June 21

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1912 Mary McCarthy born Seattle, WA (d. 1989). Author who revealed suffering of Vietnam War, 1967.

  • 1947 Shirin Ebadi born Hamadan, Iran. Nobel Peace Prize 2003 for human rights of women and children. Iranian justice.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1908 Over 300,000 people, the largest crowd to date, assembled in Hyde Park to show popular support for suffrage.

  • 1931 WILPF Peace Caravan left Hollywood to cross US.

  • 1935 Sylvia Pankhurst erected the first anti-air war monument in front of her red cottage, Woodford Green, Essex.

  • 1946 UN established Commission on Status of Women.

  • 1951 Human Rights Convention on White Slavery in effect.

  • 1964 Fannie Lou Hamer began nonviolent training for Freedom Summer at Western College for 600 volunteers.

  • 1981 10,000 women rallied Copenhagen to send off Scandinavian women's march against nuclear weapons.

  • 1989 Women's Convoy to Central America crossed Mexican border at Laredo.

  • 2003 Permanent Convention of Women Against War met in Rome. "Out of the history of war, Europe out of war."

  • 2006 Belgrade Women in Black stripped off clothes in protest against patriarchy.

  • 2013 Vicki Monague began Water Walk around Georgian Bay.

  • 2014 Yara Sallam and a dozen Cairo women arrested for protest against anti-protest law.

  • 2015 In Cairo, several dozen women held a vigil at the presidential palace to protest the arrest of 23 political activists. "Ramadan is not the same without you.”

June 22

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1889 Esther Faering Menon born Copenhagen (d. 1962). Danish missionary to India, follower of Gandhi, who called her "My dear child"; nearly deported by British.

  • 1906 Anne Morrow Lindbergh born Englewood, NJ (d. 2001). Daughter of outstanding diplomat; wife of celebrated flyer; her anti-war book Wave of the Future (1940) regarded as pro-German.

  • 1965 Amy Brenneman born New London, CT. Actress who gave benefit "The Gift of Peace" to promote a cabinet level Department of Peace and Nonviolence.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1660 Margaret Fell’s Declaration of Quaker Peace Testimony given to King Charles II. “We are a people that follow after those things that make for peace, love, and unity; it is our desire that others' feet may walk in the same, and do deny and bear our testimony against all strife, and wars, and contentions that come from the lusts that war in the members.”

  • 1909 Suffragist sculptress Marion Dunlop tried to print Bill of Rights text on House of Commons; ejected, she tried again two days later, and was arrested.

  • 1917 Arrest of 27 suffragist women picketers of White House.

  • 1983 Seneca Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace & Justice adopted "respected policies" including "to support nonviolent actions both of a legal and illegal nature."

  • 2011 Myanmar deported Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh for attempting to visit Aung San Suu Kyi, whom she portrayed in the film The Lady.

  • 2011 "Crossed Legs Protest" of Barbacoas, Colombia women. "No more sex. We want our road."

  • 2017 First Designing Our Secure Future: Women Make the Difference, Canada.

  • 2017 Beth Llewellyn organized 15,000 in largest human peace sign at Glastonbury Festival. “We’re just doing it for love.”

June 23

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1716 Ann Cooper Whitall born Woodbury, NJ (d. 1797). Quaker heroine of Battle of Red Bank 1777. Opened home to wounded Hessians and Americans and tended their wounds.

  • 1867Auguste Kirchhoff born Ansbach, Rhineland (d. 1940). German suffragist, feminist, pacifist and social reformer. Head of German WILPF.

  • 1879 Huda Sha’arawi born Minya, Egypt (d. 1947). Pioneering Muslim feminist. Poet and author; Egyptian nationalist. Organized largest women’s protest against British rule, March 1919. Led women’s pickets of Parliament, January 1924.

  • 1898 Winifred Holtby born Rudston, Yorkshire (d. 1935). Ardent feminist and socialist. Pacifist novelist, poet, and journalist. Lifelong close friend of Vera Brittain. Lecturer on League of Nations; anti-racism activist.

  • 1942 Anne Ashmore-Hudson born Atlanta, GA. Psychologist; early member of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; jailed four days 1960 for first sit-in against segregation Atlanta City Hall.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1916 Women's Peace Crusade demonstration by 5,000 women Glasgow.

