Mayra Avellar Neves born Vila Cruzeiro, Rio de Janiero, Brazil August 31, 1991. Activist. Peace March Against Violence, 2006; Walk for Peace, 2007. Received International Children’s Peace Prize, 2008.
“Education is the key to breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and violence.” (Kids Rights Foundation 2008; photo svri.org)
Eleanor Acland (née Cropper) born Tolson Hall, Westmorland, England February 27, 1878 (d. 1933). British peace leader, liberal politician, suffragist, and novelist. Organized Women’s Peacemaker Pilgrimage, 1926; wrote Peace Pact, 1928. (portrait devonlife)
Charlotte Anley born England February 17, 1796 (d. 1893). British pacifist Quaker; religious novelist, composer, and prison reformer. Worked for years in Australia on prison reform.
“It is the Spirit of God that can alone waken us. . . for as without the sun the natural world would be in darkness, so would our souls, without the aid of spiritual light. . . conscience is mercifully implanted in every breast. . . that all may discriminate between good and evil.” (Influence, p. 200, 1822)
Thelma Aldana born Gualán, Guatemala September 27, 1955. As President of Guatemalan Supreme Court, set up special courts to try cases of violence against women, 2011; pressed for Sepur Zarco decision, punishing sexual slavery in conflict, 2016. Received Right Livelihood Award, 2018.
“I am totally convinced that a feminist in decision-making roles makes a difference.” (UN Women, May 8, 2018); photo Wikipedia)
Isabel Allende Llona born Lima, Peru August 2, 1942. Chilean-American author and human rights advocate.
“I can promise you that women working together—linked, informed and educated—can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet.” (photo Wikipedia)
Audrey Azoulay born La Celle-Saint Cloud, France August 4, 1972. French politician. As Minister of Culture, promoted UN Security Council resolution for protection of cultural sites against war, 2016. Director of UNESCO, 2017.
“UNESCO must ambitiously reassert its role as the conscience of the United Nations. . . It is through education, culture, the dissemination of science and sustainable development, and the defence of humanistic values that UNESCO can bring to life the driving forces, the most sure in the long term, of the United Nation’s universal project of peace and democracy.” ( to UN, Sept. 21, 2017; photo Wikipedia)
Fanny Baker Ames born Canandaigua, NY June 14, 1844 (d. 1931). Women’s rights activist; suffragist. Vice-President, Anti-Imperialist League, 1913-21, opposing annexation of Philippines.
“We Anglo-Saxons are prone to think that no people is civilized that isn't made after our pattern; and we are peculiarly given to attempts at imposing our civilization upon other peoples. [Our deepest concern] is for our country . . . we long to have it free from the stain of injustice and greed.” (Oct. 5, 1903, AFSC “Resistance in Paradise”)
Ángela Acuña de Chacón Braun born Cartago, Costa Rica October 2, 1888 (d. 1983). Human rights lawyer; first female attorney in Central America. Feminist, suffragist. Founded Costa Rican WILPF. Led national People's Mandate to End War, 1938. Ambassador to Organization of American States. First woman on Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 1960-72. (photo Swarthmore College)
Katharine Anthony born Roseville, AK November 27, 1877 (d. 1965). Feminist, pacifist biographer of women peacemakers Susan B. Anthony and Louisa May Alcott. Member of Women’s Peace Party; critic of “Sister Susies,” pacifist women who knitted socks for soldiers.
On “Sister Susies”: “[It is] a peculiarly infantile form of patriotism.” (Harriet Alonso, Peace as a Woman’s Issue, p. 80; photo Wikipedia)
Lucy Aikin (pseudo. Mary Godolphin) born Warrington, Cheshire, England November 6, 1781 (d. 1864). “Friend of Peace.” English history writer.
“[W]ar, that thousand-headed monster of wrong. . . Once allow war not to be utterly unlawful,and we may listen to considerations of state expediency, utility. ‘Necessity, the tyrant’s plea,’ comes in.” (to W. E. Channing, June 19, 1839, in Correspondence, pp. 347-48; photo musing with clio)
Elisabeth Abegg born Strasbourg, Germany March 3, 1882 (d. 1972). German Quaker pacifist; follower of Albert Schweitzer; history teacher. Openly opposed Nazi regime; saved 80 Jews. Honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among Nations, 1967.
