Emma González born Parkland, FL November 11, 1999. Teenage gun violence activist. Survivor of Parkland massacre, 2018.
“To each of you powerful women I say this, you know that you are forces to be reckoned with, you can and have inspired peace and understanding and most importantly right now you can inspire your audience to vote. Now more than ever women need to continue to rise up.” (Variety, Oct. 12, 2018; photo pr week)
Hannah Griffitts born Philadelphia, PA July 27, 1727 (d. 1817). Quaker poet. Supported Patriot cause, but opposed Revolution. Her poem “Female Patriots” (1768) celebrated women’s resistance to British taxes.
“Oh! Speak contending brethren into Peace,
Bid the sweet Cherub bless our weeping Shores,
And friends again in her soft Bands unite”
(after the Battle of Long Island, 1776; portrait revolvy.com)
Jean Claire Gore born Chicago, IL November 15, 1925. Began program Reading to End Racism; chaired Jane Addams book Award, 1989-93. National President, WILPF, 1993-96. Mission to USSR, 1983; exchange visits to China, 1988. Called for peaceful resolution of Cuba crisis, 1996. Opposed Vietnam War; protested nuclear missiles, 2003.
“We have met to help end the nuclear arms race and return to détente.” (USSR trip, 1983)
On Cuba: “WILPF has long been a proponent of citizen diplomacy, to build bridges of peace and friendship between the peoples of nations in conflict.” (Dec. 27, 1996; photo On the neutron trail)
Judy Gumbo (née Judy Clavir) born Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 25, 1943. Co-founder of satirical antiwar Yippies. Made peace visit to Vietnam, 1970. Organizer of 1971 Mayday protest with record 14,000 arrests.
“If the government won't stop the war, we'll stop the government.” (Mayday slogan; Yippie Girl)
“I came home from Vietnam understanding that every one of us can—and should—feel proud of what we did and what we continue to do to end all wars.” (The Rag Bag, Feb. 28, 2013; photo Wikipedia)
Paula Green born Paterson, NJ December 16, 1937. American peacemaker; psychotherapist. Consultant on transforming conflict, bridging divides, and strengthening peace. Founding Director, Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, 1994; Professor Emerita and founder, CONTACT Program for peacebuilding at School for International Training, 1997. Trained Israeli Combatants for Peace in nonviolence. Received Dalai Lama’s award as “Unsung Hero of Compassion.”
“The roots of our wars can be understood through the examination of greed, hatred and delusion. It’s all about desire, about self. . . Until we change ourselves, and the unjust social structures in which we’ve embedded ourselves, we’re not going to have peace.” (Barre Buddhist Center, Spring 2002)
“The presence of ISIS and other armed groups makes the need for nonviolent campaigns much more urgent than ever, because people are seeing the results of violence, the extremes of violence in the past year or two. That should be an opportunity to strengthen nonviolence.” (Hampshire Gazette, Sep. 16, 2016; photo newsblaze)
Aella Greene born Chester, MA May 6, 1838 (d. 1902). American journalist and poet; historian of underground railroad. Opposed US imperialism in mock common talk.
“An’ ain’t there work enuff fer them
In Porterrek [Puerto Rico] an’ Kuby? [Cuba]
An’is this lan’ so good that they
Vamoose earoun’ creation
Tew hunt fer foreign tribes to save
From heathen degradation?. . .
Ye know ye grabbed them Fillerpeans [Phillippines]
Tew make yewer kentry bigger.”
(“Springfield Republican”, Dec. 2, 1898, in Liberty Poems, p.46)
Teresa Shaughnessy Grady born Pontiac, IL November 11, 1927 (d. 2016). Matriarch of Catholic Worker antiwar family; her daughters Mary Ann Flores, Ellen DeMott, Clare and Teresa Grady have been repeatedly arrested and imprisoned. Began opposing Vietnam War with Berrigans, supporting her husband John Peter Grady’s leadership of Camden 28 raid in draft board, 1971, and Catonsville Nine defense. (photo Ithaca Voice)
Marsha Gómez born Baton Rouge, LA December 24, 1951 (d. 1998). Sculptor; potter; indigenous peace activist. Co-founded Indigenous Women’s Network, 1983. Created sculpture “Mater del Mundo” for Mother’s Day protest against Nevada nuclear tests, 1988.
“The energy and spirit that go into my work result in a unique expression of respect and reverence for women, the Earth, and indigenous way of life.” (Chicana Feminisms, Apr. 20, 2012; photo marshagomez.com)
Edith Goode born Springfield, OH November 13, 1882 (d. 1970). Animal rights activist and humanitarian; feminist; suffragist. Founding member, National Women’s Party, 1916. WILPF member. Lobbied for women’s rights at UN founding San Francisco, 1945. Founding member, Humane Society, 1954; provided for humane treatment of animals in Law of Sea, 1958. Life partner of pacifist Alice Morgan Wright.