  • 1938 Liselotte Herrmann executed by guillotine for treason; first woman resister executed by the Nazi regime.

  • 1953 Trial of Orlie Pell of War Resisters League for disobeying civil defense drill New York City.

  • 1976 The Hilton Affair, Tel Aviv: Nonviolent protest at gynecological convention led by Marcia Freedman. "My body belongs to me!"

  • 2006 Breasts Not Bombs protest at Oakland recruiting center.

  • 2017 Second Women for Peace Conference, Seefeld. Tirol, Austria through 25th.

June 24

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1863 Martina Gezina Kramers born Veur, Holland (d. 1935). Dutch internationalist, feminist, social democrat; spoke 12 languages; founded International Correspondence which got attention to women's issues in League of Nations and ILO.

  • 1897 Adrienne Thomas born St. Avold, Alsace-Lorraine (d.1980). German author. Published antiwar novel Katrin Becomes a Soldier, translated into 16 languages, 1930. Her works were banned by Nazi regime; went into exile, 1933.

  • 1911 Helga Pedersen born Tårnborg, Denmark (d. 1980). First woman judge of European Human Rights Court 1971; Chief Justice of Denmark; Delegate to UN 1958-59; UNESCO 1966, 1968, 1970.

  • 1928 Mrinal Gore born Mumbai, India (d. 2012). “The Water Lady,” known for bringing water to slums. Led numerous Gandhi-inspired nonviolent protests, marches, sit-ins, pickets, and fasts, including women’s rolling-pin demonstration. Socialist member of Parliament, 1977-80. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

  • 1933 Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich born Niagara Falls, NY. African-American civil rights leader; professor of political science; Fulbright professor Univ. of Munich; head of Black Leadership Forum.

  • 1944 Melanne Verveer born Pottsville, PA. First US Ambassador for Women's Global Issues, 2009; co-founded Vital Voices Global Partnership for empowering women, 2000.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1955 Agnes Simpson sent historic circular leading to Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). "H-bomb experiment taking place now will cause the suffering and death. . . of children not yet born."

  • 1982 323 women arrested in 24-hour blockade of Greenham Common.

  • 1986 Topless Picnic at Cobbs Hill Park, Rochester, NY; seven women arrested.

  • 2011 Women of Barbacoas, Colombia began “Crossed Legs” sex strike.

June 25

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1878 Emmy Freundlich born Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic (d. 1948). Austrian Social Democratic politician. Pacifist; suffragist; leader of cooperative movement. Member of Austrian National Assembly, 1919-20. Only woman to serve on League of Nations Economics Committee, 1928.

  • 1878 Marie-Elisabeth Lüders born Berlin, Germany (d. 1966). Leading German feminist. First woman to earn PhD in political science in Germany. Member of Weimar Reichstag 1919-21, 1924-30; Bundestag, 1953-61. Arrested and censored by Nazi regime, 1937.

  • 1881 Crystal Eastman born Marlborough, MA (d. 1928). Pacifist Socialist; feminist attorney; founded Woman's Peace Party 1915; co-founded American Union Against Militarism 1914; co-founded National Civil Liberties Bureau (CLB), predecessor of ACLU 1917.

  • 1909 Sucheta Kripalani born Ambala, Haryana (d. 1974). Gandhian women's leader in nonviolent independence campaign; drafter of Indian constitution; first woman state chief minister 1963.

  • 1926 Margaret Anstee born Chelmsford, Essex, England. Diplomat. 41 years service to UN, 1952-93. First woman to head UN peacekeeping mission, Angola, 1992.

  • 1945 Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick born Detroit, MI. Six-term U.S. Representative 1997-2011; Chaired Black Caucus 2007-09; opposed war in Iraq 2002; Delegate to Nairobi UN Women's Conference 1996.

  • 1990 Pippa Gardner born Peterborough, Northamptonshire, England. Girl Guide who founded campaign Stop the violence. Speak out for girls’ rights.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1909 Marion Wallace-Dunlop charged with damage to stone wall of House of Commons, for rubber-stamping it in suffrage protest.

  • 1917 First jail sentences for six suffragists picketing White House; refusing $25 fine, they said, "Not a dollar of your fine will we pay, To pay a fine would be an admission of guilt. We are innocent."

  • 1944 Maria Chinchilla Recinos killed in nonviolent teachers' strike Church of St. Francis, Guatemala City, followed by overthrow of dictator.

