Dagmar Wilson (1916-2011) mobilized women across the world to take a stand against nuclear war. Her organizing was instrumental in getting the US and the Soviet Union to agree to a partial ban on atomic testing.
Dagmar Wilson (1916-2011) mobilized women across the world to take a stand against nuclear war. Her organizing was instrumental in getting the US and the Soviet Union to agree to a partial ban on atomic testing.
Women’s contributions to peacekeeping efforts are often overlooked, but no more. This month on Womanica we're highlighting women who have spearheaded peacekeeping initiatives all over the world — from India to South Africa to the United States. We cover women like Doria Shafik who led Egypt’s female liberation movement, as well as Coretta Scott King who was a fierce advocate for equality for Black Americans and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Tune in to hear the stories of women who were integral to creating peace in their communities.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Meltem Burak. I’m the host and producer of the podcast Sesta. We aim to harness the power of arts and culture to foster conversation and build peace in Cyprus. I’ll be your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This month, we’re highlighting Peacebuilders. In times of conflict, these women stepped in, bringing their creativity and insight to help facilitate peace across the globe.
Today, we’re talking about someone who mobilized women across the world to take a stand against nuclear war. Her organizing was instrumental in getting the US and the Soviet Union to agree to a partial ban on atomic testing. Let’s talk about Dagmar Wilson.
Dagmar Wilson was born in New York City on January 25, 1916. Her father was a foreign correspondent, so Dagmar spent most of her childhood in London. In 1937, she graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art.
Soon after graduating, Dagmar married Christopher Wilson, a British embassy officer. Dagmar and Christopher moved to Washington, D.C.. There, she had three children - all girls - and worked as a children’s book illustrator.
As Dagmar cared for her children and worked on her art, the specter of nuclear war appeared on the horizon. In August of 1961, East Germany erected the Berlin Wall. In the following months, both the US and the Soviet Union began conducting an unprecedented amount of nuclear tests. Global radiation levels spiked.
These nuclear tests produced radioactive fallout that lingered in the atmosphere. This concerned Dagmar, and many others. Some mothers sent their children’s baby teeth to researchers, to get them tested for the presence of radioactive materials.
In September of 1961, Dagmar was hosting a cocktail party when she heard the news that the philosopher Bertrand Russell had been arrested in London for participating in antinuclear demonstrations. Dagmar was furious. She later said she “felt like chartering a plane and going over to picket the jail.”
She didn’t fly to London. But the next morning in Washington, Dagmar called every woman that she knew, urging them to take the dangers of nuclear weapons seriously. Dagmar tapped into networks of women from church groups, parent-teacher associations, and women’s clubs, using phone trees and chain letters to spread her message across the country.
And on November 1st, six weeks after her cocktail party, Dagmar’s efforts culminated in the Women’s Strike for Peace. Fifty thousand women in 60 cities across the US and abroad left their homes and their jobs, taking to the streets to demand nuclear disarmament. Their slogan was: End the Arms Race - Not the Human Race.
Dagmar led a protest of over a thousand women to the base of the Washington Monument. They were mostly well-educated, and middle class. They wore skirts, and hats, and white gloves. Many of them identified as housewives. And they wanted their children to live in safety, free from the dangers of radioactive fallout and nuclear war.
The Women’s Strike for Peace was the largest women’s peace protest of the 20th century. Over the next few years, Dagmar and the women involved continued picketing, marching, organizing letter writing campaigns and attending international conferences.
Dagmar’s activism didn’t go unnoticed. In 1962, the House Un-American Activities Committee, a group formed in Congress to root out communism, began to suspect that the women of the Women’s Strike for Peace were secretly Communist sympathizers.
To Dagmar and her fellow activists, this accusation was absurd - and they treated it as such. On the day of the hearing, women packed the hall with their children in tow. Strollers littered the aisles. The women turned the hearing into a comedy, laughing and clapping as testifiers were called up to speak, presenting the testifiers with roses when they finished. After Dagmar testified, she got an entire bouquet of flowers.
Dagmar later described it as ‘the one great moment of her life’, saying: “I had the opportunity not only to confront my accusers, but also to make them look like idiots.”
A year later, in 1963, the US, Soviet Union, and Britain signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty - which banned tests of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, and in space. President John F. Kennedy’s science advisor specifically credited the Women’s Strike for Peace as having a big impact on the existence of the treaty.
After the Limited Test Ban Treaty, the Women’s Strike for Peace continued to fight for change. They turned their attention to the Vietnam War, and expanded their mandate to call for an end to war everywhere.
Dagmar, however, retreated from public life. She moved with her husband to Loudoun County, Virginia, and started painting landscapes that captured the farmland slowly disappearing around her.
Dagmar died on January 23, 2011 at 94 years old. She transformed an idea at a cocktail party into a movement of women with the power to convince two warring countries to ban nuclear testing - and the humor to laugh in the face of Congress.
All month, we’re talking about peacebuilders. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for having me on as a guest host.
As always, we’ll be taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you Monday!