November 21

Women peacemakers born today

• 1870 Mary Johnston born Buchanan, VA (d. 1936). Popular novelist; pacifist opponent of World War I; member of WILPF; member of Fellowship of Reconciliation; suffragist; pioneer against lynching; Theosophist.

• 1897 Mollie Steimer born Dunaevtsky, Russia (d. 1980). Anarchist; opposed US involvement in World War I; sentenced to 15 years imprisonment; deported, 1921, by Russia and Vichy.

• 1899 Louise Yim born Korea (d. 1971). First South Korean representative to UN General Assembly, 1947; independence leader; first female member of parliament; founding president of women's college, 1934.

• 1927 Barbara Rütting born Ludwigsfelde-Wietstock, Brandenburg, Germany. German film actress and author; animal rights advocate. Early member of Green Party, 1982; resigned from party as pacifist after Green support of NATO bombing of Kosovo, 1999.

• 1943 Marlo Thomas born Detroit, MI. Antiwar actress; co-founder of Ms. Foundation, 1973; awarded Helen Caldicott Award for Nuclear Disarmament.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1911 British suffragists did mass smashing of windows of the press, businesses, and government offices.

• 1917 Occoquan Prison began force-feeding of suffragettes Lucy Burns and Dora Lewis.

• 1961 Mildred Olmsted organized first meeting of Soviet and US women at Bryn Mawr College; called for "complete disarmament."

• 1966 NOW founded in Chicago.

• 1991 Betsy Wright's 1982 Toyota auctioned by IRS for $451 unpaid war taxes at Westover Field.

• 1993 Conference on "Women, Violence & Nonviolent Action" sponsored by World Council of Churches through 25th.

November 22

Women peacemakers born today

• 1874 Laura Puffer Morgan born Framingham, MA (d. 1962). Mathematician; internationalist; educator; editor; math for disarmament and international conferences 1921, 1930, 1932; journalist at League of Nations; proponent of UN; founded Institute on World Organization, 1941.

• 1892 Mirabehn born Reigate, Surrey, England (d. 1982). Long-time associate of Gandhi; daughter of British admiral; arrested several times for civil disobedience.

• 1924 Mum Shirl Smith born Cowra, New South Wales, Australia (d. 1998). Aboriginal Australian human rights leader; led 700+ women in anti-nuclear protest at Pine Gap, Nov. 1983.

• 1952 Lydie Polfer born Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Luxembourg Foreign Minister, 1999-2004, during European expansion by nine new states, and European Charter.

• 1958 Jamie Lee Curtis born Los Angeles, CA. Actress; children's author, Is There Really a Human Race?; opponent of global warming and Iraq War.

• 1969 Marjane Satrapi born Rasht, Imperial State of Iran. Satrapi is a French-Iranian graphic novelist, cartoonist, illustrator, film director and children's book author whose graphic novels explore the gaps and the junctures between East and West. Satrapi has become an ambassador for her native country and a spokeswoman for greater freedom there and a voice against war and for cross-cultural understanding.

• 1984 Scarlett Johansson born New York, NY. Actress; promoted Move On against Iraq War; Oxfam ambassador.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1908 Clara Lemlich called garment strike New York City.

• 1913 First arrest of American suffragist. Lucy Burns fined one dollar for chalking meeting notice on Washington DC sidewalk.

• 1918 Friends of Conscientious Objectors founded by Frances Witherspoon & Tracy Mygatt.

• 2004 500,000 protested in Orange Revolution, Kiev.

November 23

Women peacemakers born today

• 1876 Maude Royden born Liverpool, England (d. 1956). Pacifist during World War I; first female Anglican priest; proposed a Peace Army, 1930s.

• 1901 Muriel Gardiner born Chicago, IL (d. 1985). American psychoanalyst; internationalist; opposed nuclear weapons; assisted escapees from Nazis in Vienna, 1938; co-founded Center for Innovative Diplomacy, "Dedicated to preventing nuclear and conventional war by increasing citizen participation in foreign affairs," 1982.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1909 "First Great Strike of Women," "Uprising of the 20,000" garment workers in Manhattan.

• 1921 Mollie Steimer exiled from US.

• 1989 Maria led Huancayo Peru march for International Day of Opposition to Violence Against Women.

• 2011 Aliaa Elmahdy of Cairo posted nude photo online to protest "a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy."

November 24

Women peacemakers born today

• 1875 Lola Maverick Lloyd born Castroville, TX (d. 1944). Pacifist; suffragist; founder WILPF and Womens Peace Party, 1915; organized expedition of Ford Peace ship, 1915; mother of world government advocate Georgia Lloyd.