  • 1952 1000 women protested at UN: “No Third Year of War in Korea.”

  • 1961 US branch of Canadian Voice of Women established Cleveland.

  • 1981 Supreme Court ruling in Rostker v. Goldberg victory against drafting women.

  • 1982 Women of Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens wrote names of Governor and anti-ERA representatives in blood on floor of Illinois legislature.

  • 2013 Diane Wilson arrested for unlawful entry as she jumped the White House fence to deliver a letter to President Obama; given 3 month suspended sentence.

  • 2014: Assassination of Libyan human rights lawyer Salwa Bugaighis, Benghazi.

June 26

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1839 Emma Miller born Chesterfield, England (d. 1917). Australian peace activist; suffragist; labor reformer. As President of Queensland Women's Peace Army, opposed conscription in World War I.

  • 1892 Pearl S. Buck born Hillsboro, WV (d.1973). Humanitarian; author; critic of US Cold War militarism. Founded adoption agency for Asian children, 1949. Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature, 1938.

  • 1892 Helen Marston Beardsley born San Diego, CA (d. 1982). Quaker peace leader and organizer. Founded WILPF San Diego chapter, 1924; co-founded San Diego Peace Center. Socialist work with Mexican immigrants and farm workers; marched against Vietnam war at age 89; on Nixon's enemies list, 1971.

  • 1924 Ruth Weiss born Fürth, Bavaria. German pacifist; author and journalist; authority on African cultures; opposed Apartheid. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

  • 1951 Anna Šabatová born Brno, Czechoslovakia. Peace activist. Founded VONS (Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted), 1978. Awarded UN Human Rights Prize for signing Charter 77 based on nonviolent protest, 1998.

  • 1952 Bahia Hariri born Sidon, Lebanon. Sunni Moslem; member of Lebanese Parliament, 1992-present; Minister of Education, 2008-09. UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, 2000. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

  • 1954 Catherine Samba-Panza born Fort Lamy, N’Djamena, Chad. “Mother Courage.” Lawyer and human rights advocate; Mayor of Bangui, 2013-14. First woman president of Central African Republic, 2014.

  • 1967 Ghada Jamsheed born Bahrain. Human rights activist. Founded Women’s Petition Committee, 2001. Arrested and sentenced one year for advocating women’s rights, 2014.

  • 1987 Maryam al-Khawaja born Damascus. Bahraini human rights activist. International spokesperson for Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

Women's peacemaking on this day

June 27

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1869 Emma Goldman born Kovno, Russian Lithuania (d. 1940). Pacifist anarchist feminist editor and orator; arrested 1917 for draft resistance; jailed 18 months; deported 1919.

  • 1880 Helen Keller born Tuscumbia, AL (d. 1968). Deaf and blind pacifist, radical socialist, suffragist.

  • 1893 Crystal Bird Fauset born Princess Anne, MD (d. 1965). First female Black state legislator in US 1938; founded Africa House New York City c. 1955; co-founded UN Council of Philadelphia; headed American Friends Service Committee section of interracial section 1927.

  • 1915 Grace Lee Boggs born Providence, RI. Chinese American philosopher, civil rights and anti-racism activist.

  • 1957 Mary McAleese born Ardoyne, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Second woman president of Ireland, 1997, who made her goal "Building Bridges" to create peace.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1833 Prudence Crandall arrested for teaching African-American students, Canterbury CT.

  • 1964 Graduation of 600 Freedom Summer volunteers at Western College for Women in Ohio.

  • 1967 "Women's Liberation Workshop" of Students for Democratic Society was spark for women's liberation.

  • 1996 The International Criminal Court issued an indictment against 8 Bosnian Serbs, marking the first time sexual assaults were charged as a war crime.

  • 2006 Gyung-lan Jung led South Korean women’s appeal for peace. “[P]eace cannot occur (in the) Korean peninsula through military means. . .  We commit ourselves to active involvement as 'peacemakers' and 'reconciliators' working to resolve the current situation peacefully and seeking sustainable peace on the Korean peninsula.”

June 28

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1865 Alice May Douglas born Bath, ME (d. 1943). Musical composer and founder of Peace Makers' Band; poet and author "The Peace-Makers" and story of Russian Mennonite exiles. Led Peace and Arbitration branch of Women's Christian Temperance Union; actively promoted peace education and peaceful settlement of disputes. Delivered paper "The Inconsistency of Military Drill" for Child Study Conference, Liege.

