Lucie Dejardin

Overview

Lucie Dejardin born Grivegnée, Liège, Belgium July 31, 1875 (d. 1945). Coal miner, activist, and politician. Founded Belgian Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; co-founded Women’s Socialist League. Arrested by German occupation; sentenced to life in prison, 1915; released in prisoner exchange, 1917. First woman in Chamber of Representatives, 1929.

Quotations

“[Belgian women are] in favor of a Society of Peoples which would establish free trade, and of some sort of United States of Europe which would agree to have recourse to the League of Nations to solve all differences that might arise between nations. . . Pacifist women should demand a reform of education, children being still too often brought up and educated in a militarist spirit which easily develops a spirit of hatred for other peoples. Let the women of the whole world by their spirit of good-will and solidarity exert pressure on the governments. . . Women have it in their power to secure the peace of the world and make it permanent.” (May 1, 1924, Washington DC, Fourth WILPF Congress; photo www.1914-1918.be)