Elinor Byrns (1876 — May 27, 1957) was an American lawyer, pacifist, and feminist, co-founder of the Women's Peace Society and the

Women's Peace Union Women's Peace Union (WPU) was a radical Pacifism, pacifist organization founded in 1921 as a joint effort of women from the United States and Canada with the goal of outlawing war. Its single purpose was to push through a Constitutional Amendment to ...

Early life and education

Elinor Byrns was born in

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...

in 1876, attended the Girls' Classical School in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

, and graduated from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1900. She earned her law degree at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Career

Byrns worked at a corporate law firm in New York City for two years, until she left in disillusionment at how the law was practiced. She drew from the experience for her 1916 essay in ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'', titled "The Woman Lawyer," declaring, "I do not want to practise law if it means playing a game."

Activism

Byrns was active in New York City's feminist circles in the 1910s, as a member of

Heterodoxy In religion, heterodoxy (from Ancient Greek: , "other, another, different" + , "popular belief") means "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position". Under this definition, heterodoxy is similar to unorthodoxy, wh ...

, and helping to plan the first suffrage parade on

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

. She was active with the

College Equal Suffrage League The College Equal Suffrage League (CESL) was an American woman suffrage organization founded in 1900 by Maud Wood Park and Inez Haynes Irwin (''nee'' Gillmore), as a way to attract younger Americans to the women's rights movement. The League spurred ...

of New York State, and promoted the idea of "suffrage colleges," training for young women interested in pursuing activism. She was national publicity director of the

National American Woman Suffrage Association The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National ...

until she resigned in 1917, over the organization's support for

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. She resigned from the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

around the same time. Having parted with the mainstream feminist organizations, Byrns focused her energies on

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

, as vice-chair of the Women's Peace Society, formed in 1919, and co-founder of the

in 1921. In 1923, she and

Caroline Lexow Babcock Caroline Lexow Babcock (February 5, 1882 – March 8, 1980) was an American pacifist and suffragist, co-founder of the Women's Peace Union, and Executive Secretary of the National Women's Party from 1938 to 1946. Early life and education Carolin ...

drafted a constitutional amendment to remove the power of the US Congress to declare or fund war. Byrns was also on the executive committee of the

War Resisters League The War Resisters League (WRL) is the oldest secular pacifist organization in the United States. History Founded in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I, it is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International. It continues ...

in 1924. Byrns explained about the motivation behind her peace work, at a U. S. Senate hearing in 1927:

''A government which learns to respect life will be a sane government, realizing the folly and wickedness of permitting, much less of forcing, its citizens to indulge in the abnormality of war. It will know that life, in itself valuable, can be made rich and beautiful. It will understand that its citizens can never reach the highest point of development unless they abandon such ugly practices as killing, and the violation of the personality of others, and concentrate rather on creative, constructive activities.''Harriet Hyman Alonso, ''The Women's Peace Union and the Outlawry of War, 1921 — 1942'' (University of Tennessee Press 1990): 52.

Death

Byrns died in 1957, age 80.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrns, Elinor American pacifists American women in World War I 1876 births 1957 deaths American feminists Suffragists from New York (state) New York (state) lawyers University of Chicago alumni New York University School of Law alumni Members of the College Equal Suffrage League 20th-century American people National American Woman Suffrage Association activists