“In the long run the public attitude toward kindness, towards the obligation we all have towards animals, will determine how the animals will fare.” (Humane Society, “Goode and Wright”; photo humanesociety.org)
Jean Gump (née Dalton) born Chicago, IL May 24, 1927 (d. 2018). Plowshares antinuclear protester. Marched at Selma, 1968. Co-founded Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents of War. Four years prison for painting cross in blood on Minuteman silo hatch, Missouri, 1986. Arrested for protest at OakRidge security center, 2011; arrested for two protests at Morton Thiokol, Chicago; also Motorola, SAG Elmhurst.
“I actually felt that disarmament begins with disarming a weapon, similar to Rosa Parks started desegregation on a bus.” (bylifetoday, April 26, 2018; photo nuclear resister)
Tulsi Gabbard born Leloaloa, American Samoa April 12, 1981. Politician. Army Major; served two tours in Iraq War, 2004-06. Took part in peacekeeping training with Indonesian Army, 2011. Elected US Representative for Hawaii, 2012. First US national figure to oppose war in Syria, 2015.
“The war to overthrow Assad is counter-productive because it actually helps ISIS and other Islamic extremists achieve their goal of overthrowing the Syrian government of Assad and taking control of all of Syria—which will simply increase human suffering in the region, exacerbate the refugee crisis, and pose a greater threat to the world. Also, the war to overthrow Assad is illegal because Congress never authorized it.” (press release, Nov. 19, 2015; photo Wikipedia)
Matilda Joslyn Gage born Cicero, NY March 25, 1826 (d. 1898). Feminist; suffragist leader and historian. Co-author of "Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States" with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, presented at Philadelphia Centennial, 1876. Organized International Council of Women, 1888.
“There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home, or Heaven; that word is Liberty.” (her epitaph, Fayetteville NY; photo Wikipedia)
Maria Nicoletta Gaida born Tacoma, WA December 5, 1961. Italian-American actress. Founded Ara Pacis Initiative, Rome, 2009.
"[As a child] I wondered why there was war, why the leaders of the world couldn't share and apologize as we were taught to do at home." (introduction to Meditations on Forgiveness; photo libero credo)
Zona Gale born Portage, WI August 26, 1874 (d. 1938). American novelist, playwright and essayist; pacifist opposed to World War I; anti-war novel Heart's Kindred (1915) featured women's appeals for peace; against capital punishment; friend of Jane Addams; helped draft Wisconsin Equal Rights law 1923.
"No matter how murderin' is done, it's hell." (Heart's Kindred, p. 135, 1915)
Muriel Gardiner (née Morris) born Chicago, IL November 23, 1901 (d. 1985). American psychoanalyst; internationalist; opposed nuclear weapons; assisted escapees from Nazis in Vienna, 1938; co-founded Center for Innovative Diplomacy, "Dedicated to preventing nuclear and conventional war by increasing citizen participation in foreign affairs," 1982. (photo Int. Psychoanalysis)
Emily Gardner Phenis born Union County, Indiana January 16, 1825 (d. 1906). Quaker schoolteacher and reformer; radical non-resistant abolitionist; vegetarian. Opposed to all use of force. Member of Prairie Home Community, 1844.
“[There is] a spirit is working abroad working in the hearts of men and will not let them rest until the right prevails. Woman will yet be free.” (to Esther Wattles, May 10, 1846, in Thomas Hamm, “The Limits of the Peace Testimony”, 1993, p. 12; photo findagrave.com)
Janeane Garofalo born Newton, NJ September 28, 1962. American comedian and TV and film actress; antiwar activist, Code Pink march 2003 against Iraq and Afghan Wars.
"I absolutely would not say that this war in Iraq is a just war." (Fox News, Feb. 23, 2003; photo tvweekly)
Barbara Garson born Brooklyn, NY July 7, 1941. American playwright, author and activist; wrote popular anti-Vietnam war play "MacBird!", a parody of Shakespeare’s "Macbeth", 1967; arrested in Berkeley Free Speech Movement; Socialist candidate for vice-president 1992.
Where constant conflagrations blaze and rage
We mean to be the firemen of peace,
Dousing flames with freedom’s forceful flow.
Our highest goal is peace, but in its quest
We shall not fear to use our righteous might.
In short, we seek the Pox Americana
("MacBird!", Act II, Scene 2; photo Allegheny College)
Eleanor Garst born Nebraska May 20, 1915 (d. 1985). Co-founder Women Strike for Peace 1961, drafted its first appeal; co-founded SANE against nuclear weapons 1957.
“We believe that it is the special responsibility of women—who bear the children and nurture the race—to demand for their families a better future than sudden death.” (Andrea Estepa disser. “Taking the White Gloves Off” p. 35; photo legacy.com)
Alicia Garza born Los Angeles, CA March 4, 1981. Community organizer; anti-racism activist. Co-founded Black Lives Matter movement, 2013.
“When Black people get free, everybody gets free. . . Given the disproportionate impact state violence has on Black lives, we understand that when Black people in this country get free, the benefits will be wide reaching and transformative for society as a whole.” (“A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement,” The Feminist Wire, Oct. 7, 2014; photo yearofwomen.tumblr.com)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
