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.

Early life and education

Elinor Byrns was born in

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( ) is a city in and is the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Lafayette ...

in 1876, attended the Girls' Classical School in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, and graduated from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1900. She earned her law degree at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

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'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'', 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: , + , ) means "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position". ''Heterodoxy'' is also an ecclesiastical jargon term, defined in various ways by different religions and ...

, and helping to plan the first suffrage parade on

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

. She was active with the College Equal Suffrage League 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 Woma ...

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

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. 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 to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ...

, as vice-chair of the Women's Peace Society, formed in 1919, and co-founder of the Women's Peace Union in 1921. In 1923, she and Caroline Lexow Babcock 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, having been founded in 1923. History Founded in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I, it is a section of the London-based War Resisters' ...

in 1924. Byrns explained 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 lawyers National American Woman Suffrage Association activists