Eleanor Roosevelt born Manhattan, NY October 11, 1884 (d. 1962). Internationalist; drafter of UN Human Rights Declaration, 1948; Chair of UN Commission on Human Rights, 1947-51; US delegate to UN, 1946, 1949-52, 1961.
"The time to prepare for world peace is during the time of peace and not during the time of war." (New York Times, Oct. 15, 1927; photo wikicommons pd)
Martha Root born Richwood, OH August 10, 1872 (d. 1939). High-ranking Baha'i leader; advocate of women's leadership for peace and international organization. Feminist, journalist, and speaker with a mission to "help to bring understanding among nations and to promote the highest ideals for enduring peace."
"We have become a neighborhood, and we must learn to live together or we perish, and the one problem which you and I as individuals and of nations must solve is this one problem of LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER!! Whether we wish it or not, we must learn it and we must bring into solid reality a world plan, otherwise we are lost." (talk in Australia, Oct. 15, 1924, in Yang, Jiling, "In Search of Martha Root, 2007. Women's Studies Theses, paper 11. p. 27, 101; photo baha’italks)
Esther Roper born Lindow, Cheshire, England August 4, 1868 (d. 1938). British suffragist opposed World War I; aided conscientious objectors; lifelong partner of pacifist Eva Gore-Booth; opposed violence in Ireland.
"The executions at Kilmainham and Pentonville were the worst days’ work ever done by England to Ireland. Irish people who had taken no part in the revolt became permanently embittered and utterly alienated; before long the whole country was against English rule."(sligoheritage.com/archmark2.htm; photo Wikipedia)
St. Mary di Rosa born Brescia, Italy November 6, 1813 (d. 1855). Nurse during Austrian war, 1848; stopped soldiers with nonviolence, 1854.
"I suffer from seeing suffering." (Derkeiler, Dec. 15, 2006; photo Catholic Online)
Ernestine Louise Rose (née Polowsky) born Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland January 13, 1810 (d. 1892). American Jewish abolitionist and suffragist. Founded utopian human rights organization Association of All Classes of All Nations, 1835.
"Human rights include the rights of all, not only man, but woman, not only white, but black." (Hartford Bible Convention, June 1853; 1881 photo Wikipedia)
Jaine Rose born England September 3, 1969. Gloucestershire artist and weaver; self-styled witch. Founded Wool against Weapons Action (AWE); conceived 7-mile-long pink "peace scarf" against Trident missiles from Aldermaston to Burghfield, Berkshire, 2014.
"I have been thinking about Peace. With a capital P. I have been trying not to be worthy, or self righteous, or so very dull. But the truth is, it's been 68 years since human beings dropped atomic bombs on other human beings, causing devastation in the most brutal way imaginable. It changed our world forever. We are still making these bombs. What more is there to say?" (Beeswax and Broomsticks, February 10, 2014; photo Woolagainstweapons)
Mary Swartz Rose born Newark, OH October 31, 1874 (d. 1941). PhD; pioneering nutritionist; served League of Nations Health Organization, 1935; founded American Institute of Nutrition, 1933. (photo Jour. of Nutrition Nov. 2003, port. by Ivan Olinsky at Vanderbilt.)
Ethel Jenner Rosenberg born Bath, England August 6, 1858 (d. 1930). English artist. Pioneering speaker and writer of Bahá’i causes of peace, universal brotherhood, and gender equality.
"If only a means could be found to break down the barriers of race, of creed, of prejudice, what a boon it would be to the world! . . .A practical bond of union is needed between East and West, some common meeting ground for the Christian, the Mohammedan, the Buddhist, etc.: which will create the sense of ‘brotherhood’ and make of it a realized experience." ("A Brief Account of the Bahai Movement", 1911, p. 16)
Rose Schorr Rosenberg born Hodmezovasarhely, Hungary September 10, 1905 (d.?). Freedom Rider arrested Jackson MS 1961; held in notorious Parchman Prison; attorney who worked for peace with communist Cuba and China.
"'[P]eace' is a wonderful word and we should all be exerting all our energies in advancing the cause of peace." (July 1, 1963 testimony to HUAC; photo Miss. Archives)
Penny Rosenwasser born January 18, 1949. American Jewish peace activist; co-founder Jewish Voice for Peace 1996; author, folk musician; event organizer; civil disobedience at Israeli Consulate, April 2002, protesting Israeli Jenin invasion; civil disobedience at Vandenberg AFB against MX missiles 1982-84; nonviolent civil disobedience actions at nuclear plant Charlottesville and Pentagon 1979-81; recruiter, Nicaragua Third World harvest brigade, 1985-86; “Time for Peace” Women in Black march 1989.
