Hilkka Pietila

Overview

Hilkka Pietilä born Kiikka, Finland March 13, 1931. Finnish ecofeminist and internationalist. Co-founded Finnish Women for Peace, 1979; chair and editor of Finnish UN Association, 1963-1990. Delegate to UN, 1965-67; 1970; 1972; 1974-75. Delegate to UNESCO, 1976; 1978; 1980. Delegate to international conferences on environment, 1972; population, 1974; development, 1979; women 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990.

Quotations

“Violence against women cannot be eliminated until real equality between men and women in private lives, politics, working life and culture at large is achieved. . . we must achieve a situation where men acknowledge women’s equal human dignity despite their differences and discover new, rich masculinity with all the possibilities entailed therein.” (“Violence Against Women—An Obstacle to Peace” 1998; photo hilkkapietila.net)

Amparo Poch y Gascon

Overview

Amparo Poch y Gascón born Zaragosa, Spain October 15, 1902 (d. 1968). Spanish doctor, novelist, and anti-war poet; anarchist; pacifist; feminist. Founding president of WRI affiliate Hispanic League Against War, opposing Civil War, 1936. Organized refugee evacuation.

Quotations

“Our conscience flatly rejects war; Our heart cannot admit violence as reasonable and fair on any occasion. No event has wavered our convictions opposing war.” (1937 spanish Wikipedia; photo elperiodico.com)

Mathilde Planck

Overview

Mathilde Planck born Ulm, Württemberg, Germany November 29, 1861 (d. 1955). German pacifist teacher and editor of women’s magazines. Peace leader; founded state branch of German Peace Society, 1900; co-founded women’s branch of German Peace Society. Sent telegraph to Kaiser in appeal for peace, July 1914. Longtime member of state parliament with priority of peace. Christian pacifist who “honoured Mahatma Gandhi and Christ equally.” (Mascha Riepl-Schmidt bio)

Quotations

“If something is needed, it’s got to be done.” (Rev. Harald Wagner, Heinigen; portrait Mathilde Planck Schule)

Emily Frost Phipps

Overview

Emily Frost Phipps born Devonport, Devon, England November 7, 1865 (d. 1943). English barrister, teacher, and headmistress. Militant suffragist. Boycotted census by overnighting in sea cave, 1911. Opposed World War I with Women’s Freedom League. Ran for Parliament on antiwar platform, 1918.

Quotations

“Many women had determined that since they could not be citizens for the purposes of voting, they would not be citizens for the purpose of helping the government to compile statistics: they would not be included in the Census Returns.” (wikpedia; photo womwnofeastbourne)

Anna Parnell

Overview

Anna Parnell born Rathdrum, Wicklow, Ireland May 13, 1852 (d. 1911). Irish nonviolent independence leader. Co-founded Ladies’ Land League, which encouraged women to boycott and refuse land rent, 1881. Influenced nonviolent leader Michael Davitt.

Quotations

“I consider the actions of particular individuals are unimportant in history, while the actions of groups, classes, etc are most important, because the former are not met again, and the latter are. I don’t mean, of course, that the actions [in themselves] are unimportant, only that it does not matter what particular individual does them, except insofar and he or she represents a number of persons.” (to Helen Molony, Jul. 7, 1910, in T. W. Moody, “Anna Parnell”, Hermathena, Summer 1974, p. 12; photo Wikipedia)

Michelle Parlevliet

Overview

Michelle Parlevliet born Almelo, Netherlands September 27, 1971. Professor of Conflict Resolution and Human Rights, University of Amsterdam. Advisor to World Bank (Indonesia) and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, 1996, 1998. South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 1997; Centre for Conflict Resolution in South Africa, 1999-2005; Conflict transformation adviser for Denmark in Nepal civil war, 2006-09.

