March 21

Women peacemakers born today

• 1857 Alice Henry born Melbourne, Australia (d. 1943). Pioneering Australian pacifist and suffragist; journalist and labor leader.

• 1900 Hanna Grunwald-Eisfelder born Berlin, Germany (d. 1994). American psychoanalyst. Founded Medical Aid for Refugee Children, 1933; made Honorary Chair of Amnesty International, 1978.

• 1931 Alda Merini born Milan, Italy (d. 2009). Italian poetess; wrote antiwar songs, including “The Albatross.”

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1980 In Amherst, Massachusetts, 550 women attended the Eco-Feminist Conference "Women & Life on Earth." Grace Paley and Ynestra King delivered the opening statement, "We have come because life on Earth and the Earth itself is in terrible danger. . . The world has to have a future. We intend—furiously and with some joy—to connect this assaulted planet to that future."

• 1980 Five Hampshire College women staged die-in protest at Pentagon; Eileen Brady served 14 days of 30-day sentence.

• 1980 WOZA women arrested Pumula, Zimbabwe for posters “Stand Up for Your Child.”

• 1982 10,000 women demonstrated at Greenham Common; 300 women blockaded the base for 24 hours.

• 1994 Four women arrested for cutting 700 meters of fence around Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment.

• 2003 Nurse MacGregor Eddy made silent solo vigil in black to protest the Iraq War, holding photo of Iraqi child and “PEACE,” Vandenburg AFB. "In the presence of this terrible wrong we must take a stand and bear witness."

• 2003 Six Haverford College women students arrested for blocking entrance to Philadelphia Federal Building to protest Iraq War.

• 2016 Justice Sylvia Steiner presided in International Criminal Court conviction of Jean-Pierre Bemba for war crimes.

• 2016 Ariel Gold arrested in Code Pink protest at AIPAC conference, Washington DC.

March 22

Women peacemakers born today

• 1940 Ewa Łętowska born Warsaw, Poland. Professor of Law and expert in human rights. First Polish Parliamentary Human Rights Ombudsperson, 1987-92; National Ombudsperson, 1999-2002. Served on International Commission of Jurists ,1991; Judge of Constitutional Tribunal, 2002.

• 1967 Jestina Mukoko born Gweru, Zimbabwe. Human rights activist and broadcast journalist. Head of Zimbabwe Peace Project, 2007. Abducted by suspected state agents, 2008; tortured, tried, and released three months later. Awarded Weimar Human Rights Prize, 2009.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1958 South African Women demonstrated against Apartheid pass laws.

• 1965 Marjorie Sykes negotiated a peace on Nagaland National Day.

• 1973 Women Strike for Peace Anti-War Demonstration at Capitol, Washington, D.C.

• 1980 In Washington DC, Denise Levertov spoke at an anti-draft rally. "Imagine love, imagine peace, imagine community. . . learn in time how to say no."

• 2009 Anneke Smalde jailed six months for her involvement in Avrusta! campaign against Swedish arms exports.

• 2012 Randy Kehler led protest at Brattleboro, VT nuclear plant; 93-year-old activist Frances Crowearrested.

March 23

Women peacemakers born today

• 1876 Ada James born Richland Center, WI (d. 1952). Leading Wisconsin suffragist and progressive reformer. Active in WILPF and War Resisters League.

• 1884 Florence Ellinwood Allen born Salt Lake City, UT (d. 1966). Lawyer and judge; peace activist and poet. First woman in the world to sit on a supreme court, state of Ohio, 1922.

• 1933 Ceija Stojka born Kraubath, Austria. Romani musician, painter, and author. Auschwitz survivor; writes on human rights and survival in concentration camps.

• 1950 Valgerður Sverrisdóttir born Eyjafjörður, Iceland. Icelandic politician. First female Foreign Minister of Iceland, 2006-07; oversaw sending of Icelandic peacekeepers to Sri Lanka, 2006; allocated 1 million dollars to UN Peacebuilding Fund, 2006.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1911 Ethel Smyth conducted a performance of her suffragist anthem "March of the Women" during a rally at London's Royal Albert Hall.

• 2003 Southern Caucasus Regional Coalition Women for Peace established to promote women's role in conflict resolution, peace-building and development in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

• 2011 Canadian peace-building network PeaceBuild held Women's political participation in peace processes workshop, Ottawa, Canada.

