should be allowed an education and participation in public life so that they could take care of themselves and their families, have professions, and gain independence and self-esteem as citizens. The book became the backbone of the Bulgarian Women's Union's ideology. Women's rights and peace activism (1911–1924) Pateva spoke at the Sixth Congress of the IWSA that was hosted in Stockholm in 1911 and she wrote a report on the proceedings for the newspaper Утро (Utro), arguing for women's full equality in all areas of public life. During the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) she published Апел към балканските жени (Appeal to the Balkan Women), urging women to try to achieve peace. At the start of World War I, Pateva initiated programs to support prisoners of war and their families, including a movement to sew underwear for soldiers. Even though the activities of the Women's Union were suspended during most of the conflict, she traveled throughout Europe participating in women's conferences and sharing her vision of humanism and non-violence, arguing for women's participation in negotiating world peace. She spoke at the Special International Congress of Women held in 1915 in The Hague, in which the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was founded, urging disarmament and presenting a plan for reconstruction of war-ravaged nations. Returning to Bulgaria, in 1918, Pateva founded the national branch of WILPF in Burgas, and in the May, organized a conference together with Malinova and Victoria Angelova to reactivate the Bulgarian Women's Union. The following year, along with other members of the group, she wrote a protest letter to American President Woodrow Wilson calling for the lifting of the isolation imposed on the Central Powers by the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine. As an official representative of the Government of Aleksandar Stamboliyski, Pateva took part in the International Council of Women (ICW)'s congress held in Kristiania, Norway in 1920, presenting in French, her paper Положението на жената и детето в България (The Situation of Woman and Child in Bulgaria). In 1922, she attended the Special Congress of the ICW held in The Hague, making a speech about the perils of war and reiterating the need for total disarmament and cooperation among people to develop a culture of brotherhood, freedom, and self-determination. She made a statement about the political rights of women at the Ninth Congress of the IWSA that was hosted in Rome during 1923. That year, when