Teresa Billington-Greig born Preston, Lancashire, England October 15, 1876 (d. 1964). British nonviolent activist and thinker; self-described, "a feminist, a suffragist and a rebel"; founder of Women's Freedom League, 1907; held in Holloway Prison; fined for returning policeman's blow, 1906.
"You shall not strike our women!" (Oxf. Dict. Nat. Bio.; photo Billington families of Lancs.)
Randi Blehr (née Nilsen) born Bergen, Norway February 12, 1851 (d. 1928). Norwegian feminist and peace leader. Wife of Prime Minister Otto Blehr. Chair of Norwegian Women's Peace Association 1903-. Co-founded Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights, 1884; served as its president, 1895-99, 1903-22.
“THE DOGMA OF THE NECESSITY OF WAR MUST BE OVERTHROWN.” (resol. Nov. 19, 1914, The Advocate of Peace, March 1915, p. 57; photo arkivveket.no)
May Blood born Belfast, Northern Ireland May 26, 1938. Labor organizer and community leader. First woman from Northern Ireland to join House of Lords. During the Troubles, family house was burnt down. Co-founded women’s party Northern Ireland Woman’s Coalition (NIWC), 1996. NIWC opposed violence by Ireland & Northern Ireland, and helped facilitate Good Friday peace, 1998.
“I couldn’t understand how the people next door could become my enemy overnight. How was that possible? The part of Belfast that I lived in that is where the Troubles started and it really was scary.” (Civic Voices interview, March 10, 2012; photo BBC)
Janet Bloomfield (née Hood) born Newcastle-under-Lyme, England October 10, 1953 (d. 2007). British Quaker peace activist; UK Coordinator of Atomic Mirror, to create a nuclear-free world, 1997. Organized campaign to stop arms trade shows Birmingham 1991; chaired Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), 1993-96; Vice-President of International Peace Bureau, Geneva, 1994-97; led Atomic Mirror Pilgrimage "Sacred Fire" of nuclear and sacred sites of Britain, 1996; convened Abolition Now Campaign Working Group of Abolition, 2000.
"The issue of the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from European territory is crying out for action. There is no military reason for these weapons to be on European soil. They are another hangover of the Cold War." (Oxford Research Group, January 2007; photo Abolition 2000)
Aline Boccardo-Zolondek born Danzig Free State February 17, 1920 (d. 2015). Swiss peace activist. Founded Women for Peace, Lucerne, 1977. Undertook week’s peace fast, Geneva, 1978. Sent UN petition of 18,000 signatures for nuclear disarmament.
“All the mockery, defamation and insults, Aline Boccardo as a peace activist forgives. . . and wishes all those who harm me nothing bad. But in the next life I will never see them again." (“Wie kluge Frauen alt warden”, Witzig; photo abeboks)
Betty Boeke (née Cadbury) born Moseley, Birmingham, England April 28, 1884 (d. 1976). Quaker co-founder of International Fellowship of Reconciliation Bilthoven 1919, and nonviolent Workplace, and first international peace corps CSI; imprisoned for tax resistance, one child born in prison; honored by Yad Vashem for saving Jews.
"[T]he Great War and its appalling consequences have led us to believe that just the private holding of capital, such as we have done up to the present time, lies at the root of nearly all the social and economic trouble in the world to-day." (Archive Kees Boeke; photo onderwijsvernieuwers3.wikispaces.com)
Sissela Ann Myrdal Bok born Stockholm, Sweden December 2, 1934. Nonviolent philosopher; daughter of Nobel prize winner Alva Myrdal.
"Four positive moral principles of nonviolence, veracity, fidelity and publicity. . . satisfy the prerequisites for an international morality that can give a strategy of peace the strongest, most focused impact." (Bok, A Strategy for Peace: Human Values and the Threat of War, 1989, p. 81; photo 2003 http://bit.ly/wL3Ij4)
Margaret Bondfield born Somerset, England March 17, 1873 (d. 1953). British suffragist and labor leader. One of the first women in Parliament, 1923; first woman in British Cabinet as Minister of Labor, 1929. Opposed World War I and conscription.
“One of the great scandals of the First World War was the attitude of mind (an old one coming down from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) which regarded human life as the cheapest thing to expend. The whole war was fought on the principle of using up man-power. Tanks and similar mechanical help were received with hesitation and repugnance by commanders, and were inadequately used. But man-power, the lives of men, were used with freedom.” (A Life's Work, 1948; photo Wikipedia)
Violet Bonham Carter born Hampstead, London, England April 15, 1887 (d. 1969). First woman president of Internationalist Liberal Party. Orator; promoted League of Nations, UN and European Unity; co-founder of UN Association of Great Britain; early opponent of Hitler.
"If we fail, one realises suddenly that one is looking on at the suicide of a civilisation." (Daring to Hope: Diaries; photo Wikipedia)
Emma Bonino born Bra, Italy March 9, 1948. Gandhian activist; president of nonviolent non-governmental organization Transnational Radicals. First European Commissioner for Health, 1995-99; Italian Minister of European Politics, 2006-08; Foreign Minister, 2013-14. Awarded Council of Europe's North-South Prize, 1998.