• 1885 Anna Louise Strong born Friend, Nebraska (d. 1970). American journalist; pacifist; Socialist. Opposed WWI militarism and draft; defended conscientious objectors; arrested and tried for anti-conscription stand, not convicted by hung jury. Worked with AFSC Volga famine relief, 1921; long-time supporter of Communist China.

• 1912 Nela Martínez born Colloctor, Cañar, Ecuador (d. 2004). Defender of international human rights. Co-founded Alianza Femenina Ecuatoriana (Ecuadorian Women's Alliance), 1937. Communist leader of Glorious May Revolution, overthrowing dictator Carlos Arroyo del Rio, 1944. First woman in Ecuadorian parliament, 1944-45.

• 1961 Arundhati Roy born Shillong, Kerala, India. Indian activist; critic of wars in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Kashmir; opposed Indian nukes; recipient of Sydney Peace Prize for nonviolence, 2004.

• 1985 Yara Sallam born Heliopolis, Cairo. Egyptian human rights lawyer. Arrested and sentenced to 3 years for nonviolent protest at presidential palace, Cairo, 2014. Promoted human rights in The Gambia.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1910 Evelyn Underhill completed Mysticism. "The law of love is the energizing cause of the heroic."(447)

• 1914 New York premiere of Beulah Dix’s antiwar play “Across the Border”.

• 1918 Suffragist women (NAWSA) asked Pres. Wilson for role in peace conference.

• 1983 Ploughshares activists Jackie Allen, Kathleen Rumpf, Elizabeth McAlister, and Clare Grady damaged B-52 planes at Griffiss AFB; imprisoned.

• 1993 Conclusion of Manila Conference "Women, Violence & Nonviolent Action."

• 2013 Catherine Ashton helped broker Geneva interim agreement on Iranian nuclear program.

November 25

Women peacemakers born today

• 1830 Lina Morgenstern born Breslau, Silesia (d. 1909). German Jewish feminist and peace advocate; educator; founder of kitchens for the poor, 1866.

• 1865 Alice Ames Winter born Albany, NY (d. 1944). Novelist; head of national women's club GFWC, 1920-24. Only woman adviser to successful Washington Naval Disarmament Conference, 1921.

• 1890 Gertrud Baer born Hamburg, Germany (d. 1981). German-American feminist; pacifist; delegate to WILPF conference Hague, 1919; International President WILPF, 1932-37; head of Equal Rights International, Open Door International for Economic Emancipation of the Woman Worker.

• 1900 Helen Gahagan Douglas born Boonton, NJ (d. 1980). US Delegate to UN General Assembly, 1946; Calif. Representative on House Foreign Affairs; resisted Cold War and HUAC; Honorary Co-Chair of WILPF; promoted UN control of nuclear weapons; helped write Marshall Plan.

• 1915 Ruth Sivard (née Leger) born Queens, New York (d. 2015). American sociologist, economist, and arms expert. The Nixon administration discontinued her official reports on arms for US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, leading to her resignation, 1971. Founded World Priorities non-profit organization, which published “World Military and Social Expenditures”, 1974-96; “Women. . . a World Survey”.

• 1950 Rachel Carey-Harper born San Jose, CA. Quaker; founder of Clothesline Project against violence towards women, Hyannis, 1990.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST VIOLENCE TO WOMEN Set by Latin American women feminists, Bogota, in memory of Mirabel sisters killed this day by Trujilo in Dominican Republic, 1960.

• 1996 Start of La Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres (“Women's Peaceful Road”) movement: 2,000 women protested Colombia's ongoing civil conflict, Mutatá, Colombia.

• 1999 2,000 women from La Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres (“Women's Peaceful Road”) protested Colombia's ongoing civil conflict, Cartagena, Colombia.

• 2005 Maputo Protocol on African Women's Rights effective.

• 2008 UN starts campaign to stop violence against women. "Violence against women can never be tolerated." - Ban Ki-moon

• 2009 Start of 16 Days Campaign on Militarism and Violence against Women.

• 2014 1,000 Israeli women members of Women Wage Peace rode peace train to Gaza border town Sderot to advocate for women's participation in new peace discussions.

November 26

Women peacemakers born today

• 1792 Sarah Moore Grimké born Charleston, SC (d. 1873). Quaker; nonviolent abolitionist; anarchist.