March 24

Women peacemakers born today

• 1855 Olive Schreiner born Wittebergen, South Africa (d. 1920). Writer; environmentalist; close friend of Gandhi and nonviolence advocate. Opposed the rule of Cecil Rhodes.

• 1890 Agnes Macphail born Ontario, Canada (d. 1954). Pacifist politician; journalist. First female member of Canadian Parliament, 1921-40; first female member of League of Nations Disarmament Committee, 1929.

• 1912 Dorothy Height born Richmond, VA (d. 2010). African-American civil rights leader. President of National Council of Negro Women, 1957-98. Lectured and taught in Asia and Africa.

• 1913 Dorothy Marie Hennessey born Manchester, IA (d. 2008). Franciscan nun; peace activist. Walked across US to protest the Cold War; marched for civil rights; helped Cesar Chavez organize for migrant workers. Alongside sister Gwen, jailed 6 months for School of Americas protest, 2001.

• 1942 Betty Burkes born Malvern, OH. Teacher of peace and nonviolence. Peace Corps volunteer teacher in Ethiopia; Chair of American WILPF, 1997-99; Peace Education Program Coordinator at Hague Appeal for Peace, 2002-05.

• 1981 Vicki M. R. Monague born Midland, Ontario. Canadian Beausoleil First Nation environmental activist. Spearheaded effort to prevent building of proposed landfill over Alliston aquifer, 2009.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1970 In Washington DC, Jane Addams House, the national headquarters of WILPF, was burned down in suspected arson at height of domestic tensions around the Vietnam War.

• 2004 In Cairo, Swanee Hunt delivered the first Peace Matters lecture, sponsored by first lady Susanne Mubarak.

• 2012 A Celebration of Women, Foundation Inc. held the “Woman of Action: Key to Equity, Justice and Peace” global forum, Toronto, Canada.

• 2015 Melanne Verveer delivered keynote speech at Georgetown University International Women’s Day Symposium. “If we just look at a woman . . . solely in [terms of victimization], we miss the agency, the voice, the capability, the leadership—and yes the power—that she has. . . We are missing a huge part of the picture.”

March 25

Women peacemakers born today

• 1347 Catherine of Siena born Siena, Italy (d. 1380). Peacemaker; patroness of Europe. Patron saint of Italy, canonized 1461. Papal diplomat, 1378; achieved reconciliation of Pope Urban VI with the Roman Republic, 1380.

• 1826 Matilda Joslyn Gage born Cicero, NY (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.

• 1920 Usha Mehta born Saras, Surat, Gujarat, India (d. 2000). Gandhian nonviolent freedom fighter; politics professor and PhD at Bombay University. Founded Secret Congress Radio, an underground radio station, 1942; arrested and sentenced to 4 years prison.

• 1934 Gloria Steinem born Toledo, OH. Feminist editor and writer; pacifist; nonviolent activist. Bowles Fellowship in India, 1956-57; founding editor of Ms. magazine, 1972.

• 1942 Doris Jean Castle born Oakland, TN (d. 1948). Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) activist, 1959. One of the youngest Freedom Riders, 1960. One of eight women arrested for forming “freedom ring” at Loew's Theater, New Orleans, Good Friday, 1964. Imprisoned at notorious Parchman Prison.

• 1942 Karla Schefter born Allenstein, E. Prussia. Founded Chak-e-Wardak hospital, Afghanistan, 1989; founded Committee for Promotion of Medical & Humanitarian Aid, 1993. One of 1000 female Nobel Peace Prize nominees, 2005.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1638 In Boston, Anne Hutchinson was excommunicated from the Puritan church for the independence of her views.

• 1888 Led by Susan B. Anthony and Frances Willard, the International Conference of Women held its first meeting, becoming an international leader in human rights of women, Washington DC.

• 1909 Start of Women’s Satyagraha in South Africa with establishment of Indian Women’s Association.

• 1915 Eleanor May Moore joined the newly-founded Sisterhood of International Peace as international secretary.

• 1918 Residents of Benton, IL, ran Frances Bergen out of town on a rail for her opposition to World War I.

• 1938 Simone Weil signed French anti-fascist pacifist declaration calling for negotiation with Germany to end the descent to war.

