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Emily Greene Balch Emily Greene Balch, noted sociologist, political scientist, economist
and pacifist, was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1946. Balch joined the Wellesley College faculty in 1896. The biography on the Nobel website notes, "An outstanding teacher, she impressed students by the clarity of her thought, by the breadth of her experience, by her compassion for the underprivileged, by her strong-mindedness, and by her insistence that students could formulate independent judgments only if they combined on-the-spot investigation with their research in the library. During these years she was a member of two municipal boards (one on children and one on urban planning) and of two state commissions (one on industrial education, the other on immigration); she participated in movements for women's suffrage, for racial justice, for control of child labor, for better wages and conditions of labor; she contributed to knowledge with her research, notably, Our Slavic Felow-Citizens (1910), a study of the main concentrations of Slavs in America and of the areas in Austria and Hungary from which they emigrated."
In 1915 she had helped Jane Addams of Hull House found the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She served as its secretary 1919-22, and 1934-35. In 1936 the WILPF elected her their honorary international president. Between the wars, Balch worked on many international projects: disarmament, the internationalization of aviation, drug control, the participation of the United States in the affairs of the League of Nations. She served as a member of a WILPF committee appointed to investigate conditions in Haiti, then occupied by American marines. Their report, Occupied Haiti, may have hastened the withdrawal of US forces. In the thirties she sought ways and means to help the victims of Nazi persecution. Balch came to the conclusion that the Nazis were such an evil that they had to be fought by all means necessary, and she reluctantly supported the war effort. But she also continued her efforts to bring international solutions to problems. Balch was only the second woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; the first, in 1931, was her friend, Jane Addams. Balch died January 9, 1961. Wellesley College honors her with the Emily Greene Balch Internship, offered every summer for one or more students to work in the field of peace and justice studies. "Students design and carry out a project which fosters their understanding of the relationships among peace, justice, and social change. Students typically work with a social change organization in which they can develop skills and knowledge as well as providing services."
Written by Wilma Slaight
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Balch,
a member of the Society of Friends, had become increasingly committed
to the cause of peace. She attended the International Congress of
Women at the Hague in 1915, and - on leave from Wellesley College
-- traveled to Russia and Scandinavian countries to persuade their
governments to initiate mediation efforts to stop World War I. On
her return to the U.S. she campaigned against U.S. participation
in the conflict. She asked for an extension of her leave to continue
this work; the Trustees decided instead not to renew her contract.