“Their fate will be my fate too.” (Yad Vashem; photo Wikipedia)
Patricia Arredondo born Lorain, OH July 25, 1945. Psychology professor. Promoted multicultural competency and social justice.
“We must work with, and across, human differences.” (Hispanic Executive, Oct. 17, 2015); photo ASUpeople.search)
Helen Elsie Austin born Tuskegee, AL May 10, 1906 (d. 2004). African-American lawyer, diplomat, and Bahá’i leader. Teacher, Morocco, 1953. Cultural Affairs Officer to Nigeria, Liberia, Togo, Kenya, 1961-68. Chaired Bahá'í delegation at International Women's Conference, Mexico City, 1975; lectured on world peace.
“The achievement of effective understanding and cooperation among the diverse nations, races, and classes of mankind is the chief essential for the survival of civilization.” (“World Unity as a Way of Life”, The Bahá'í World, vol. 11; photo wikipedia)
Heleen Ankersmit (née Gerharda Johanna Helena) born Deventer, Overijssel, Netherlands October 20, 1869 (d. 1944). Dutch suffragist and feminist. Socialist editor and speaker, linking wartime British and German Socialist women; delegate and translator for European Socialist women’s peace conference, Bern, 1915. Postwar Communist. (photo biografisch portal)
Dore Ashton born Newark, NJ May 21, 1928 (d. 2017). Antiwar art professor and critic. Issued public call to artists and writers to “express and stand for your anger against the war,” NO!art, 1966. (McCarthy, American Artists Against War, p. 79)
“What could the lessons of a concentration camp have meant, really, when atrocities in the Korean War went on and on. And on and on to Vietnam. And haven't stopped yet. And become more common and more easily accepted every day. . . The postwar period was adding up quickly in the 1950s to a perpetual war. . . Just perpetual carnage.” (“Merde Alors!”, 1969, NO!art; portrait by Alice Neel)
Claudia Concetta Abate born New York, NY October 8, 1971. UN conference officer, 1994-2005, worked on reconciliation; co-founder of Foundation for Post Conflict Development (FPCD), 2005.
"For me, the only real option was the United Nations." (Rowanmagazine; photo FPCD)
Diane Abbott born London, England September 27, 1953. First black woman Member of British Parliament, 1987; Labor Shadow Minister of International Development. Voted against wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; led opposition to bombing of Syria, 2015. Opposed nuclear weapons; supported Palestinian rights.
“[M]ake Labour a voice for peace and international law after the disastrous wars of the Blair years.” (Stop the War Coalition, Aug. 7, 2015; photo dianeabbott.org)
Edith Abbott born Grand Island, NE September 26, 1876 (d. 1957). PhD economist, daughter of Quaker; lifelong pacifist; Dean of Social Service, U. of Chicago; founded Immigrants' Protective League 1909; co-founded Women's Peace Party 1915; opposed World War II.
On opposition to World War II: "It was Nebraska isolationism in part, but it was also Quaker pacifism. We had quite an argument." (Lela Costin, Two Sisters, p. 237, 1983; photo Wikipedia)
Grace Abbott born Grand Island NB, Canada November 17, 1878 (d. 1939). Quaker; pacifist; internationalist; founder of WILPF; first US delegate to League of Nations, 1923; US representative to ILO, 1935, 1937; decade-long associate of Addams's Hull House, 1908; organized Women's Peace Party Conference of Oppressed for Dependent Nationalities Washington DC, 1916.
"To have had a part in the struggle—to have done what one could—is in itself the reward of effort and the comfort in defeat." (bio in Social Welfare History Project; photo 1929 Lib. Cong pd)
Anna Abdallah Msekwa born Southern Tanzania July 26, 1940. Nurse; held four major cabinet posts: Minister of Health, Agriculture and Community Development, Public Works, Local Government. Initiated Creators of Peace for a just, peaceful and sustainable world.
"We must create the positive element called 'peace,' which is not just the absence of weapons. And that means beginning with ourselves. Women are the missing link. We see things differently from men." (http://bit.ly/1gBi4GG; photo guide2womenleaders.com/Governors)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
