[6] Affiliate Seattle Women Act for Peace (SWAP) played a significant role in the protests against the Trident submarine base at Bangor, Washington.
[9] From the beginning of the Women Strikes for Peace in 1961, the FBI had the group under surveillance due to fear that communism had spread to the mothers of America.
[3] Another strategy that differed from those before them was the use of a large quantity of WSP members to volunteer to testify at the hearings, effectively showing that the group had nothing to hide.
[12] The radioactive effects after World War II were said to be the first global environmental issue in both scale and potency of the “post-war era”, said by historian John McCormack.
[12] With more than 120 official weapon tests in the Pacific and Nevada, depositing immense amounts of radioactive debris which caused levels of ionizing radiation to slowly increase over time.
[12] People were ignorant of the possible health risks and would have picnics at high points near the testing site to watch government experiments.
[12] Exposure to radiation and the effects it had on civilians and the unborn were a driving force for the Women’s Peace Movement to strike to end the nuclear race and stop this rising environmental issue as it was harming the innocent.
This was a plan to collect 50,000 baby teeth per year, in order to test them and provide a record of how much strontium-90 children in the surrounding areas were taking in.
Parents were so concerned by the extensive nuclear testing in the atmosphere and the resulting radioactive product that they were very likely to participate in the survey and send in their children’s teeth.
The WSP relied on bold actions fueled by the women's fierce emotional commitment and they used marching, picketing, and other creative displays to achieve their goals.