Greta Langenskjöld born St. Petersburg, Russia February 6, 1889 (d. 1975) Finnish author and poet; Quaker pacifist; headmistress; biographer of Nicolay, the Christian youth leader; early member of Finnish Fellowship of Reconciliation; aided Russian war refugees in Finland. (photo Geni)
Odette Laguerre (née Garin de Lamorflin) born Constantinople, Ottoman Empire November 7, 1860 (d. 1956). French secondary school headmistress; author and journalist. Militant suffragist; pacifist; antimilitarist. Founding Secretary, International League of Mothers and Teachers of Peace (LIMEP), 1928. Published “For Peace: Historical Lectures for Elementary Instruction”, 1905.
“[Feminism is] an impulse for justice that tends to equalize the rights and responsibilities of man and woman. . . feminism is not only an impulse for justice, but for liberty that marks the end of the reign of Man, or what Jules Bois calls anthropocentrism.” (What is Feminism?, 1905)
Monica Lanfranco born Genoa, Italy March 13, 1959. Feminist author, journalist; nonviolence trainer; wrote Disarming Women about nonviolent women, 2003.
“War between people, communities, nations, the world. It 'a certainty, today: from the fist to the holy war have not long to go.” (blog ilfatoquotidiano, Jan. 18, 2015)
“Obviously [nonviolence] is not easy: it takes great strength of will, cooperation, study, awareness, empathy, time, and patience. Certainly a weapon, whatever it is, it solves a disagreement quickly and offers its user an extraordinary power, that of life and death. . . we can, men and women together, build relationships and practices different from those used in the public domain.” (blog ilfatoquotidiano, Sept. 3, 2014; photo forlitoday)
Felicia Langer born Tarnow, Poland December 9, 1930. Israeli human rights attorney for Palestinians; recipient of Right Livelihood award, 1990.
"Because we Jews know what it is to suffer, we must not oppress others." (2008 photo wikicomm. pd)
Berta Lask born Wadowice, Poland November 17, 1878 (d. 1967). German communist poet and dramatist. Feminist; pacifist. Wrote anti-war poems in World War I and novels in Weimar Germany. Critic of industrial pollution. Exiled to USSR, 1933; returned to East Germany, 1953.
I carry my child through blossoms and sunshine
I carry my child through seas of blood and horror
Who hears my soul’s distant cries?
Will my child ever see the brighter suns and stars?
(“Woman”; photo literatur.port.de)
Clara Lemlich Shavelson born Gorodok, Ukraine March 26, 1896 (d. 1982). American labor leader, noted for Uprising of 20,000 shirtwaist workers 1909; suffragist; pacifist Communist; organized American League Against War and Fascism in 1930s; protested nuclear weapons; promoted UN Genocide Convention; opposed Vietnam War.
On 1951 trip to Europe: "Peace was the most important issue to all those European workers. We heard that everywhere we went. If any of us had thought that there was a danger of war from the Soviet Union or anywhere in Europe, we were convinced now we had been wrong. We were convinced that our job was to go back and tell American workers that if they too would struggle for peace, there could be no war.” (Jewish Life, Nov. 1954, p. 11; photo activists with attitude)
Ewa Łętowska born Warsaw, Poland March 22, 1940. Professor of Law and expert in human rights. First Polish Parliamentary Human Rights Ombudsperson, 1987-92; National Ombudsperson, 1999-2002. Named Woman of Europe, 1993. Served on International Commission of Jurists, 1991; Judge of Constitutional Tribunal, 2002.
“[T]he rights of women and men are equal but not the same.” (May 6, 2010, Kozminski University; photo trybunal.gov.pl)
Rita Levi-Montalcini born Turin, Italy April 22, 1909 (d. 2012) Italian-American neurologist. Awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1986. Advocated education for peace in her autobiography In Praise of Imperfection, 1988.
"[W]ithout peace, the human species ends. . . Peace is not absence of war. Peace is something that goes further, peace must be worked out and built. I said many times that war has been a monopoly of the male sex. Therefore, women have the most difficult task: to be builders of peace." (jakvydelat interview; photo nytimes.com)
Angelica Edna Calò Livné born Rome, Italy August 27, 1955. Israeli peace advocate; educator for peace through art. Founded Beresheet L'Shalom (Beginning of Peace) Foundation, September 2001, and Rainbow dance theater for Palestinian and Israeli youth in Sasa, Galilee. Recipient of Assisi Peace Prize, 2004; Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.
"The most important message that we can give now to all the humanity is that difference is the richness, that dialog is so important now for everybody." (World People's Blog; photo Kolot)
Sonja Lokar (née Baient) born Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia March 16, 1948. Slovenian sociologist and peace activist. Member of Slovenian Parliament, 1986-90. Organized European Peace Caravan to stop Balkan hostilities, 1991. Executive Director of Central and Eastern European Network for Gender Issues, 2015.
“[P]rogress around the worst sorts of violence against women in politics was possible only because, at the end of the 20th century, the global women's movement was for the first time in the history of humankind, strong enough, organized enough, and ambitious enough to dare to question and even to reject women roles proscribed by the male dominated politics and to offer the project of transformative politics.” (iKNOW Politics, Dec. 10-14, 2007)
Elisa Lollini Agnini born Finale Emilia, Modena, Italy March 22, 1858 (d. 1922). Italian feminist pioneer; pacifist protested colonial war in Ethiopia 1896, invasion of Libya 1911; supported WILPF effort to end war 1915; suffrage leader; Socialist.
“The Women’s Association sends its adhesion to the Hague Congress, hoping that the efforts of the pacifists will make the fraternal spirit triumphant.” (April 17, 1917, WILPF Bericht Report. p. 211; photo Wikipedia)
Chiara Lubich (née Sylvia Lubich) born Trent, Italy January 22, 1920 (d. 2008). Founded Focolare Peace Movement, 1943.
"To love the other's nation as one loves one's own. . . to tend towards a universal sharing of goods. . . I dream of a world with unity in the diversity of its peoples." (A dream for the 2000; photo Wikipedia)
Rosa Luxemburg born Zamość, Poland March 5, 1871 (murdered 1919). Anti-militarist; revolutionary. Early Marxist critic of Soviet bureaucracy; opposed World War I.
"Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters." (Die Russische Revolution, p. 109; photo Wikipedia)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
