Tyne Daly born Madison, WI February 21, 1947. Actress; peace activist. Participated in "The World Says No to War" before Iraq war, Washington DC, 2003; took part in March for Women's Lives, Washington DC, 2004.
“I was raised to be in service to something larger than myself.” (http://bit.ly/J3C5qs; photo http://bit.ly/KBtzge)
Marie-Thérèse Danielsson born Le Thillot, Vosges, France October 18, 1924 (d. 2003). Ethnologist; recipient of Right Livelihood Award for campaign against French nuclear tests in Polynesia, 1991; leader of WILPF Polynesia.
"There has been a gradual increase in French Polynesia of radiation-induced diseases such as leukemia, thyroid cancers and brain tumours." (Right Livelihood acceptance speech, Dec. 9, 1991; photo Right Livelihood)
Valentine Dannevig born Tønsberg, Norway June 17, 1872 (d. 1962). Norwegian educator and internationalist. Sole female member of League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission, 1928-40. WILPF founding member, 1915; founding member of Norwegian WILPF.
“[T]he granting of female suffrage should be regarded as a right devolving on women in civilised States. The granting of the right of voting to Jewish women would eventually have an effect upon and raise the standard of the Arab women.” (June 27, 1933, League Mandates Commission; photo muse.jhu.edu)
Margaretta D’arcy born Finsbury, London, England June 14, 1934. Prominent Irish playwright and actress; peace activist. Member of Committee of 100, advocating civil disobedience against nuclear weapons, 1961. Arrested for human rights protest, Assam, India, 1969; jailed 3 weeks for Women’s Day protest against imperialism, 1978. Directed Yellow Gate Women, a film celebrating Greenham protests, where she was arrested. Jailed 3 weeks for Armagh H-Block protest, 1979; spent another 3 weeks in jail for Women Against Imperialism protest, Armagh, 1980. Arrested at Shannon Airport for peaceful die-in protesting US military presence, 2012.
“I am a whistle blower. . . The people of the World have said No to WAR.” (organizedrage.com, Sept. 19, 2013; photo feministbook.blog)
Theodora “Thora” Daugaard born Store Arden, Denmark October 22, 1874 (d. 1951). Danish editor, feminist, pacifist founder WILPF 1915; resolution for WW I cease fire; active in resistance to Hitler, aiding Jewish refugees.
“We want war no longer. We no longer want it explained that we women are protected by war. No, we are raped by war!” (April 28, 1915, to founding conference; Report, p. 81; photo Danish Peace Academy)
Serafina Dávalos Alfonze born Ajos (now Coronel Oviedo), Paraguay September 25, 1883 (d. 1957). Pioneer feminist; first woman lawyer, Supreme Court justice 1908-9; professor and founder university; founded Committee of Women for Peace 1904 trying to prevent civil war.
"The democratic character of the State is pure ‘myth’, because ‘democracy’, which means sine qua non equality, freedom. . . cannot admit privileges of birth, being born male or female." (Int. Feminist Conference, 1910, in Michelle Bachelet, Leuven, June 10, 2015; photo abc.com.py)
Marama Davidson born Auckland, New Zealand December 29, 1973. Māori Green member of New Zealand parliament, 2005. Illegally detained aboard Women’s Boat to Gaza, in nonviolent effort to aid Gaza; held two days, 2016.
“We are calling on Israel to lift this inhumane blockade and help the people of Gaza to rebuild their homes and lives.” (stuf.co, Oct. 7, 2016; photo home.greens.org)
Angela Davis born Birmingham, AL January 26, 1944. Philosophy professor; 1960s radical activist; opposed Vietnam War and Iraq War; advocated abolition of prisons.
"What this country needs is more unemployed politicians." (2006 photo Wikipedia)
Casey Davis (née Kay Carpenter) born October 2, 1920. Peace activist, Houston, TX.
Josephine Davis (née Kowin) born England July 29, 1929 (d. 2012). Canadian peace activist; environmentalist; first vice-president of anti-nuclear group Voice of Women, 1960.