  • 1958 Donna Edwards born Yanceyville, NC. Co-founder and first Director of National Network to End Domestic Violence, 1976; US Congresswoman for Maryland 2008-present. Arrested for civil disobedience in Darfur protest, 2009.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1960 Helen Tucker founded and assumed role of president of major Canadian peace organization VOW (Voice of Women). "Mankind must find another way than war to settle international differences."

  • 1976 Women who invaded French military base Larzac arrested.

  • 1981 Canada ended discrimination against First Nation women.

  • 1994 Dorothy Brownold's Nuremberg Action at Concord Naval Weapons Depot ended in her arrest.

  • 2006 Six Granny Peace Brigade protesters arrested at Philadelphia recruiting office. "Hey, take us. Don't take our children and our grandchildren!"

  • 2008 Cape Verde became first government outside Europe to have a female-majority Cabinet.

  • 2011 Five Saudi women arrested for driving in Jeddah.

  • 2014 In Glasgow, four women arrested for climbing 174-foot Finnieston Crane to hoist banner "Resist Mi£itari$m" in protest of Armed Forces Day.

  • 2017 Ellen Barfield arrested for interrupting Senate hearing on torture. “I am a veteran. I am deeply concerned about our soldiers, who are at risk for torture if our nation tortures.”

June 29

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1858 Julia C. Lathrop born Rockford, IL (d. 1932). Social reformer; associate of Jane Addams at Hull House; co-founded Immigrants' Protective League 1912; first head of U.S. Childrens' Bureau; worked with League of Nations Child Welfare Committee of 1925-31.

  • 1889 Gladys Walser born Kobe, Japan (d. 1975). First WILPF representative at UN, 1945-57.

  • 1908 Erna Prather Harris born Kingfisher, OK (d. 1995). African-American journalist and peace activist; WILPF leader. Founded and operated her own newspaper, The Kansas Journal, 1936-39.

  • 1914 Ellen Kuzwayo born Thaba 'Nchu, South Africa (d. 2006). South African leader and social worker; Head of ANC Youth League; only woman on Soweto Committee of Ten, for which she was arrested for five months, 1977.

  • 1943 Tarja Cronberg (née Mattila) born Helsinki, Finland. Finnish Green politician, “a Peace-builder”; Minister of Labor 2007-09; European Parliament member 2011-14, chaired its Iran committee which achieved nuclear control treaty 2015; Director Copenhagen Peace Research Institute 2001-03; vice president International Peace Bureau.

  • 1949 Ann M. Veneman born Modesto, CA. Executive Director of UNICEF 2005-10. First woman Secretary of Agriculture 2001-05 lowered tariffs in Doha Round; promoted Malaria No More.

  • 1952 Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge born Magog, KwaZulu. Quaker pacifist, negotiated end of Apartheid and new constitution; Dep. Minister of Defence 1999-2004 using army for peacekeeping in Africa; fired as Dep. Minister of Health 2007 after calling AIDS policy a disaster.

  • 1958 Pramila Patten born Mauritius. International expert in women’s rights. Vice-Chair of UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Served as commissioner of inquiry into Conakry massacre, 2009.

  • 1964 Manuela Mesa Peinado born Jaén, Andalusia, Spain. Professor of peace studies and education; founding director Centre for Education and Research for Peace (CEIPAZ) 2008; President Spanish Research Association for Peace (AIPAZ) 2007-13;Director Peace Research Center (CIP) 2004-7; vice president WILPF Spain 2011.

  • 1967 Shinjita Alam born Gandhabbapur, Lakshmipur, Bangladesh. Muslim social worker and peace activist. Started peace awareness committees, 2001. Developed conflict resolution programs for Bangladesh's Garo and Manipuri minority communities, 2006-07. Joined Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Women PeaceMakers Program, 2008.

  • 1972 Samantha Smith born Houlton, ME (d. 1985). "America's Goodwill Ambassador" to USSR during Cold War; as ten-year-old, wrote to Soviet leader.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1909 Gandhi welcomed to London by Emmeline Pankhurst, whose nonviolent tactics he admired.

  • 1909 Suffragists marched and broke government windows for the first time.