• 1827 Ellen Gould White born Gorham, ME (d. 1915). Founder of pacifist Seventh Day Adventists, 1863; founded Loma Linda Hospital, 1909; abolitionist.

• 1910 Jeannette Vermeersch (née Julie Vermeersch) born La Madaleine, Nord, France (d. 2001). French Communist leader who consistently opposed wars; demanded Immediate Withdrawal from Vietnam 1950; opposed nuclear weapons in France 1949; opposed Algerian War; against German rearmament 1957; openly opposed Russian invasion of Hungary 1957.

• 1929 Elinore Dannenberg Taylor born Huntington, WV (d. 2014). Playwright; English professor; Co-Chair Tri-State Peace Fellowship. Opposed Vietnam War, Contra aid; promoted Nuclear Freeze; arrested at Capitol for Contra protest.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1924 Eglantyne Jebb's Declaration of the Rights of the Child adopted by League of Nations.

• 1926 Finnish WILPF founded by Maikki Friberg.

• 1945 First World Congress of Women, Paris; 800 women dedicated to peace of communist lands.

• 2013 Colombian President Santos named Nigeria Renteria and Maria Riveros as delegates to peace talks between FARC and the Colombian government.

• 2010 Zimbabwe Supreme Court ruled women protesters were illegally arrested.

November 27

Women peacemakers born today

• 1854 Louise Nørlund born Beder, Denmark (d. 1919). Danish suffragist and pacifist teacher. Founding member of WILPF, to which Danish Women's Peace Chain joined, 1916. Occupation by Danish and German troops in 1864 war inspired her anti-militarism.

• 1873 Ellen Newbold LaMotte born Louisville, KY (d. 1961). Nurse; anti-opium crusader; anti-imperialist; experienced World War I as nurse in France.

• 1891 Mildred Thompson born Atlanta, GA (d. 1975). Historian; internationalist; only woman delegate to London Allied Conference on Education, 1944; drafter of UNESCO Charter, 1945; Dean of Vassar College, 1923-47.

• 1932 Helen Singleton born Philadelphia, PA. Freedom Rider.

• 1936 Erni Friholt born Lilienfeld, Austria. Swedish Gandhian peace worker, advocate of nonviolence.

• 1936 Dahlia Ravikovitch born Ramat Gan, Israel (d. 2005). Israeli poet; peace activist.

• 1960 Yulia Tymoshenko born Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. Led Orange Revolution, 2004; first female Ukrainian Prime Minster, 2005, 2007-2010.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1906 Dedication of Violet Oakley’s peace murals, Pennsylvania State House, Harrisburg.

• 1914 No Conscription Fellowship founded at urging of Lilla Brockway, who three years later assumed role of secretary, London.

• 1917 Responding to growing public pressure, 22 suffragettes were released from Occoquan Prison after several were physically abused and force-fed.

• 1981 Women of Europe in Action for Peace conference Amsterdam sponsored by WILPF.

• 1981 Emma Mashinini jailed for labor organizing, Pretoria, South Africa.

• 1994 Committee of Soldiers' Mothers issued first opposition to Chechen War.

• 1999 Peace activist Helen Clark elected Prime Minister of New Zealand.

• 2003 3,000 Women’s Movement Against War women marched to Bogota in "Campaign for the demilitarization and recovery of civilian life.”

• 2011 Bui Thi Minh Hang arrested in Ho Chi Minh City for peaceful protest.

November 28

Women peacemakers born today

• 1853 Helen Magill White born Providence, RI (d. 1944). Quaker educator; founder of Howard Collegiate Institute; first US woman to earn Ph.D., 1877; accompanied delegate husband to 1899 Hague Peace Conference, and diplomatic posts in Germany and Russia.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1893 First National Election with women voting, New Zealand.

• 1917 Suffragettes' Victory: all women released from prison, Washington DC.

• 1988 “Occupation or Peace: A Feminist Perspective” conference, Jerusalem.

• 2011 WOZA Women of Zimbabwe march on theme: "From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence against Women."

• 2013 Two dozen women Cairo University students marched down main street Cairo to protest coup; one killed, others tear-gassed, water-cannoned, and arrested.

November 29

Women peacemakers born today

• 1752 Jemima Wilkinson born Cumberland, RI (d. 1819). Quaker pacifist; founded Universal Friends Society, 1775; utopian commune Lake Seneca, 1790.

• 1809 Hannah Waring Webb born Waterford, Ireland (d. 1862). Irish Quaker pacifist; Garrisonian abolitionist; contributed to freedom of Frederick Douglass; ran Dublin soup kitchen during Irish famine, 1845.