“Since we are opposed to the whole concept of nuclear war, and since we feel that the further spread of nuclear weapons increases the possibility of a nuclear war, we feel fully justified in taking this stand on this basis.” (to Premier Diefenbacker, in McMahon, Essence of Indecision, p. 81; photo obitsforlife.com)
Helen Clarkson Miller Davis born May 9, 1879 (d. 1968). Internationalist headmistress of Spence School; Middle East expert, esp. constitutions and religious freedom; chaired National Education Committee of League of Nations Association 1922-1941.
Katharine Bement Davis born Buffalo, NY January 15, 1860 (d. 1935). Economist; penal reformer; acclaimed for Sicily earthquake relief, 1909; opponent of international white slave trade. (1928 photo http://bit.ly/xdk7cL)
Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis born Bloomfield, NY August 7, 1813 (d. 1876). Abolitionist, and suffragist; feminist editor of women's newspaper The Una; main organizer of the first National Woman's Rights Convention Worcester, MA 1850; home nearly burned by mob, Utica, NY Oct. 1835.
"The reform which we propose. . . is radical and universal. . . The emancipation of a class, the reform of half the world. . . in which love shall overrule force." (Women’s Rights Convention, Worcester, Oct. 23, 1850; photo Wikipedia)
Dorothy Day born Brooklyn, NY November 8, 1897 (d. 1980). Founder of nonviolent Catholic Workers, 1930.
"War is a sin against love, against life."
"Love is the measure against which we will be judged." (photo 1917, Cath. Worker)
Yael Dayan born Nahalal, Palestine February 12, 1939. Israeli politician, daughter of military leader; once militia captain; leader of pacifist Peace Now, Bat Shalom, Women in Black opposing occupation; member of Knesset 1992-2003; novelist, journalist.
“Political dialogue between women is always better. . . purer, more genuine, more substantive. Women really listen to each other, and only then respond, without exterior motives, looking for the greatest common denominator.” (Gila Svirsky website, Chapter 6, 1993)
“More and more people realize we cannot have peace and occupation or peace and settlement. We have to opt for one or the other. We realize that, as dramatic as it may be, the only possible way to go ahead with the peace plan is the end of occupation and the evacuation of most settlements. All the questions of security—that will be the aftermath, that will be the result of peace. We can not put it as a precondition.” (Jack Silverman interview, May 10, 2011, Nashville Scene; photo Wikipedia)
Danielle de Picciotto born Tacoma, WA February 19, 1965. American-German singer, filmmaker; co-founder of first and largest Love Parade, West Berlin 1989, for “peace, joy and pancakes.”
“[T]he early parade was about having many different styles coexist in peace and equality.” ("Leaving heroin and melancholia behind", June 20, 2014; photo mediainmotion.de)
Vera Micheles Dean born Petrograd, Russia March 29, 1903 (d. 1972). Russian-American political scientist and policy specialist. Foreign Policy Association research director, 1928-1961; adviser to American delegation to UN and UNRRA. Early advocate of rapprochement with USSR; anti-imperialist.
“[Nuclear war] deprives the great powers of the advantage they have had for centuries over the non-western peoples—the advantage of superior weapons—and gives the weaker underdeveloped nations the opportunity to use the weapon Gandhi made his own—the weapon of non-violent moral suasion.” (The Nature of-the Non-Western World, 1957, p. 258)
Ruth Stamm Dear born Bronx, NY January 16, 1914. Radical Unitarian; pacifist; active in War Resisters League & Grey Panthers; took part in first civil disobedience, age 71.
"You Can't Not Do It" (title of 2001 memoir; cover http://bit.ly/AcT1Jd)
Mabel Dearmer (née Jessie White) born London, England March 22, 1872 (d. 1915). Pacifist novelist, playwright and children’s writer and illustrator. As a Christian pacifist, she felt a duty to aid the wounded and died a nurse on the Serbian front of World War I.
“This war will not bring peace—no war will bring peace—only love and mercy and terrific virtues such as loving one’s enemy can bring a terrific thing like peace.” (Letters, pp. 158-9; photo tetotum.ca)
Miriam de Costa-Willis born Florence, AL November 1, 1934. African-American professor of Romance languages; early civil rights leader; marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968; jailed in Memphis protest.
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
