Emily Greene Balch born Jamaica Plain, MA January 8, 1867 (d. 1961). "Improper Bostonian" awarded Nobel Peace Prize, 1946; founder of WILPF; as economist, proposed the idea of international mandates for colonies.
"Lovers of our own lands, we are citizens of the world." (Feb. 1922, WILPF "Our Call"; photo http://bit.ly/wBPTZP)
Anna Baltzer born Berkeley, CA August 22, 1979. American Jewish defender of Palestinian rights; International Women’s Peace Service volunteer documented nonviolent resistance 2004.
“Israel is not the peace-seeking democratic state that most Zionists believe it to be. Many don’t realize that Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza live under a system of segregation, constant military attacks, house demolitions, land confiscation, imprisonment without trial, and torture. They don’t realize that Palestinian citizens of Israel do not have equal rights, but live as second or third-class citizens.” (Virtual Mosque, Dec. 24, 2009; photo elderofziyon.blog)
Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette born Montreal, Canada February 8, 1979. Canadian film producer and actress; human rights advocate. Won Artists for Peace Award for film Inch’Allah on Palestine violence, 2012.
"Everything that makes us what we are is threatened. That is war. It can enter us and ravage us. We aren’t immune to it. War doesn’t belong only to other people. I think by focusing on an alter ego, it’s easier to grasp the 'humanity' behind the 'inhumanity' of war." (Michel Coulombe interview, 2012; photo ellequebec)
Shirley R. Barbour born April 15, 1918 (d. 2005). American artist; World Federalist. Leader in Rhode Island Nuclear Freeze campaign Women for a Non-Nuclear Future; Rhode Island Peace Mission.
"We are motivated by love—love of our beautiful world." (War Resisters League Peace Calendar 1991, October 6)
Judi Bari born Baltimore, MD November 7, 1949 (d. 1997). Environmental activist; labor organizer; ecofeminist; leader of Earth First!, 1979; nearly killed by bomb in nonviolent Redwood Summer, 1990.
"It is the hatred of feminine, which is the hatred of life, that has helped bring about the destruction of the planet. And it is the strength of women that can restore the balance we need to survive." (The Feminization of Earth First! May 1992; photo judibari.org)
Maude Barlow born Toronto, Canada May 24, 1927. Nonviolent internationalist, co-founded Blue Planet Project 2001; co-founded nonviolent Council of Canadians 1985; won Alternative Nobel Prize 2005; co-founded World Future Council 2004.
"[I]f we can get water defined as a human right—which it is. . . You can’t really charge for a human right; you can’t trade it or deny it to someone because they don’t have money." (Mother Jones, Jan. 14, 2005; photo foodandwaterwatch.org)
Laura Clifford Dreyfus-Barney born Cincinnati, OH November 30, 1879 (d. 1974). Baha’i leader. Promoted League of Nations and United Nations. Fluent in Farsi and French. Nurse with American Ambulance Corps, 1914-15, and American Red Cross in France, 1916-18. Representative of International Council of Women at League of Nations and UN; only woman appointed by League Council to Education Committee, 1926. Headed committee to promote peace through film and radio. Active in Institute on World Organization planning for postwar organizations, including UNICEF.
"But in our faith, we are to conquer the enemy by wisdom and love." (the woman Qurrat’l-‘Ain, in her play “God’s Heroes”, 1909, p. 36; photo thejourneywest.org)
Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse born Grenoble, France October 23, 1924 (d. 1999). American psychiatrist, professor at Southern Methodist University, and Episcopal priest. Keynote speaker on "Peace, the Universal Yearning: the Voices of Women” at the first International Women’s Peace Conference, Dallas, 1988. President of Peacemakers, 1988.
"Women underestimate their own gifts. . . We are in serious trouble when the feminine principle is devalued. Women appreciate the role of emotion in good decision making." (Aug. 8, 1988, in Episcopal News Service, Sept. 22, 1988; crop keep photo on left; salon.com)
Roseanne Barr born Salt Lake City, UT November 3, 1952. Actress; opposed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; participant in "One Taxpayer's Mother" protest for Code Pink on National Mall, May 8, 2010.
"The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it." (photo CBS Deadline 2010)
Drew Barrymore born Culver City, CA February 22, 1975. American actress, producer, and director. World Food Program Ambassador against Hunger, 2007.
