Marie Bajocco Remiddi born Rome, Italy May 18, 1911 (d. 1998). Italian peace activist. President, WILPF Italy, 1957. Founded International Association of Mothers United for Peace (AIMU), 1946. Thirty-year editor of UNESCO Courier.
“The mothers of the whole world think as I do, as we do. . . When we have the vote, we will put our weight on the plate of peace.” (Bruna Bianchi, “Le Donne, Il Voto, La Pace” p. 25; photo wilpfitalia)
Freda Yetta Brown (née Lewis) born Sydney, Australia June 9, 1919 (d. 2009). Australian women’s rights leader; Communist. President, International Democratic Women’s Federation, 1975. Led UN celebration of International Women’s Year, 1975. Awarded Lenin Peace Prize, 1977; honored by South Africa for anti-Apartheid protests. Opposed Vietnam War.
“If there is a war with America and Russia, I hope that Australia will not send her manpower to help a country little better than the Fascist countries we have been fighting.” (1948, in XYZ, Jul. 22, 2017; photo Sydney Morning Herald)
Émilienne Brunfaut (née Steux) born Dottignies, Hainault, Belgium May 11, 1908 (d. 1986). Belgian union leader; militant feminist; Socialist; pacifist. Secretary, Belgian Committee Against War and Fascism, 1937; Secretary, Women’s Rally for Peace (RFP), opposing Cold War, nuclear weapons, NATO, German rearmament, 1947.
“The general trend was. . . the one we experienced later in the resistance, a union against fascism and against war.” (Catherine Jacques, Sens Public, May 22, 2009; photo sens-pubic)
Lynda Blackmon Lowery born Selma, AL March 22, 1950. Youngest participant in 50-mile Selma March, 1965. Arrested for nonviolent protests at age 14; badly beaten on Selma Bridge on “Bloody Sunday,” 1965.
“We were determined to do something, and we did it. If you are determined, you can overcome your fears, and then you can change the world.” (Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom, 2015, p. 103; photo rural intelligence)
Joan C. Browning born Shiloh, GA July 25, 1942. Civil rights leader. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 1961-64. Arrested as Freedom Rider, Albany, 1961; took part in nonviolent sit-ins, 1962, antiwar protests, 1964.
"You had to be trained in non-violence and I had been trained by none other than the father on non-violence, the Rev. James Lawson." (quote and photo Stamford Advocate, Jan. 18, 2015)
Aurelia Browder born Montgomery, AL January 29, 1919 (d. 1971). Pioneering civil rights leader. Second arrest for sit-in on Montgomery bus, 1955. Lead plaintiff in suit against transport segregation, Brower v. Gayle, affirmed by US Supreme Court, 1956.
“I had stopped riding because I wanted better treatment. I knew if I would cooperate with my color I would finally get it. . . It is the segregation laws of Alabama that caused all of it.” (court testimony, Washington Post, April 12, 1998; photo mfsasr.com)
Anna Julia Child Bird born Worcester, MA January 13, 1856 (d. 1942). Progressive politician & suffrage leader. Official US delegate to history’s most successful disarmament conference, Washington Naval Treaty, 1922.
“[T]he sooner people understand that the government is just what the people make it, the better for our institutions.” (The Woman Citizen, Oct. 4, 1919, p. 459; photo NY Public Library)
Zheni (Jeni) Bojilova-Pateva born Gradets, Kolensko, Bulgaria December 1, 1878 (d. 1955). Bulgarian peace activist and women’s leader. Attended International Peace Congress, 1915. Founded national branch of International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace, 1918; joined WILPF, 1919. First Bulgarian woman to oppose death penalty, 1923. Founded Women’s Peace Society, Bourgos, 1925.
“In this hour when the world is surrounded by the bloody elements, when most of the European nations have risen against each other for an awful self-destruction, when cultured and civilized Europe organized all her forces for annihilation and death, in this hour comes an apparition. . . This is the dawn of a new creative force, isolated till now, the dawn of woman's genius, the genius of love and mercy.” (April 12, 1915, WILPF, Bericht Rapport p. 187; photo momichetka)
Behice Boran born Bursa, Turkey May 1, 1910 (d. 1987). Turkish sociology professor; communist; founded Turkish Peacelovers Assn. 1950, protesting Turkish part in Korean War; leading to 15 months in prison; After military coup 1975 sentenced to 15 years, serving four; exiled 1980. (photo KitapEki)
Cecilia “Chilang” Cruz Bamba born Hagåtña, Guam November 14, 1934 (d. 1986). Pioneering Chamorro women’s leader and feminist. Elected as senator, 1978. After her parents were brutally killed in WWII, she succeeded in winning women’s support for reparation for war damage and postwar military land seizures.