• 1955 The Committee for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) started its activities with a public notice of anti-nuclear campaign.

• 1965 Viola Liuzzo murdered in Selma civil rights campaign.

• 2000 Nirmala Deshpande led 41 Indian women on the “Bus of Peace to Lahore” to foster peace with Pakistan.

• 2017 Italian Women in Black protested “Get War Out of History” Alba.

March 26

Women peacemakers born today

• 1877 Kate Richards O’Hare born Ada, KS (d. 1948). Socialist leader; prison reformer. First major protester against World War I. Organized Children’s Crusade, a march on Washington DC to demand amnesty for war resisters, 1922.

• 1896 Clara Lemlich Shavelson born Gorodok, Ukraine (d. 1982). American labor leader, noted for Uprising of 20,000 shirtwaist workers 1909; suffragist; pacifist Communist; organized American League Against War and Fascism in 1930s; protested nuclear weapons; promoted UN Genocide Convention; opposed Vietnam War.

• 1943 Elaine Chao born Taipei, Taiwan. Third female director of US Peace Corps, 1991-92; sent first volunteers to post-Soviet Russia. First Chinese-American Cabinet member, serving as Secretary of Labor, 2001-07.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1915 Kathleen D’Olier Courtney decried the powerful making enemies of the powerless by leading them to war.

• 1969 Shirley Chisholm's maiden speech denounced the Vietnam War as, "[a] return to the era of the Cold War, to ignore the war we must fight here—the war that is not optional."

• 1997 Susan Lee Solar led a meeting of the Council of Women to End the Nuclear Age met at the Nevada Test Site.

• 2011 Syrian women of Salamia began nonviolent protest against Assad regime, continuing for over two years.

March 27

Women peacemakers born today

• 1819 Esther Whinery Wattles born Salem, OH (d. 1908). Schoolteacher. Radical Quaker nonresistant abolitionist. Member of several utopian communes in Ohio, Indiana, and Kansas dedicated to nonviolence and women’s rights.

• 1933 Hazel Henderson born Bristol, England. Anglo-American economist and futurist. Authored global plan for UN funding, 1995.

• 1934 Jutta Limbach born Berlin, Germany. Democratic Socialist jurist and law professor. First female president of German Federal Court, 1994-2002.

• 1945 Anna Mae Aquash born Nova Scotia, Canada (d. 1975). Canadian First Nations leader; member of Micmac tribe; teacher with American Indian Movement. Led Trail of Broken Treaties March, 1972.

• 1949 Christine Chinkin born Kent, England. Professor of international law, London School of Economics. Member of UN Human Rights Council Gaza Fact-Finding Mission, 2009; member of UN Kosovo Human Rights Advisory Panel, 2010-present.

• 1949 Dubravka Ugrešić born Kutina, Croatia, Yugoslavia. Croatian writer. Opposed Balkan War and militant nationalism, 1991; exiled, 1993.

• 1950 Esther Benbassa born Istanbul, Turkey. French-Jewish historian and politician. Awarded Seligman Human Rights Prize for work against racism, 2006; elected French senator, 2011.

• 1963 Ghada Shahbender born Cairo, Egypt. Egyptian pre-Tahrir organizer; poet. Co-founded anti-corruption reform group Shayfeencom ("We are watching you"), 2005; first recipient of James Lawson Award for nonviolence, 2012.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1870 In Geneva, Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin convened the first meeting of the International Association of Women.

• 1959 Jacquetta Hawkes led thousands on the second Aldermaston march to London in protest of nuclear weapons.

• 1960 Mama Chikamoneka marched topless alongside other women to protest for independence during Secretary of State for the Colonies Ian Macleod's visit to Zambia.

• 1965 Alice Herz died of burns sustained from her March 16 immolation protest against the Vietnam War.

• 2007 Code Pink held its "Camp Pelosi" protest at the San Francisco Federal Building, demanding an end to Iraq War.

• 2014 After 17 years of negotiations, the Philippine government signed a comprehensive peace, shaped by women's efforts, with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

March 28

Women peacemakers born today

• 1515 Teresa of Avila born Avila, Castile (d. 1582). Spanish mystic and preacher.

