Metaphors of the Schoolroom: Women Working the Mandates System of the League of Nations

International women's organizations greeted the establishment of the League of Nations with enthusiasm, pledging their support for its social reform efforts and urging that women be appointed to its committees and commissions. This essay examines the work of the two Scandinavian women who served on its Permanent Mandates Commission, the body charged with overseeing the administration of the Ottoman and German territories seized during the war and distributed under League of Nations mandate among the allied powers. The article highlights also the different views of female internationalists and League enthusiasts on the paternalistic approach of humanitarian interventions at the time.