February 10

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1828 Phebe Anna Thorne born Millbrook, NY (d. 1909). Quaker minister; philanthropist; absolute pacifist. First Directress of job assistance organization Friends Employment Society, 1902.

  • 1886 Raicho Hiratsuka born Tokyo, Japan (d. 1971). Pioneering Japanese feminist. Founded and edited first Japanese women’s journal, Bluestocking, 1911.

  • 1944 Frances Moore Lappé born Pendleton, OR. Author; activist; advocate for social change and sustainable living. Wrote best-selling book Diet for a Small Planet, 1971. Recipient of Right Livelihood Award, 1987.

  • 1946 Louise Arbour born Montreal, Canada. Canadian Supreme Court Justice, 1999-2004; UN Commissioner for Human Rights, 2004-08; Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

  • 1954 Gael Murphy born Paris, France. Former Foreign Service Officer, aid worker, and Peace Corps volunteer. American co-founder and international coordinator of social justice organization Code Pink.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • Feast day of St. Austreberta (630-704) Threatened with a sword, bared her neck to welcome the blade and stopped the assault.

  • 1947 First session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

  • 1974 In a victory for the primarily Chicana labor force, the two-year strike and boycott campaign against Farah Textiles ended.

  • 2014 WILPF arranged a meeting for Syrian and Bosnian women to discuss peace, Sarajevo.

  • 2015 Centre on Women, Peace & Security established at London School of Economics.