“In the words of Gandhi—nonviolence is also ‘love of others, love of life.’ In the world in which we live, which is a world of change, it can also be the path to open up new democratic, interstate, transnational and international relations.” (Cairo, Feb. 24, 2004; photo liberal-international.org)
Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner born London, England March 30, 1858 (d. 1943). Peace activist, prominent atheist; founded Rationalist Peace Society 1910; opposed imperialism, Boer War, death penalty.
“Women do not bear arms? Why should we? If at empire building women are not competent, may they always remain so.“
“If some women are on the side of peace today, more will be tomorrow for as they get wider and deeper insight into national and international affairs so will they see that their whole interests are opposed to militarism and bound up with the maintenance of peace.” (Oct. 1910, Int. Arbit. & Peace Association, London, in Josephine Rubin, “Women & Peace”, Whole Earth Papers, Spring 1978, p. 3; photo Atheist Centre)
Evangeline Booth born London, England December 25, 1865 (d. 1950). Internationalist; led relief missions to Armenians (1896), Japanese earthquake victims (1923); organized International Missing Persons Bureau. (photo wikicommons pd)
Lauren Booth born Islington, London, England July 22, 1967. Broadcaster journalist; co-sponsor of nonviolent Free Gaza Movement; broke blockade of Gaza 2008; converted to Islam 2010; opposed Iraq War initiated by her brother-in-law, prime minister Blair.
"As a war criminal in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tony Blair should be arrested and go on a trial in Hague international court." (Malaysia University, Jan. 20, 2011, in Iran English News; photo InterfaithDialogueCenter)
Baroness Betty Boothroyd born Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England October 8, 1929. Anti-apartheid leader; first female Speaker of House of Commons, 1992; member of European Parliament.
"Look out girls, you're going to be knocked back. Pick yourself up and get on with it. . . Don't let anybody put you down." (http://www.wwom.org/interview.html; photo London.gov)
Elise M. Boulding (née Hansen) born Oslo, Norway July 6, 1920 (d. 2010). Quaker sociologist and "Mother of Peace Research"; International chair of WILPF 1977-80; opposed Vietnam War by illegally aiding North Vietnamese Red Cross 1967.
"We must look towards societies that set a high value on nonaggression and noncompetitiveness, and therefore handle conflicts by nonviolent means." (photo hastingsnonviolence.blogspot.com)
Hetty Bower born Dalston, East London, England September 28, 1905. Marched in over 30 antiwar parades, including 2011 when she was 106, and 2012 three mile Oxfam hike for Palestinian olive farmers (28 Sept).
"I march because I can see no reason for further killing. I have walked on every march against us going to war. At my age there is not very much I can do but while my legs can carry me I am going to march." (photo mylondondiary.com 2011)
Bertha Bracey born Bournville, Birmingham, England June 1, 1893 (d. 1989). English humanitarian. Quaker teacher and relief worker in Austria, 1921; fed children and worked for reconciliation with Germans, Nuremberg, 1921; Berlin, 1926. Founding Secretary of German Emergency Committee to help Jewish refugees, London, 1933. Set up Quaker school for 100 Jewish children in Ommen, Holland, 1934; organized Children’s Transport of Jewish children to England, 1938-39. Flew out 300 children from Theresienstadt camp, 1945. Led Allied refugee effort, 1946; Women’s Affairs for Occupation, 1946-53. Honored as “Righteous Among the Nations.”
“I would quote an American writer [Niebuhr] who said, ‘Religion is the hope that grows out of despair.’ One reason why our generation is not religious is that it has become too sentimental to be thoroughly pessimistic. It has never looked into the bottomless abyss, on the edge of which all citadels of faith are built.” (Cleo Lampos; photo geo.brown.edu)
Fransziska Brantner born Lörrach, South Baden, Germany August 24, 1979. Expert on UN reform; Green member Reichstag 2013; European Parliament 2009-13; foreign affairs spokesperson for Greens; promoted European Institute for Peace for conflict resolution; active in creation of European External Action Service; opposed European Somalia mission 2014, 2016; abstained on UN missions to Afghanistan 2014, Darfur 2013, South Sudan 2014, Central African Republic 2014.
“I am not calling for a UN mandate for international intervention as is the case in Libya, but for a peacekeeping mission inside Syria. . . we need a full UN peacekeeping mission and I think it would be high time to prepare for it now.” (to European Parliament, June 12, 2012; photo badische.zeitung)
Hildegard Breiner born Bregenz, Vorarlberg, Austria March 28, 1935. “Grand dame of Austrian grassroots environmental movement”; Anti-nuclear activist; led campaign against first nuclear plant at Zwentendorf, leading to national referendum against nuclear power 1978; major opponent of reprocessing at Wackersdorf, Bavaria; Nuclear-free Future Lifetime Achievement Award 2004.
"Endurance is the power of the powerless." (Nuclear-free Future; photo naturschutzbund.at)
Fredrika Bremer born Abo, Finland August 17, 1801 (d. 1865). Swedish author and feminist; co-founded Women’s Society for the Improvement of Prisoners 1854; suffragist.
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
