Kerstin Grebäck born Sweden June 19, 1942. Peacemaker. Leader in Great Peace Journey, 1985. Secretary-General, Swedish WILPF, 1990; International Co-President, WILPF, 2011. Headed Women for Women, 1993. Received Right Livelihood Award, 2002.
“The international community is still unaware of the effect of conflicts on women and the importance of women participating in the peace process.” (Kvinne till Kvinne, Apr. 11, 2018)
Emilie Gourd born Geneva, Switzerland December 19, 1879 (d. 1946). Swiss journalist and feminist; suffrage leader. Headed Geneva office of International Alliance of Women (IAW) program of promoting a culture of peace; IAW Peace Study Conference Amsterdam, Nov. 1927. (photo Wikipedia)
Andrée Geulen-Herscovici born Brussels, Belgium September 6, 1921. Belgian teacher. Rescued nearly 1000 Jewish children during World War II. Honored with Yad Vashem Righteous Among Nations Award, 1989.
“What I did was merely my duty. Disobeying the laws of the time was just the normal thing to do." (Haaretz, Aug. 22, 2017)
To a German, asking if she wasn’t ashamed to teach Jews: “Aren’t you ashamed to make war on Jewish children?” (quote and photo yadvashem.org)
Zoé Genot born Brussels, Belgium May 29, 1957. Ecology-Green member of Belgian parliament, 1999-. Advocate for Muslim rights, anti-colonialism, peace in Nuke-free Zone and Acting for Peace; opposed Gaza massacre. Arrested for invading Kleine-Brogel AFB to protest nuclear weapons, 2018.
“Nuclear weapons are not and will never be a solution.” (banner at Kleine-Brogel protest, Jun. 10, 2018; photo Geoffrey Roucourt)
Lucy Gardner born Leeds, England April 25, 1863 (d. 1944). Quaker peace leader; founding secretary Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) 1914; Secretary Conference on Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship (COPEC) 1924, influential ecumenical pacifist Christian socialist body; sponsor of American Alice Paul as head of Charity Organization Society London 1907; edited FOR magazine Reconciliation; founder International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) 1919.
On suffragists destroying property: “It is very inconvenient to have our letters destroyed and to feel a sense of insecurity with regard to our property; it is distressing to read of women who are rightly and suitably punished for making war upon our material possessions, having so little sense of the justice of their punishment that they prefer to starve rather than submit. . . But what if, in some sense, they are right? What if they see more deeply into the heart of things than those of us who are content to give—not ourselves—but what we can spare easily from our normal life? What if they are the prophets and have a vision of a world redeemed by suffering and selflessness that we have not?” (The Friend, 1913, p. 573, in Pam Lunn, “You Have Lost…” 1997, p. 46)
Pippa Gardner born Peterborough, Northamptonshire, England June 25, 1990. Girl Guide who founded campaign Stop the violence. Advocate for girls’ rights.
"Girls in every country across the world are being subjected to many forms of violence—this is wrong and must stop." (quote and photo saynotoviolence.org)
Elizabeth Gaskell (née Stevenson) born Chelsea, London, England September 29, 1810 (d. 1865). British novelist who opposed US Civil War.
"Conquering the South won't turn them into friends. . . Compelling them implies the means of compulsion. You will have to hold them in subjection by force, i.e by military occupation. . . Shall you not have henceforward to keep a standing army?" (June 10, 1861, in Letters, p. 265; 1851 portrait by George Richmond, Wikipedia)
Françoise Gaspard born Dreux, Normandy, France June 7, 1945. French feminist sociologist; Socialist Deputy in parliament 1981-8; French representative to UN commission on women 1998-2000; expert on UN Convention on Status of Women CEDAW 2001; sponsor French decade of Culture of Peace and Non-violence, national human rights commission.
"Isolation and boycott measures were taken against South Africa during the apartheid period, women’s rights are Human Rights, therefore such measures must be imposed." (Anne Rapin interview; photo politiquemania.com)
Nicola Geiger born Germany August 3, 1920 (d. 2006). Buddhist Peace activist; joined White Rose resistance to Hitler; lost husband and 2 babies in World War II; raped at end of war Berlin 1945; turned to life of peace: aided postwar refugees; helped Korean survivors of Japanese occupation, and Hiroshima victims; opposed Marcos regime in Philippines; sat-in segregated restaurants; 8 years at Resource Center for Nonviolence Santa Cruz; opposed Vietnam War; active in Women Strike for Peace and WILPF.
"The work I did was because I wanted to be in this world. I wanted to live in that light which takes away the occasion of all wars cruelty and control." (Gabriel Constans, "Finding Peace in Hell", Angie’s Diary; quote and photo angiesdiary.com)
Inge Genefke born Copenhagen, Denmark July 6, 1938. Danish doctor; rehabilitater of torture victims; won Right Livelihood Award, 1988.