“I believe in the capability of women, the value of women in any endeavorI tend to lean on women more to bring them into working with me in whatever work I’m doing.” (Laura Marie Torres Souder-Jaffrey dissertation, “Chamorrro Female Experience”; photo Guampedia)
Yolanda Becerra Vega born Barrancabermeja, Colombia March 19, 1959. Pacifist, feminist activist. Promoted Social Movement of Women against War and For Peace. National Director, Popular Women’s Organization (OFP), 1988. Offered nonviolent resistance to paramilitary, 2000; attacked and tortured at home, 2007. Received German Committee of UN Peace Award, 2001; Swedish Per Anger Prize, 2007; Amnesty International Sagan Award, 2009.
“But those responsible cannot silence my voice, nor can they dismantle the organization This is what keeps me working, denouncing and reporting crimes against human rights, knitting together the fabric of society, mending what the war has destroyed, sowing seeds of life in the cracks of death.” (Amnesty International, Feb. 24, 2009; photo pazconmujeres.com)
Joan Woolley Bazar born Philadelphia, PA July 25, 1934 (d. 2017). Journalist and peace activist. National WILPF leadership. Director, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, Palo Alto, 1984-88. US China People’s Friendship Association; Beijing Conference, 1995.
“We’re a team effort. . . You can find the Raging Grannies at all sorts of places, both where they’re invited and where they have something to say.” (Monitor News, Aug. 18, 2007; photo wilpfsanjose)
Antonia Brenner (née Mary Clarke) born Los Angeles, CA December 1, 1926 (d. 2013). “The Prison Angel.” Voluntary inmate of maximum security prison, Tijuana, Mexico, 1977-2007; negotiated end of riot. Founded Order of Eudist Servants.
“There is no one so ugly he does not have beauty within him; no one so weak he does not have great strength and no one so poor he is not endowed with richness. Each person is of invaluable worth.” (Eudist Servants, Apr. 9, 2018; photo eudistservants.com)
Dagny Bang born Kristiania, Norway June 8, 1868 (d. 1944). Norwegian physician. Delegate to Women's Peace Congress, 1915; member of Resolution Committee; seconded motion for popular control of foreign policy. Founded Norway branch of Open Door International, 1935.
“Surely all women of Norway consider the war now going on as one of the most cruel disasters of mankind of any time, and they think it a crime not to be forgiven, to call forth war in order to settle international disputes. . . Our aim has been to point out means, if possible, such cruel disasters against working mankind being repeated.” (Jus Suffragi, Jun. 1, 1915, p. 131; photo Wikipedia)
Helene Berg born Orup, Roholte, Denmark March 8, 1869 (d. 1955) Danish social reformer and women’s rights activist. Pacifist founding member of WILPF forerunner Women’s Peace Chain. Alternate on Neutral Committee on Continuous Mediation, Feb. 1915; campaigned to keep Denmark out of war. (1908 photo kvinfo)
Hannah van Biema-Hijmans born October 15, 1864 (d. 1937). Dutch civic leader. Headed Netherlands Anti-War Council and Netherlands Women’s Association, 1912-17; organizer of International Women’s Conference Amsterdam, 1908. Organizer of International Women’s Peace Conference, The Hague, 1915; served as its secretary, President of Arrangements Committee, member of Resolutions Committee, and French interpreter. Postwar chair of national WILPF.
Friedel Bohny-Reiter born Vienna, Austro-Hungary May 20, 1908 (d. 2001). Swiss nurse in wartime France. Saved lives of many Jewish children; honored as Righteous Among Nations, 1990.
“We lived in fear of raids. . . One day Vichy police came to look for 72 refugees, allegedly to check their papers, and I managed to bluff them and gain some time; it was necessary to hide the children in the farms around.” (AJPN.org Bohny; photo babelio.com)
Elsa Brändström born St. Petersburg, Russia March 26, 1888 (d. 1948). “Angel of Siberia.” Swedish nurse. Aided and repatriated German and Austrian solders, and cared for their orphans. Five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 1922-29.
“It is up to us women to heel (sic) what the war has broken, to mother the suffering and to help them to get back to their belief in humanity. We must give the victims of the war back their desire to live and to become again useful human beings.” (1923 speech to US women, in Matthiew Stibbe, “Elsa Brȁndström”, Ingrid Sharp, Aftermaths of War, p. 333; photo Wikipedia)
Alice Brügger born Frauenfeld, Thurgau, Switzerland December 2, 1896 (d. 1988). Quaker educator. Co-founder of first nonviolent peace corps Service Civil International with Hélène Monastier and Pierre Cérésole.
“[D]eepening of the peace idea in detail is the best defense against propaganda and, consequently, against war psychosis.” (International Civil Service, June 1949)
Sarah Jane Baines born Birmingham, England November 30, 1866 (d. 1951). British-Australian suffragist. First suffragist tried by jury, 1908; served six weeks. Arrested 15 times. Escaped to Australia, where she co-founded Women’s Peace Army opposing World War I, 1914. Opposed conscription, 1915-17, for which she was sentenced to nine months in prison, but later freed.
“To fight for that which is better and nobler in this world is to live in the highest sense, but to submit and tolerate the evils which exist is to merely vegetate in the sewers of iniquity.” (The Socialist, April 11, 1919; quote & photo wikipedia)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