"[M]y freedom, in terms of a secure homeland, couldn't be built on the displacement of another people." (Promised Land; photo oennyrosenwasser.com)
Martha Rosler born Brooklyn, NY August 29, 1943. Antiwar feminist artist. Created photo-montage “House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home”, 1967; antiwar images of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2004.
“I was looking for a way to express, in public fashion, my opposition to a war that seemed to be brought to us in the living room, on TV, and which posited a 'here' and a 'there.'” (quote & photo Artpulse Magazine)
Agda Rössel (née Viola Jägerstrom) born Gällivare, Sweden November 4, 1910 (d. 2001). Swedish diplomat; international head of Save the Children Federation during World War II; Swedish rep. to UN Human Rights Commission, 1951; first woman to head a UN delegation, Sweden, 1958.
"We business and professional women, conscious of our increased responsibilities towards mankind in the light of this new [atomic] power, accept the challenge of it and make it our own." (Geneva, 1956; photo NSD)
Elisabeth Rotten born Berlin, Germany February 15, 1882 (d. 1964). Quaker pacifist; educational reformer; Swiss-German co-founder of WILPF and International Fellowship of Reconciliation. Started Quaker relief program in Germany, 1919. Internationalist observer at League of Nations; founded the League of Nations Institute for International Education, Geneva, 1921.
Hagar Roublev born Israel January 9, 1954. (d. 2000). Co-founder of 1988 anti-occupation vigils Women in Black, Paris Square, Jerusalem, a place renamed Hagar in her honor.
“I came home covered in spit.” (Gila Svirsky website)
“We need to work together in order to change the system [of war].” (“Education and Peace” conference Belgrade, Nov. 11, 2004; photo wikicommons)
Nelly Roussel born Paris, France January 5, 1878 (d. 1922). Anarchist; pacifist; free thinker. Spoke on birth control and population growth.
"International war seems to me an absurd aberration, product of a false civilization." (Nov. 30, 1914, in Libre Pensée Internationale, Jan. 1, 1919; 1896 photo Wikipedia)
Léonie Rouzade (née Camusat) born Paris, France September 6, 1839 (d. 1916). French feminist, socialist, writer of utopian novels.
"Peace is the true right and interest of woman; having been prevented in participating in fighting, she can never be accused of cowardice." (1878 Int. Congress of Friends of Peace, in Sandi Cooper, Patriotic Pacifism, p. 52)
"If one gets rights for killing men, one should get more rights for having created humanity." (Bock & Thane, "Maternity and Gender Policies." European Journal of Women's Studies, Nov. 1995)
Coleen Rowley born New Hampton, IA December 20, 1954. Former FBI agent; peace activist. Testified before 9/11 Commission about intelligence failures, 2001. Opposed Iraq War, Afghan war, and drone usage.
“War is a lie. War is a racket. War is hell. War is waste. War is a crime. War is terrorism. War is not the answer.” (worldbeyondwar.org/quotes; photo historycommons.org)
Arundhati Roy born Shillong, Kerala, India November 24, 1961. Indian author and activist; critic of wars in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Kashmir; opposed Indian nukes; recipient of Sydney Peace Prize for nonviolence, 2004.
"The bombing of Afghanistan is not revenge for New York and Washington. It is yet another act of terror against the people of the world." (The Guardian, Sept. 21, 2001; photo J-B Labrune Wiki)
Agnes Maude Royden born Liverpool, England November 23, 1876 (d. 1956). Pacifist during World War I; first female Anglican priest; proposed a Peace Army, 1930s.
"You cannot kill hatred and violence by violence and hatred." (Great Adventure, p. 11)
"Christians should be able to meet material force with spiritual power. It is horrifying to reflect that after nineteen hundred years, we are still unable to do it except in individual cases and on a small scale." (Consider the Days, p. 68; photo Roydenhistory.co.uk)
Eléanore de Roye born February 24, 1535 (d. 1564). Princess of Condé; peace advocate. Negotiated Treaty of Amboise, ending wars of religion, and granting rights to Protestants, 1563.
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