"The most essential purpose of torture is not to gather information and evidence, no, the most essential purpose is the most evil in the world: to break down a personality, to destroy an identity, you could call it: to kill a soul. And to use it is worse than murder." (Right Livelihood Award acceptance speech, Dec. 9, 1988; photo Right Livelihood)
Lindsey German born Ewell, Surrey, London, England May 13, 1951. British peace leader; socialist; opposed wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Gaza; ran twice for mayor of London, 2004, 2008. Co-founded and served as convenor of Stop the War Coalition, 2001; sponsored the largest British public demonstration in history under the slogan "No war on Iraq—Freedom for Palestine," 2003.
"The conflict in Syria and Iraq has been much worsened by Western intervention, both overt and covert. . . The same is true in Afghanistan and Libya. We are seeing now just what a terrible price is being paid by the people of the region. NATO is promising us more of the same, this time in the heart of Europe." (Morning Star, August 30, 2014; photo Wikipedia)
Olive Frances Gibbs (née Cox) born Oxford, England February 17, 1918 (d. 1995). Pacifist activist and politician. Chaired Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 1964-7; two-time mayor of Oxford, 1974-75, 1981-82.
Annick Girardin born St. Malo, France August 3, 1964. French politician. Member of National Assembly, 2007-14. Junior Minister for Development, 2014-present. Promoted Mali peace, 2015.
“There is no alternative to the peace process. . . Long live the peacemakers! Long live peace in Mali!” (May, 21, 2015; photo diplomatie.gouv.fr)
Françoise Giroud (née France Gourdji) born Lausanne, Switzerland September 21, 1916 (d. 2003). French feminist writer; journalist and politician; arrested and imprisoned for resistance to Germans 1943-4; founded weekly L'Express1953, opposing colonial wars in Indo-China and Algeria; headed Action against Hunger 1984; first French Minister of women's affairs 1974.
"That first Express, Indochina and Algeria was a journal of criticism: A fighting journal! Fight against the war in Indochina, then fight against the war in Algeria." (l’Express interview, June 3, 1999: photo senat.fr)
Johanne Reutz Gjermoe born Bergen, Norway January 4, 1896 (d. 1989). Norwegian economist, peace activist; delegate to League of Nations 1935-8; expelled from Labour Party for postwar anti-militarism; WILPF leader; co-chair of Middle East peacemaking mission 1967; awarded King’s Gold Medal for peace work; educated at Quaker Woodbrooke Academy; scholar of altruist sociologist Sorokin.
“The stopping of the conflict at this time must not lead to the perpetuation of the dispute, but to a permanent solution with peace and justice.” (WILPF, “Search for Peace in the Middle East,” 2000)
Barbara Gladysch born during bombing of Düsseldorf, Germany October 25, 1940. Founded Mothers for Peace, 1981; founded Children of Chernobyl, 1986; offered aid to refugees of Balkan wars; peace mission to Chechnya, 1996; recipient of Sean MacBride Peace Award, 1999.
"We have no enemies. We are declaring peace on all countries. Children all over the world are our children. Mothers all over the world are the same; we are equal. We are declaring peace on everyone." (WILPF Peace Women Across the Globe, bios)
"My utopia is that we, mothers, we, women, would be able to keep our sons away from military service, no matter in which part of the world they are supposed to fight." (Ibid; photo 2010 taz.de)
Katharine Glasier (née Conway) born Stoke Newington, Middlesex, England September 25, 1867 (d. 1950). British labor activist and speaker; Christian Socialist and Theosophist who became a Quaker; opposed World War I as editor of anti-war Labour Leader 1916-21.
"Liberty grows with love, and that therefore life is love's child." (Jan. 13, 1893; photo Spartacus Educational)
Ellen Gleditsch born Mandal, Norway December 29, 1879 (d. 1968). Norwegian radiochemist, nuclear scientist, student and colleague of Marie Curie; “peace activist” co-founder WILPF The Hague 1915; member of UNESCO predecessor League of Nations Committee of Intellectual Cooperation, concerned with assisting refugees; briefly arrested for WWII resistance; active in founding UNESCO 1946: Norwegian commission to control atomic bomb 1952; Oslo Conference Against the Spread of Nuclear Weapons, 1961.
“[T]o work with students is to work for the future. It is the student today who will continue our work tomorrow. It is youth working together, intellectually and internationally, we must build on.” (Rayner-Canham, Devotion to their Science, p.68; photo muv.uio.no)
Marguerite Gobat born Delémont, Switzerland February 23, 1870 (d. 1937). Pioneering peace educator; journalist; feminist. Secretary of Universal Union of Women for International Harmony, 1915; co-founded Swiss WILPF, 1919.
“We have to be radical; it's not possible to be too much so.” (1924; photo http://bit.ly/JPoCnJ)
Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin born Geneva, Switzerland May 24, 1826 (d. 1899). Pioneer Swiss feminist, pacifist; co-founder of the first international women's peace society, International League for Peace and Freedom 1868; founded first international women’s association, Association Internationale des Femmes 1868; began journal United States of Europe advocating abolition of standing armies.
"I am confident that we will emerge victorious one day of our struggle that has no other purpose than to make sure all the reign of justice, freedom, education and happiness for all that is human." (Swiss Confed. bio.; photo memreg.ch)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
