Abigail Hopper Gibbons born Philadelphia, PA December 7, 1801 (d. 1893). Quaker abolitionist; prison reformer.
"And after all, why should it be more difficult to find women than men?" (May 12, 1882, in Bacon, p. 156; photo correctionhistory.org)
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.
Virginia Gildersleeve born New York, NY October 3, 1877 (d. 1965). Internationalist; historian; dean of Barnard College. Early promoter of League of Nations; helped draft UN charter and UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Drafted Preamble of UN Charter, "We the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which in our time has brought untold sorrow to mankind. . . "
"In the right sort of patriotism lies the hope of the world. . . Let us teach them not to hate, not wish to harm or dominate other peoples, but to love their own land and to help her play her part as a good citizen of the world." (Feb. 22, 1918, Memoirs p. 124; photo http://bit.ly/wlHF5k)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman born Hartford, CT July 3, 1860 (d. 1935). Feminist author and sociologist who co-founded Women’s Peace Party 1915.
"In warfare, per se, we find maleness in its absurdist extremes. Here is. . . the whole gamut of basic masculinity, from the initial instinct of combat, through every form of glorious ostentation with the loudest possible accompaniment of noise." (Our Man-Made World, 1911; photo Wikipedia)
Marija Gimbutas born Vilnius, Lithuania January 23, 1921 (d. 1994). Feminist; archaeologist; showed that Old Europe society was matriarchal and peaceful.
"There is no evidence of territorial aggression, and the total absence of lethal weapons implies a peaceful coexistence." (Civilization of the Goddess, p. 48; 1989 photo Wikipedia)
Ann Fagan Ginger born July 11, 1925. American Professor of international law, esp. law of peace; founding director of Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute 1964; author of Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal 1996; got US Supreme Court acquittal of nuclear protesters; supported conscientious objection to Vietnam War; opposed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The Cold War, that long, devastating, costly war, which now, many people agree, was unnecessary." (International and Comparative Law Journal, 1992)
Frene Noshir Ginwala born Johannesburg, South Africa April 25, 1932. Parsi lawyer. Lived 31 years in exile, 1960-91. African National Congress leader against apartheid. Played key role in reestablishment of ANC Women’s League, 1990. First Speaker of South Africa Parliament, 1994-2004. Chancellor of Kwazulu University, 2005. Worked to eliminate nuclear weapons; opposed US occupation of Diego Garcia.
“[T]he triumph over apartheid provided a symbol of hope that racism and intolerance across the world could and would be overcome.” (Insession, Oct. 2001; photo polity.org.za)
Nikki Giovanni born Knoxville, TN June 7, 1943. Poet, leader of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC; civil rights activist; English professor.
"In the name of peace
They waged the wars
Ain't they got no shame?"
("The Great Pax Whitie" 1979; photo poets.org)
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)
V. Mohini Giri born Lucknow, India January 15, 1938. National women’s rights leader; peace activist. Professor and founder of women’s studies department, Lucknow University. Member of Sarojini Naidu’s Child Brigade. Founding president, War Widows Association, 1971. Founder Trustee, Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia (WIPSA), seeking peace with Pakistan, 2000. Beaten while trying to save a girl from molestation, 2014.
“The building of peace is a constructive activity. There is nothing passive about either the concept or the state of peace.” (World People’s Blog)
"We can form a union of consensus in South Asia with common cultural heritage. War should be waged collectively against trafficking and migration of women and children and crisis of livelihood of people of broader South Asia." (May 14, 2002 in Women Living Under Muslim Laws)
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)
Mary Willcox Glenn born December 14, 1869 (d. 1940). Social worker; associate of Jane Addams; founder of American Committee of the International Migration Services, 1924; hospitals for refugees, 1930.
"The will to peace must produce more than treaties and leagues. . . It must make the competitive yield to the co-operative spirit." (Prelude to Peace, May 1915)
Vilma Glücklich born Vágujhely, Hungary August 9, 1872 (d. 1927). Internationalist and pacifist leader; suffragist, feminist; physics educator; led first Hungarian protest against World War I 1914; founding member and International Secretary of WILPF, 1922-25.
"[The World War] destroyed in an hour all. . . our life's labor." (Edith Wynner, Modern Peace Leaders, p.330, 1985; photo onb.ac.at)
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)
Anne Marie Goetz born September 29, 1961. Professor of Global Affairs, New York Univ., teaching peacemaking and peace building; Policy Director at UNIFEM 2005-11, at UN Women 2011-14; field work UNDP Chad, Guinea; feminist; promoted woman as head of UN and overdue global women’s conference.
“What is needed is a Secretary-General with the commitment and determination to press the UN to deliver on its many unimplemented gender equality promises, and not to abandon the women’s empowerment agenda when it becomes politically uncomfortable—which it often does. In other words, we need a woman and a feminist.” (50.50, March 8, 2016; photo sps.nyu.org)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
