Women peacemakers born today

1854 Anna Kuliscioff born Moskaya, Crimea (d. 1925) Italian feminist, socialist-anarchist doctor and editor; opposed World War I and Mussolini.

1859 Carrie Chapman Catt born Ripon, WI (d. 1947). Suffragist. Instrumental in the founding of numerous women's organizations: the Women's Peace Party, 1915; the League of Women Voters, 1920; the Committee on the Cause and Cure of War, 1924. Supported the League of Nations and the UN.

1868 Irene Marryat Parlby born London, England (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.

1877 Emily Newell Blair born Joplin, MO (d. 1951). Suffragist; feminist; politician. Co-founder of the League of Women Voters, 1920; first female vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, 1921; contributor to Why Wars Must Cease, 1935, though expressed support of both World Wars.

1908 Simone de Beauvoir born Paris, France (d. 1986). French feminist; existentialist philosopher; wrote landmark feminist text The Second Sex, 1949. Opposed World War I, nuclear weapons, Vietnam War.

1935 Jeanne Devos born Kortenaken, Belgium. Nun; worked over 40 years to end child slavery in India; Nobel Prize nominee.

1939 Susannah York born London, England (d. 2011). British actress; vice-president of the Movement for the Abolition of War; protested nuclear weapons, 1984 and the Iraq War, 2003; campaigned to free Mordechai Vanunu.

1941 Joan Baez born Staten Island, NY. Antiwar singer; founded Institute for Nonviolence, 1965.

1952 Rigoberta Menchu born Chimel, Guatemala. Indigenous rights advocate ;UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador; awarded Nobel Peace Prize, 1992.

1952 Eveline Herfkens born The Hague, Netherlands. UN Undersecretary for Millennium Goals, 2002; recipient of first International Commitment to Development Award, 2003.
1957 Sisi Khampepe born Soweto, Transvaal. Commissioner of South Africa Truth & Reconciliation Commission, 1995; Justice of South Africa Constitutional Court, 2009.
1968 Alice Wairimu Nderitu born Nairobi, Kenya. Commissioner Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), 2009 resolving ethnic conflicts; instrumental in peace referendum, 2010; sole woman who negotiated Nakuru Peace, 2012.

Women's peacemaking on this day

Feast Day of St. Marciana (d. 303 Caesarea, Mauritania) who resisted rape by gladiators, and converted one of her attackers.

1982 Women chained themselves to the gates of a Mormon Temple in Kensington, MD in nonviolent protest.
2004 Guerrilla Girls exhibition “Yo! What Happened to Peace?” at Transport Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.