April 14

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1867 Jessie Aitken (née Fraser) born Ecclesmachan, Linlithgow, Scotland (d. 1934), New Zealand peace activist, socialist, feminist; led Woman’s Anti-Conscription delegation to Prime Minister.

  • 1910 Zilphia Horton born Spadra, AR (d. 1956). Singer and composer of protest anthem “We Shall Overcome”. Labor organizer; music director of Highlander Folk School, which trained many civil rights leaders.

  • 1932 Klaryta Antoszewska born Poniewierz, Lithuania (d. 2014). Holocaust survivor; humanitarian; philologist; peacemaker and protester against nuclear weapons; rescuer of refugees. Catholic sister of St. Francis.

  • 1933 Lucy R. Lippard born Bronx, NY. Antiwar art historian; feminist.

  • 1935 Monique Chemillier-Gendreau born Antananarivo, Madagascar. French jurist, professor of international law; numerous cases at World Court; sponsor of Russell Tribunal on Palestine; critical of US violation of international law in Vietnam agent orange, Iraq, Kosovo, Guantanamo.

  • 1936 Astrid N. Heiberg born Oslo, Norway. Professor of psychiatry; first woman president of International Red Cross, 1997-2001. Peacemaker in Tamil-Sri Lanka war, 2003.

  • 1944 Carolyn Tanner Irish born Salt Lake City, UT. Episcopal Bishop of Utah, 1996; anti-Iraq War epistle, 2002.

  • 1949 Anuradha Koirala born Rumjata, Okhaldhunga, Nepal. Founded Maiti (Mother's home) to rescue girls from sex slavery.

  • 1968 Gayle Brandeis born Chicago, IL. Author and poet. Founding member of Code Pink, 2002, and Women Creating Peace, 2003.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1910 Alice Paul endorsed militant suffrage tactics like British women’s action, which she described as, “war of men and women working together against the politicians.”

  • 1915 National Conference of Women met at London's Central Hall to discuss basis of permanent peace.

  • 1931 WILPF Economic Conference, Paris responded to Great Depression with call for European Customs Union.

  • 1982 Greenham Women tried at Newbury: "How dare the government presume the right to kill others in our names?"

  • 2004 Vicky Monk of Sammamish, WA led soldiers' mothers protest at White House.

  • 2008 Spanish Cabinet has female majority.

  • 2011 Diane Wilson protested oil spill at BP meeting London.

  • 2011 37 Nepali women leaders arrested in protest calling for establishment of new government and new constitution.