• 1822 Mary Ann McClintock born Philadelphia, PA (d. 1884). Quaker nonviolent resister. Co-founded Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, 1833. Organized Seneca Falls Convention with Jane Hunt, Lucretia Mott, Martha Coffin Wright, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1848.

• 1903 Eugenia Morariu born Kassa, Hungary (d. 1977). Romanian-Hungarian Esperantist. Dedicated herself to spreading Esperanto as a universal language, to bring all people closer.

• 1948 Loreta Navarro-Castro born Malabon, Manila, Philippines. Pioneer of national peace studies. Founded Center for Peace Education. Secretary of Philippine Council for Peace and Global Education. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

• 1957 Raya Kadyrova born Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz peacemaker. Oversaw tolerance education project for UN High Commissioner of Refugees, 1993. Founding president of Foundation for Tolerance International (FTI), 1998.

• 1959 Laura Chinchilla born Carmen Central, San José, Costa Rica. First woman president of Costa Rica, 2010-14. Under her leadership, Costa Rica became second nation to ban nuclear weapons, 2011.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1915 In The Hague, Kathleen D’Olier Courtney put forth the International Women’s Peace Initiative at the first WILPF Women’s Conference.

• 1918 French school teacher Lucie Colliard sentenced to 2 years prison for pacifist teachings.

• 1928 Australian women first celebrated International Women’s Day, Sydney.

• 1948 Polish premiere of Wanda Jakubowska’s Auschwitz film The Last Stage.

• 1964 On Good Friday, eight women from the Congress of Racial Equality, including Doris Castle, were arrested for forming a “freedom ring” at Loew’s Theater, New Orleans. They remained jailed until Monday.

• 1968 WILPF president Dorothy Hutchinson presented her pamphlet "Proposal for an Honorable Peace in Vietnam."

• 1972 Vera Leff began a public campaign against nuclear weapons, later picked up by CND.

• 1977 Mothers of the disappeared held first rally in Plaza de la Mayo, Buenos Aires.

• 1986 In Kansas City, Jean Gump damaged a missile silo, for which she received a 13-year prison sentence.

• 1993 Susan McHugh organized Dublin peace rally of 20,000. “Enough is enough. We don’t want any more deaths. We want a cease-fire.”

• 1997 Hyun Sook Lee founded Women Making Peace "for the peaceful reunification of Korea… from a feminist perspective."

• 1998 In Reading, England, Greenham women presented World Court opinion against nuclear weapons to a British court.

• 2002 Meike Capps-Schubert opened Clearing Barrel GI-Café Kaiserslautern for US military resisters.

• 2003 In North Carolina, members of Asheville Women in Black were arrested for their Iraq War protest.

• 2003 In Bonn, the German Women's Security Council formed to find alternatives to Iraq War, and promote women's involvement in security issues.

March 29

Women peacemakers born today

• 1903 Vera Micheles Dean born Petrograd, Russia (d. 1972). Russian-American political scientist and policy specialist. Foreign Policy Association research director, 1928-1961; adviser to American delegation to UN and UNRRA. Early advocate of rapprochement with USSR; anti-imperialist.

• 1918 Pearl Mae Bailey born Newport News, VA (d. 1992). African-American singer and actress. Named as America's "Ambassador of Love" by Richard Nixon, 1970; appointed special ambassador to the UN by Gerald Ford, 1975. Promoted campaign against AIDS.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1986 Women of Bonny Island, Nigeria shut down Shell refinery, sitting on helicopter pad.

• 1991 Sister Marilyn Pray and Mary Rose Palumbo were arrested for Seneca Depot protest.

• 2011 Bahraini school teacher Jaleela al-Salman was arrested for protesting and organizing teachers' strikes during the Arab Spring uprising.

• 2012 Hana Shalabi ended her 43-day hunger strike in Israeli detention after arrangements were made for a 3-year exile to the Gaza Strip.

• 2016 Ellen Gerhart began “tree-sit” in nonviolent defense of forest cleared for pipeline Huntingdon, PA.

March 30

Women peacemakers born today

• 1858 Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner born London, England (d. 1943). Peace activist, prominent atheist; founded Rationalist Peace Society 1910; opposed imperialism, Boer War, death penalty.

