Date of Award

Spring 2024

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

History

Degree Name

Master of Arts

First Advisor

Kurk Dorsey

Second Advisor

Barbara Epstein

Third Advisor

Jacob D. Hamblin

Abstract

In the 40 years between 1974 and 2014, the anti-nuclear movement arose in New England, shook the dominant political forces, changed the culture, and achieved significant victories. Although they are usually not recognized as the power behind anti-nuclear and environmental activism, in fact, I contend that a certain group of women motivated by a second wave ecofeminist vision of peace were and have remained the core of this work in New England. Their fight against patriarchal systems shaping their individual lives extended to a larger commitment to build communities and imbue institutions with a new value system that would nurture life and promote peace among people and between human society and the environment. To illustrate these larger dynamics, I present the work of three specific women who devoted their lives to anti-nuclear activism in New England: Mitzi Bowman, Eleanor (Nina) Swaim, and Nina Keller. Examining archival documentation of their activism, I analyze their stories to show the specific ways in which anti-nuclear activism was inseparable from efforts in these women’s lives to renegotiate the systems and power structures of American society. Together, their lives reveal an arc in the evolution of feminism, the impact of feminism on individual women’s lives, and the importance of feminism in the anti-nuclear movement. Feminism fed the anti-nuclear movement;

v.the anti-nuclear movement in turn offered a channel through which women could enact their ideals. While they construed themselves as revolutionaries fighting the nuclear mindset of the capitalist patriarchy, reformist tactics were more useful in accomplishing their goals. Feminist anti-nuclear activists have made significant impacts in changing the culture and the physical environment of New England. Methods used include archival research, and close examination of articles, newspapers, journals, and memoirs. Interviews and oral histories provided special insights. Secondary scholarship in environmental history, sociology, anthropology, women’s studies and nuclear history gave me a foundation from which to analyze and think critically about the anti-nuclear movement. My own experience as an anti-nuclear activist and board member of a foundation that monitors emissions from Seabrook gave me a special vantage point in these studies.

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