• 1832 Louisa May Alcott born Germantown, PA (d. 1888). Author; reformer; nonviolent abolitionist.

• 1888 Toni Sender born Biebrich, Wiesbaden, Germany (d. 1964). German Jewish socialist pacifist. Socialist member of Reichstag, 1920-33.

• 1936 Marie Carmèle Rose-Anne Auguste born Jeremie, Haiti. Nurse and human rights advocate; antiwar singer. Reopened State University Hospital during military coup, breaking in with an axe and recruiting doctors and staff, 1991. Minister Delegate for Human Rights and the Fight Against Extreme Poverty, 2012.

• 1942 Elizabeth Ward born Sydney, Australia. Australian author and poet; feminist leader; protested Vietnam War; organized Pine Gap Peace Camp, 1983; leader of anti-nuclear organization Women for Survival.

• 1945 Marjatta Rasi born Punkailadun, Finland. Finnish ambassador to UN, 1998; Vice President of ECOSOC, 2002-3; planned postwar aid; Chair of UN Peacebuilding Fund, 2006.

• 1947 Petra Kelly born Günzburg am Danube, Swabia, Germany (d. 1992). Founded German Green Party, 1979; opposed nuclear weapons and Vietnam War. Received Right Livelihood Award, 1982.

• 1973 Irit Tamir born Israel. Israeli lawyer. Oxfam adviser on land use for corporate agriculture. Co-founded Women Wage Peace after Gaza War, 2014.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1913 Alice Paul's Congressional Union sponsored national suffrage convention.

• 1952 International Planned Parenthood founded in Bombay.

• 2000 Coalition of Women for Peace formed in Tel Aviv.

• 2012 Women and Peace Conference held in Harare, Zimbabwe and sponsored by Musana and Dutch Embassy.

November 30

Women peacemakers born today

• 1854 Mary Eliza McDowell born Cincinnati, OH (d. 1936). "Angel of the Stockyards." Associate of Jane Addams at Hull House; successful mediator in labor disputes and racial tensions; WILPF.

• 1858 Rosa Obermayer Mayreder born Vienna, Austria (d. 1938). Feminist; musician and artist; opposed World War I; first chairperson of WILPF, 1919.

• 1870 Gertrud Eysoldt born Pirna, Saxony, Germany (d. 1955). Theater and film actress, drama teacher, and radio announcer. Pacifist; socialist; feminist. Key figure of German Expressionist movement with Max Reinhardt. Led internationalist program Comrades in Humanity, 1926.

• 1879 Laura Clifford Barney born Cincinnati, OH (d. 1974). Baha’i leader. Nurse with American Ambulance Corps, 1914-15, and American Red Cross in France, 1916-18. Representative of International Council of Women at League of Nations and UN.

• 1883 Lucy Perkins Carner born York, PA (d. 1989). Quaker social worker and pacifist leader. Active in Fellowship of Reconciliation, WILPF, War Resisters League, and American Friends Service Committee. Refused taxes for Vietnam War. Demonstrated against germ warfare, Fort Detrick, 1968.

• 1898 Marjorie M. Whiteman born Liberty Center, OH (d. 1986). American authority on international law; editor of classic Digest of International Law (1963-72); helped draft UN Charter 1945 and Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1949; legal counsel to Eleanor Roosevelt in UN Human Rights Commission; originated concept of consultation in inter-American affairs 1936; rescued documents of Charter of Organization of American States (OAS) in Bogotá revolution 1948; adviser on Law of the Sea 1958; first State Dept. Counselor for International Law 1965.

• 1924 Shirley Chisholm born Brooklyn, NY. First African-American congresswoman, 1968; first African-American presidential candidate, 1972; maiden speech in House opposed the Vietnam War.

• 1928 Karin Söder born Frykerud, Värmland, Sweden. Member of Parliament, 1971-91; first woman Foreign Minister, 1976-78; first woman to head major Swedish political party, 1985. Chair of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 1978-79; Chair of Save the Children Sweden, 1983-95; two-time President of Nordic Council, 1984-85, 1989-90.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1913 Jane Addams & Anna Howard Shaw spoke at suffrage convention.

• 1917 Socialist publisher Elizabeth Ford of Faribault, MI fined $500 and sentenced to one year in prison for editorial “discouraging enlistment.”

• 1980 Dorothy Day died.

• 2006 Gandhian Esther Ouwehand sworn into Dutch parliament for Party of the Animals.