Quotations

“Human rights violations do not only result from destructive conflict, but may also give rise to such conflict, both latent and manifest. Rights violations can trigger unrest and violence in the short and in the long term, when rights are denied over a sustained period.” (“Human Rights and Peacebuilding: Complementary and Contradictory, Complex and Contingent”, Journal of Human Rights Practice, Nov. 2017, pp. 333–57; photo University of Amsterdam)

Violet Paget

Overview

Violet Paget born Boulogne, France October 14, 1856 (d. 1935). British internationalist; pacifist author under the pseudonym Vernon Lee; lesbian; suffragist. Took strong stand against WWI, joining antiwar Union of Democratic Control. Published Peace with Honour: Controversial Notes on the Settlement,which prophetically renounced reparations, 1915; The Ballet of the Nations; A Present-Day Morality, an illustrated satanic dance of war, followed by a long philosophical commentary, 1915; Satan the Waster: A Philosophic War Trilogy, 1920. Supported Hague Women's Peace Congress and the founding of WILPF, 1915.

Quotations

“The flagging Dancers, the bleeding Nations, weary of that stage slippery with blood and entrails, felt the wind of the wings of Pity and Indignation; and, in its pure breath, suddenly revived.” (The Ballet of the Nations; portrait jssgallery.org)

Ellen Palmstierna

Overview

Ellen Palmstierna born Stockholm, Sweden August 7, 1869 (d. 1941). Swedish founder of WILPF; made peace mission to Russia with Addams 1915; founded Swedish Save the Children, for starving children in postwar Europe 1919.

Frederika van Wulfften Palthe

Overview

Frederika Wilhelmina “Mien” Van Wulfften Palthe-Broese van Groenou born Jogjakarta, Dutch East Indies April 1, 1875 (d. 1960). Founding member of WILPF. Accompanied Jane Addams on WILPF mission to warring governments in a bid to end conflict, 1915. (1896 portrait by Arntzenius, Christie’s)

Adela Pankhurst

Overview

Adela Pankhurst Walsh born Chorlton, Cheshire, England June 19, 1889 (d. 1961). Australian pacifist Socialist opposed to both World Wars; Women's Peace Army opposing conscription 1915; jailed for protest against food prices 1917-8; interned 1941 for opposition to World War II; anti-imperialist.

Quotations

"When years of mad slaughter have passed by, and we begin to feel the shortage of food and necessities which in our frenzy of destruction we have destroyed, and we realize that the hands to create new stores have been swept away in millions, while thousands of maimed, brutalised, maddened men will return to burden us, then we shall remember the solemn words: 'Put up again thy sword into his place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword,' and learn that by our weapons we slay, not others only, but ourselves as well." (Put Up the Sword, 1915; photo Wikipedia)

Emmeline Pankhurst

Overview

Emmeline Pankhurst (née Goulden) born Manchester, England July 15, 1858 (d. 1928). Militant suffrage leader whose direct action inspired Gandhi; mother of three suffragist women leaders.

Quotations

"Deeds not words." (1913)

"Our rule has always been. . . to use no violence, but rather to offer ourselves to the violence of others. . . We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers." (My Own Story, p. 129, 1914; 1913 photo Wikipedia)

Sylvia Pankhurst

Overview

Sylvia Pankhurst born Manchester, England May 5, 1882 (d. 1960). British suffragist; Socialist-Communist. Opposed World War I; led London protest march against conscription, 1916; founded newspaper Women's Dreadnought; led protest against Italian invasion of Ethiopia.

Quotations

"Love and freedom are vital to the creation and upbringing of a child."

"When I read in the newspapers that Mrs. Pankhurst and Christabel were returning to England for a recruiting campaign, I wept. To me this seemed a tragic betrayal of the great movement to bring the mother-half of the race into the councils of the nation. . . We worked continuously for peace, in face of the bitterest opposition from old enemies, and sometimes unhappily from old friends." (Frances Saunders, The Woman Who Shot Mussolini, p. 67, 2010; photo sylviapankhurst.com)

Irene Marryat Parlby

Overview

Irene Marryat Parlby born London, England January 9, 1868 (d. 1965). Canadian delegate to League of Nations, 1930; one of the Famous Five, a group of women who greatly impacted women's rights in Canada.

