July 11

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1887 Ellen S. Woodward born Oxford, MS (d. 1971). Social security expert for Roosevelt's New Deal; US delegate to founding of UNRRA 1943-6 and UNESCO 1947; led effort to introduce welfare in postwar international relief.

  • 1888 Andrea Andreen born Örby, Sweden (d. 1972). Swedish doctor; radical peace leader of "Women's Non-Violent Revolt against War" when 20,000 women refused bomb shelter use 1935; major opponent of chemical and biological weapons; tried to stem Cold War for which USSR gave her Lenin Peace Prize 1953.

  • 1925 Ann Fagan Ginger. 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.

  • 1933 Olga Havlova born Prague, Czechoslovakia (d. 1996). Co-leader of nonviolent Velvet Revolution with husband Vaclav Havel 1989; co-founded Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted 1979 (VONS).

  • 1955 Adi Roche born Clonmel, Tipperary, Ireland. Peace activist and anti-nuclear advocate. Volunteer for Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's peace education program, 1982. Irish representative on Great Peace Journey, 1983-85. Began work in Chernobyl, 1985; founded Chernobyl Children International which rescued over 22,000 children, 1991. Took part in first Mercy Mission airlift, 1995.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1656 Quaker women Ann Austin and Mary Fisher arrived Boston on Swallow; jailed five weeks, 100 books burned.

  • 1848 Seneca Falls meeting for Women's equal rights called "to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of women."

  • 1985 Peace Tent at Nairobi Women's Conference opened 10 am. "The international feminist alternative to men's conflict and war."

  • 2003 Maputo Protocol on African Women's Rights adopted. "Every woman shall be entitled to respect for her life and the integrity and security of her person."