Editing Bertha von Suttner (section)

=== Sex ===

Suttner is often considered a leader in the women's liberation movement.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Braker|first=Regina|date=1995|title=Bertha von suttner's spiritual daughters: the feminist pacifism of Anita Augspurg, Lida Gustava Heymann, and Helene Stöcker at the International Congress of Women at The Hague, 1915|journal=Women's Studies International Forum|volume=18|issue=2|pages=103–111|doi=10.1016/0277-5395(95)80047-s|issn=0277-5395}}</ref>

Von Suttner broke through [[sex barrier]]s by her work as a writer and activist. She was an outspoken leader in a society in which women were to be seen, not be heard. But she did not actively participate in the movements for women's suffrage, for instance, which she explained due to  a lack of time. She instead focused on reaching out to other women in the international peace movement, though she kept close contact to the women's [[suffrage movement]]. As a sign of joint solidarity, for instance, Von Suttner was a prominent participant of the 1904 '[[Second Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance|International Women's Conference]]' ('Internationale Frauen-Kongress') in Berlin. Von Suttner knew, though, that conflict can only be avoided if both men and women together struggle for peace, which required an absolute belief in [[sex equality]]. "The tasks involved in mankind's continuing ennoblement are such that they can only be fulfilled through fair and equal cooperation between the sexes", she wrote.<ref name="asser"/>

In ''[[Die Waffen nieder!|Lay Down Your Arms]]'', the protagonist Martha often clashes with her father on this issue. Martha does not want her son to play with toy soldiers and be indoctrinated to the masculine ideas of war. Martha's father attempts to put Martha back in the female sexed box by suggesting that the son will not need to ask for approval from a woman, and also states that Martha should marry again because women her age should not be alone.<ref name=":1" />

This was not simply because she insisted that women are equal to men, but that she was able to tease out how sexism affects both men and women. Like Martha being placed in a female structured sex box, the character of Tilling is also placed in the male stereotyped box and affected by that. The character even discusses it, saying, "we men have to repress the instinct of self-preservation. Soldiers have also to repress the compassion, the sympathy for the gigantic trouble which invades both friend and foe; for next to cowardice, what is most disgraceful to us is all sentimentality, all that is emotional."<ref name=":1" />