  • 1951 Chicago Peace Conference of Women.

  • 1951 International Labor Organization Convention on Equal Pay for Women signed.

  • 1976 Trial of women who invaded Larzac base; Marisette Tarlier got 15 days prison.

  • 2005 WILPF nominated 1,000 women for Nobel Peace Prize.

  • 2010 Nigerian women marched to Parliament to protest suspension of Doris Uboh.

  • 2015 In Sarajevo, a Bosnian court levied the first-ever reparations for rape, totaling €15,000.

June 30

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1868 Mabel Cratty born Bellaire, OH (d. 1928). Internationalist; suffragist; leader of YWCA. Co-founded National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War with Carrie Chapman Catt, 1924. Promoted League of Nations and Kellogg-Briand Pact.

  • 1884 Alexandra Tolstoy born Yasnaya Polyana, Russia (d. 1979). Youngest daughter and favorite disciple of nonviolent theorist Leo Tolstoy. Founded Tolstoy Foundation which helped 500,000 refugees, including Rachmaninov and Nabokov, 1939; arrested five times by Soviets.

  • 1888 Suzanne Stephen born Pretoria, South Africa (d. 1972). Quaker. Founded anti-Apartheid organization Black Sash 1955, for which she was banned. Known as "the prisoner's friend," taught long-term detainees.

  • 1907 Madeleine Jacquemotte-Thonnart born Liège, Belgium (d. 2000). Belgian educator; communist resister. Committed activist; member of WILPF and League of Women Against War and Imperialism. Arrested and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, 1944; repatriated, 1945. Opposed wars in Vietnam, Cambodia and Nicaragua.

  • 1936 Assia Djebar born Cherchell, Algeria (d. 2015). Algerian novelist and filmmaker; portrayed terrible violence of Algerian War for independence with the nonviolent alternative proposed by Camus. Received Neustadt International Prize for Literature in recognition of her body of work, 1996; awarded Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, 2000.

  • 1939 Dorothy Kazel born Cleveland, OH (d. 1980). Ursuline nun abducted, raped and slain by El Salvadorian National Guardsmen.

  • 1942 Joan Halifax born Hanover, NH. Zen master (rōshi); anthropologist; activist against Vietnam War and for civil rights, 1960s. Founder and Abbot of Upaya Zen Peacemaking Center, Santa Fe, 1990.

  • 1953 Hina Jilani born Lahore, Pakistan. Human rights activist; frequently arrested by military for protests on behalf of women's rights. First UN Special Rep. For Human Rights Defenders, 2000-08; embarked upon UN fact-finding missions on Darfur, 2006, and Gaza, 2009. Founded first Pakistani women's law firm.

  • 1965 Sylvie Lucas born Luxembourg. As president of UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), dealt with global financial crisis and peacebuilding, 2009.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1908 In London, 27 suffragettes arrested at Downing Street for breaking Prime Minister's windows.

  • 1915 In London, Muriel Matters delivered her speech “The False Mysticism of War” against World War I.

  •  1915 In Christiania, Chrystal MacMillan personally appealed to Danish Foreign Minister Ihlen to intervene for peace. 

  •  1915 In The Hague, Aletta Jacobs and Rosika Schwimmer made personal appeal for peace to Dutch Prime Minister van der Linden. 

  • 1942 Frantiŝka Plamínková executed by firing squad, Prague.

  • 1972 Eileen Egan organized first meeting of U.S. Pax Christi at Mt. Paul, Oakridge, NJ.

  • 1987 Elizabeth Ratcliff's Peace Garden Act signed.

  • 1992 Ellie Smeal, NOW president Pat Ireland, WILPF legal director Aida Bound, and three other national women leaders arrested for illegal speech at White House at kick-off of civil disobedience campaign against Supreme Court decision in Casey case.

  • 2005 Anti-war "Breasts Not Bombs" topless protest, Union Square, San Francisco.

  • 2006 "Counting Lives Lost" antiwar installation by Kathleen Crocetti, Watsonville, CA.

  • 2009 Cynthia McKinney and Mairead Corrigan arrested by Israeli navy on Spirit of Humanity for attempt to aid Gaza.

  • 2011 15 women arrested in Shut It Down protest at Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, including three 90-year-olds.

  • 2015 Candid Voices on Women, Peace & Security sponsored by Women Peacemakers, The Hague.