Sophonisba Breckinridge by Anya Jabour

Author:Anya Jabour
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Illinois Press

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Potential and Pitfalls of Pan-American Feminism

“One of the great and decisive battles of feminism”

In late 1933, Breckinridge attended the Seventh Pan-American Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, as the United States’ first official female delegate to an international diplomatic conference. Breckinridge's selection as one of the “U.S. ‘Big Four’” to attend the “Pan-American Parley,” at which the United States formally announced its “Good Neighbor” policy, aroused considerable interest in the news media. Breckinridge carefully preserved a clipping of a story that listed her alongside Secretary of State Cordell Hull, businessman Spruille Braden, and former Mexican ambassador J. Reuben Clark as the “quartet of experts from the state department.”1 Both local and national newspapers reveled in the novelty of a woman delegate, publishing numerous profiles of the “feminine brain trustee.”2 Journalists especially delighted in pairing details of Breckinridge's impressive credentials with commentary on her appearance and personality, noting that “the small sapient and scintillating Sophonisba” was sure to win admirers because of her “charming southern manners.” “She is said to be able socially as well as scholastically, to be witty as well as wise,” one article commented.3 According to a laudatory article in a Kentucky newspaper, “Miss Breckinridge is capable of holding her own with any of the experts. Exchange, tariffs, trade are subjects in which she is as deeply versed as women in industry and child labor.”4 But most accounts suggested that it was generally understood that Breckinridge was selected for her expertise on feminist foreign policy—or, as one piece expressed it, “the several subjects, significant to women, on the agenda for the conference, including child welfare and the civil and legal status of women in the Americas.”5

Breckinridge's participation in the gathering—officially known as the Seventh International Conference of American States—highlighted both her expertise in international affairs and her interest in women's issues. Speaking before the assembled delegates, Breckinridge criticized U.S. interventions into Latin American affairs—including the military occupations of Veracruz, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti—in no uncertain terms. Like other members of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Breckinridge opposed military intervention and economic imperialism in Latin America. “The United States has not been the good neighbor,” she charged. “Issues have been determined by force,” she lamented. “Power and not reason has been the basis of adjudications.” Breckinridge found economic imperialism perhaps even more troubling than military intervention, however, describing “the predatory character of business” as producing “economic conflict” that then led to armed conflict. Breckinridge even hinted that the United States was implicated in the ongoing Chaco war, suggesting that “our armament firms are probably supplying munitions” to both belligerent nations, Paraguay and Bolivia.6 However, Breckinridge also had a grand vision of women's role in repairing international relations, predicting: “The field of Inter-American relations will offer the women of the United States rich opportunities…for responsible participation in the development of a new order on this hemisphere.”7

Breckinridge's comments suggested the potential for Pan-American feminists to play an important role in international affairs by fostering cooperation rather than conflict.

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