Quotations

"Evolution cannot be brought about by the use of dynamite." (Status of Women Canada, www.swc-cfc.gc.ca; photo http://bit.ly/xt2Cfc)

Frances Partridge

Overview

Frances Partridge (née Marshall) born London, England March 15, 1900 (d. 2004). British author; lifelong pacifist; opponent of both World Wars and Cold War.

Quotations

“If only people would realise that their son’s dying and killing other people’s sons isn’t going to benefit humanity in any way, but almost certainly the reverse.  What good did the First World War do?” (A Pacifist’s War, 1945, p. 180; photo Librarything)

Ebba Pauli

Overview

Ebba Pauli born Västerhanunge, Sweden June 12, 1873 (d. 1941). Swedish social reformer and author. Radical pacifist. Co-founded slum settlement Birkagården, 1912. Early member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1918; work for International FOR. Co-founded pacifist League for Christian Citizenship.

Quotations

“There is something greater than happiness. Something that never disappears. . . Peace. . . how can I achieve this? One must make great sacrifice. . . second, one must fight a difficult battle and a third must bear a heavy burden. All must bow to the Highest voice in our souls.” (The Hermit; photo frtidsforum.se)

Priscilla Hannah Peckover

Overview

Priscilla Hannah Peckover born Wisbech, England October 27, 1833 (d. 1931). Quaker; absolute pacifist; pioneering British peace leader; founder of Women's Local Peace Association, 1879; founder of annual Peace Sunday. Learned 16 languages to communicate peace.

Quotations

"It is the duty of all who love the King to work for peace, by substituting righteousness for violence, guile, or self-assertion in a national sense." (Peace To-day 25 April 1900; photo Danish Peace Acad.)

Helga Pedersen

Overview

Inger Helga Pedersen born Tårnborg, Denmark June 24, 1911 (d. 1980). First woman judge of European Human Rights Court 1971; Chief Justice of Denmark; Delegate to UN 1958-9; UNESCO 1966, 1968, 1970.

Quotations

"[T]he use of the five techniques in August and October 1971 constituted a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment. . . [T]here existed at Palace Barracks in the autumn of 1971 a practice of inhuman treatment." (European Court judgment on torture, Ireland v. UK, Jan. 18, 1978; photo electionsmeter.com)

Madeleine Pelletier

Overview

Madeleine Pelletier born Paris, France May 18, 1874 (d. 1939). French internationalist and pacifist; anarcho-socialist, radical feminist; physician and pioneering psychiatrist. Opposed World War I; advocate of peace education. Founded magazine La Suffragiste, 1907. Died in asylum where she was held for giving abortions to poor women.

Quotations

"The natalists believe in a barbarian form of birth control—war." (Claudine Mitchell, "Pelletier", Feminist Review, Autumn 1989, p. 94; photo aphgcaen.free.fr)

Frida Perlen

Overview

Frida Perlen born Ludwigsburg, Baden, Germany April 4, 1870 (d. 1933). German pacifist, one of few German women leaders who opposed World War I; leader WILPF; cabled Kaiser to stop the war 1914; helped organize Hague women’s peace conference 1915, but passport was forbidden.

Quotations

“Therefore, women, do not enkindle hatred, but advocate reconciliation, Above national consciousness is humanity!” (Advocate of Peace, Dec. 1914, p. 267)

“[J]oin the peace movement in thousands, tens of thousands.” (Jus Suffragi, Dec. 1, 1914, p. 201)

Anne Marie Petersen

Overview

Anne Marie Petersen born Roskilde, Denmark September 1, 1878 (d. 1951). Danish missionary teacher, close co-worker and critic of Gandhi; founded her own ashram Seva Mandir and girl's school Porto Novo, Tamil Nadu 1921.

Quotations

"I can see she (India) has no other way to protest against being trampled down and crushed than non-cooperation." (Sept. 8, 1920 letter published by Gandhi; photo English.periamma.org)