February 26

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1858 Lavinia Lloyd Dock born Harrisburg, PA (d. 1956). Internationalist; nurse; militant suffragist. Opposed World War I; arrested during suffragist activities for picketing the White House, 1917.

  • 1878 Gabrielle Duchêne born Paris, France (d. 1954). French radical; pacifist; journalist; opposed imperialism. Founded French WILPF; organized national Peace Action Week, 1930, Women's Congress Against War and Fascism, 1934.

  • 1904 Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux born Paris, France (d. 1964). Leader of women's resistance movement against Hitler; only French female delegate to the first General Assembly of the UN, 1946-59. Helped create the UN commission on women, and served as chair, 1948-53.

  • 1950 Helen Clark born Hamilton, New Zealand. Professor of political science; leader of peace and disarmament movement. Prime Minister of New Zealand, 1999-2008; opposed US invasion of Iraq, 2003; first female head of UN Development Programme, 2009.

  • 1950 Hunter Lovins born Ripton, VT. Pioneer in field of sustainable development. Recipient of Right Livelihood Award, 1983; delegate to UN conference on sustainability, 2002.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1911 On the fourth National Women's Day, Bertha Fraser delivered antiwar speech at Carnegie Hall.

  • 1915 British Women met at Caxton Hall, London to plan for the WILPF.

  • 1917 Rose Weiner of St. Paul fined $50 for alleged remark that she was glad the Lusitania was sunk and hoped other transports meet a like fate.

  • 1982 Kuwaiti women won right of abortion, and marched for right to vote.

  • 2002 Lindis Percy and Anni Rainbow arrested for protest at Menwith Hill, England.

  • 2016 Guatemalan court found military officers guilty of sexual slavery in Sepur Zarco case. Judge Yassmin Barrios found Col. Esteelmer Reyes Girón guilty of crimes against humanity in sexual violence against 15 Maya women.