Clara Barton born Oxford, MA December 25, 1821 (d. 1912). Pioneering war nurse, providing what she called "war on war itself." Founded American Red Cross, 1881, and extension of relief to peacetime disasters; achieved US signature to Geneva Convention, 1882.
"If we would do efficient work in alleviating the sufferings caused by the barbarisms of war. . . we should organize philanthropic efforts and be ready for whatever is necessary, to be on the field at the sound of the first gun." (The Red Cross, p. 26; 1866 Brady photo wikicommons pd)
Daisy Bates (née Gatson) born Huttig, AR November 11, 1914. As head of Arkansas NAACP, leader of Little Rock desegregation, 1957.
"No man or woman who tries to pursue an ideal in his or her own way is without enemies." (photo Ark. U.)
Katharine Lee Bates born Falmouth, Cape Cod August 12, 1859 (d. 1929). Poet and song writer; Wellesley professor; author of "America the Beautiful" and pacifist poems "Fodder for Cannon."
Oh may this war, this blasphemy that blots the globe with blood
Slay war forever, cleanse the earth in its own mighty flood.
("How Long?" 1916; photo CapeCodOnline)
Agnes Bauerlein (née Schretien) born Nijmegen, Netherlands February 12, 1928 (d. 2015). American war resister after family died in allied bombing 1944; social worker; influenced by Dorothy Day; welcomed Vietnamese refugees 1975; put up Berrigans during their trial 1982; arrested DC for nuclear protest; jailed 10 days for destroying nuclear weapons plans in AVCO plant 1983; month in Iraq desert with Gulf Peace Team 1991 trying to avert war. a week in prison for Iraq War protest 2001.
“It is my fear that we in the U.S. are just as apathetic as the German population in the late 1930s. I certainly see apathy on the nuclear issue. The U.S. military complex is alive and well, and the prospect of its growth is very real unless we, the American people, let our democratic government know that we don’t need it.” (Satya, Sep. 2001; photo New York Times)
Melba Pattillo Beals born Little Rock, AR December 7, 1941. One of Little Rock Nine who integrated Central High School nonviolently, 1955; later earned doctorate in education; journalist.
"I was slapped by one girl. I turned and said 'Thank you' and continued on my journey to class." (Warriors Don't Cry, p. 88; photo Melba Beals.org)
Margaret Winonah Beamer-Myers born Cleveland, OH September 10, 1941. 19-year-old student Freedom Rider arrested and imprisoned 1961 Jackson MS; only Rider to serve full 6-month sentence in Parchman Prison.
"[T]his was the punishment for the crime of sitting down in a waiting room next to a fellow student." (Bobbie O’Brien, station WUSF, April 11, 2011; photo Miss. Archives)
Helen Marston Beardsley born San Diego, CA June 26, 1892 (d. 1982). Quaker peace leader and organizer. Took part in Friends relief, Vienna, 1921; founded WILPF San Diego chapter, 1924; co-founded San Diego Peace Center. Socialist work with Mexican immigrants and farm workers; opposed nuclear weapons; marched against Vietnam War at age 89; on Nixon's enemies list, 1971.
"If justice can be gained without violence, it is up to us to prove it." (Joan Jensen, "When Women Worked", California History, p. 128, June 1988; 1941 photo aclusandiego.org)
Norma Becker born Bronx, NY February 18, 1930 (d. 2006). Teacher and protest leader. Founded the anti-Vietnam War protest group, the Fifth Avenue Peace Parade, 1965; founded the anti-nuclear organization Mobilization for Survival, 1977. Chairperson of War Resisters League, 1977-83.
“The peace movement must be a mass movement embracing women with widely differing viewpoints on every conceivable issue. . . 'Unity in diversity' is not only possible, but desirable.” (WRL Calendar, 1986; photo http://bit.ly/J9X8Gf)
Margaret Behan born Watonga, OK July 4, 1948. Artist. Native American founder of Cheyenne Elders Council. Member of International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers.
"I feel like as a Grandmother, I am a warrior for life." (quote and photo nativevillage.org)
Sally Belfrage born Hollywood, CA October 4, 1936. Journalist; civil rights activist; wrote memoirs detailing nonviolent Freedom Summer and Greenham movement; war tax resister.
"Few of them could explain what it was, in the middle of their generation's apathy, that had made them care, but the fact that they did seemed a phenomenon of as much hope for America as the Negro revolution they were about to join." (Freedom Summer, p. 5)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
