Part of the anti-nuclear movement were also women’s groups for which nuclear weapons and the bases where they were stored represented a concrete manifestation of the patriarchal militaristic and exploitative system that they were living under. Women on both sides of the Atlantic organized to resist the global systems by targeting these bases. To do so they also established peace camps. In 1981 the first women’s peace camp was established at Greenham Common in England. This camp would serve as an example for other camps including those in Seneca (United States), Comiso (Italy), Pine Gap (Australia) and Soesterberg and Volkel (Netherlands). The fact that these camps consisted of only women gave them the opportunity to become a sort of sanctuary, free from men and more accessible to women. The fact that these women were living in tents in a camp, instead of being in the home that society consigns them to, disrupted normative ideas of daily life and domestic space that these weapons cause. The women’s presence at those militaristic and patriarchal locations was an expression of power and their peaceful actions, during which they sang songs or decorated the bases’ perimeter fences, created a dichotomy between the dark and gloomy military base and the welcoming and friendly women.

Women’s camps in different countries would be in contact with each other and inspire news camps. Participants would visit other women’s camps and hold solidarity actions when other camps faced eviction by the authorities. The women’s camps in the Netherlands should thus be seen in the context of an international women’s movement. As already mentioned, one of these camps was established near the air base in Volkel. Included are some newspaper articles written after the establishment on January 23, 1984, and the evacuation on June 25, 1984.