April 7

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1803 Flora Tristan born Paris, France (d. 1844). French feminist pioneer and utopian Socialist. Advocate of women's leadership to bring about peace. She proposed "a law of love and union destined to end all conflict between men."

  • 1860 Alice Pestana de Blanco (AKA Caïel) born Santarem, Portugal (d. 1929). Portuguese novelist, playwright, and poet; pacifist and feminist. Founded Portuguese League for Peace, 1899. National representative at the founding of the Women’s League for Disarmament, 1899. Delegate to Hague Conference, 1900.

  • 1870 Anna Lindhagen born Stockholm, Sweden (d. 1941). Swedish Social Democrat politician; social reformer; suffragist. Founded Sweden's Women's Peace Society, 1898; delegate to Women's International Peace Congress, 1915.

  • 1872 Marie Equi born New Bedford, MA (d. 1952). Pediatrician; openly lesbian; anarchist. Arrested with Margaret Sanger for distributing birth control information, 1916. Arrested and convicted of sedition for antiwar views, 1918.

  • 1874 Charlotte Maxeke born Ramokgopa, Transvaal, South Africa (d. 1939). "The Mother of African Freedom." Pioneering opponent of pass laws, 1913; founded Bantu Women's League, 1918.

  • 1889 Gabriela Mistral born Vicuña, Chile (d. 1957). Chilean poet and diplomat. Representative to League of Nations Intellectual Committee, 1926; Consul to Madrid during Spanish Civil War; co-founder of UNICEF.  Nobel Literature laureate, 1945.

  • 1891 Martha May Eliot born Dorchester, MA (d. 1978). Pediatrician; pioneer in World Health. Only woman signer of World Health Organization charter, 1946. Promoter of international children's health; helped found UNICEF. Founded first US children's advocacy organization, 1959.

  • 1922 Annemarie Schimmel born Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany (d. 2003). German orientalist scholar; Peace Prize of German Book Trade 1995 for her promotion of understanding of Islam; student of Sufi mysticism.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1987 UN issued first system-wide plan for women and development.

  • 1992 Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn released from prison after serving 8 months of 30 month sentence for Gulf War conscientious objection.

  • 2002 Marla Ruzicka protested civilians killed by US airstrikes Kabul.

  • 2003 Three Dominican nuns convicted for damaging nuclear silo in Colorado.

  • 2011 Human rights lawyer Ni Yulan arrested Beijing for disturbing the peace.