• 1863 Mary Whiton Calkins born Hartford, CT (d. 1930). Pacifist; professor of psychology and philosophy; first female president of the American Psychological Association. Member of Fellowship of Reconciliation; member of WILPF.

• 1874 Clara Ragaz (née Nadig) born Chur, Switzerland (d. 1957). Swiss peace leader; women’s rights advocate. Founding member WILPF, 1915; WILPF Swiss Vice-President, 1929-46.

• 1880 Anna Rochester born New York, NY (d. 1966). Marxist historian; labor reformer. Editor of pacifist magazine World Tomorrow, 1922-26; early leader of Christian Socialist Fellowship of Reconciliation. Founded women’s commune with partner Grace Hutchins, 1920.

• 1930 Joanne Grant born Utica, NY (d. 2005). Civil rights historian; filmmaker; journalist. Worked with W.E.B. DuBois at NAACP, 1959; co-founded SNCC, 1960. One of the first visitors to Communist China, 1957; also made friendship visits to USSR and Cuba.

• 1949 MacGregor Eddy. Nurse and antiwar protester. Member of WILPF, the War Resisters League, and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.

• 1950 Catherine Bertini born Syracuse, NY. First woman to lead a UN agency as head of World Food Program, 1992-2002; noted for response to famines in North Korea and the Horn of Africa. Undersecretary of UN Office for Management, 2002.

• 1956 Carolyn Gomes born Kingston, Jamaica. Pediatrician; founded Jamaicans for Justice to fight extra-judicial killings, 1999. Awarded UN Human Rights Prize, 2008.

• 1978 Chouchou Namegabe born Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Radio journalist. Co-founded South Kivu Women's Media Association AFEM to eradicate sexual violence as weapon of war, 2003; AFEM president, 2005-present.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1959 20,000 marched to Trafalgar Square on the final day of the CND's Aldermaston March.

• 2003 Cuban Ladies in White began vigil at Santa Rita church, protesting political arrests.

• 2007 Code Pink held a sit-in at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office to protest the Iraq War.

• 2011 In Bahrain, Ayat al-Gormezi was arrested and tortured for reading a poem critical of the government.

• 2012 Syrian actress Fadwa Suleiman expressed disappointment at the resistance movement arming themselves.

• 2012 Dr. Margaret Flowers led an Occupy EPA protest, Washington DC.

March 31

Women peacemakers born today

• 1872 Alexandra Kollontai born St. Petersburg, Russia (d. 1952). Soviet diplomat. Credited with ending war with Finland, 1940; opposed World War I.

• 1872 Leopoldine Kulka born Vienna, Austria (d. 1920). Austrian feminist and writer. Founding member of WILPF; first editor of International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) magazine Jus Suffragii. Founded Austrian Women's Federation peace party, 1917.

• 1924 Justine Merritt born St. Louis, MO (d. 2009). Invented 18-mile peace ribbon around Pentagon, displayed on 40th anniversary of bombing of Hiroshima, 1985.

• 1936 Marge Piercy born Detroit, MI. Antiwar poet. Member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

• 1939 Mary B. Anderson born Kentucky. American economist, specializing in international aid; peace researcher. Founded Local Capacities for Peace Project, 1995. Published Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace—Or War, 1997.

• 1941 Rosario Green born Mexico City, Mexico. Economist; professor; politician. UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, 1994. First woman Secretary of Foreign Affairs, 1998-2000. Served as Mexican Ambassador to East Germany and Argentina.

• 1950 Smaranda Enache born Târgu Mureş, Romania. Romanian peace activist and human rights advocate; journalist; diplomat. Peacemaker in Balkans; president of Liga Pro Europa.

• 1952 Irene Chirwa Mambilima born Zambia. Zambian judge; international lawyer. Observed Mozambique elections, 1994; nominated judge of Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal, 2001; hosted UN workshop on elections, 2007.

• 1971 Lisalinda Salas Natividad born Guam. Guahan social worker and peace activist; social work professor; President Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice; crossed Korean DMZ line 2017 in women’s peace protest.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1996 Ursuline sister Dianna Ortiz began a White House vigil to petition the release of U.S. documents relating to Guatemala.

• 2004 Marianne Williamson co-founded Peace Alliance to promote the establishment of US Department of Peace.

• 2015 78 women asylum seekers began hunger strike at Karnes Detention Center, Texas.