2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(1) citizenship dependent on that of her husband. 28 The principle of jus sanguinis, the inheritance of citizenship through fathers explicitly, was deemed fundamental to warranting loyalty at a time when the Napoleonic wars encompassed Europe. 29 2 Nineteenth Century Beginnings There was, in the nineteenth century and only in certain countries, a growing but gradual momentum in advocacy movements for women’s rights. Starting with the seminal 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in New York, US activists promoted the idea of such women’s rights conventions at which a wide spectrum of women’s grievances could be expressed and affirmed. 30 High on the women’s agenda from the outset was the extension of full franchise to women. Pragmatic demands were also prominent, the right to education and payment for work done, while the position of the married woman was singled out by campaigners and declared to be that of the ‘civilly dead’. 31 In 1888 in Washington DC, at a meeting attended by 53 women’s organisations from nine countries, the US National Women’s Suffrage Association helped to found a new organisation, the International Council. 32 By 1905 the International Council had grown to having national branches in 35 countries. 33 In that same year, the International Council carried out ‘a special investigation’ on the issue on unequal nationality laws and continued advocating for reform in the decades that followed. 34 Protest Preparations Begin The interwar years saw the growth of a global citizenship equality campaign. Several national feminist organisations petitioned their respective governments on the issue, and local commitment translated to wider united action on the issue. Globally, the Alliance became committed to the principle that ‘married women should enjoy all the freedom granted to men to retain or alter their nationality’. 35 In 1923 the Alliance put together a set of international guidelines as, in the words of Caroline Bredbenner, a ‘cure for the dismal state of married women’s nationality rights’. 36 The collaborative nature of international activism is clear from the Alliance’s response to the 1928 announcement that the League of Nations would hold a Conference on Codification of International Law in 1930, in The 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 ibid 66. ibid. Gerda Lerner, ‘The Meaning of Seneca Falls: 1848–1998’ (Fall 1998) Dissent 35–36. The damning conclusion of ‘civilly dead’ would have full resonance in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the legislation passed by national governments invariably excluded the mother’s right to pass on nationality to her children: see ‘Declaration of Sentiments’ in Report of the Woman’s Rights Convention Held at Seneca Falls (John Dick 1848) 7. Linda L Clark, Women and Achievement in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Cambridge University Press 2008) 251. Macmillan (n 7) 143. ibid. Bredbenner (n 1) 198. ibid. 48