Anja Henriette Meulenbelt born Utrecht, Netherlands January 6, 1946. Prominent feminist author and politician; Socialist member of Dutch parliament; promoted peace in Balkans and Palestine; recipient of Journalist for Peace Award, 2004.
"Dare to dream loudly, make dreams visible, bring dreams into practice." (1978, Vandaag, p. 213; photo de.Wikipedia)
Johanne Meyer born Aalborg, Denmark July 1, 1838 (d. 1915). Pioneering radical suffragist; editor and orator; democratic socialist. Founded national Theosophical society. Longtime leader of Danish Peace Society. Tried to present King Christian IX with petition of 230,000 signatures for peace, 1893. Founding member, Danish Women’s Peace Association, 1906. (photo Bing images)
Malwida von Meysenbug born Kassel, Hesse, Germany October 28, 1816 (d. 1903). German writer; feminist and revolutionary. Friend of Wagner, Nietzsche, Mazzini, Rolland. Sympathized with revolutionary forces, 1848. Published Memories of an Idealist, 1869.
"Amore, Pace (Love, Peace)" (inscription on her tomb; photo Wikipedia)
Karin Michaëlis born Randers, Jutland, Denmark March 20, 1872 (d. 1950). “The Conscience of Europe.” Prominent Danish writer; radical feminist; pacifist. Worked in famine relief, Austria, World War I. Early critic of Mussolini and Hitler, who banned her books. Took part in antiwar congress Amsterdam, 1932. Gave refuge to Germans, including Bertolt Brecht. Exiled herself, 1940.
“There were so many people who had to flee from Germany, and they didn’t know where they should flee to, and some one or other had said to them: ‘Try Karin Michaëlis.’” (James Lyon, Hans-Peter Breuer, eds., Brecht Unbound, 1995, p. 247; photo allposters.com)
Louise Michel born Vroncourt, Lorraine, France May 29, 1830 (d. 1905). Anarchist; nurse and school teacher; known as "the red virgin of Montmartre." Member of the Paris Commune who stood against French government soldiers; deported to New Caledonia for seven years, 1873-80. Due to anarchist activities, repeatedly arrested and lived in exile, 1890-95.
"We expected to die for liberty. It was as if we were lifted from the earth." (March 18, 1871; photo Wikipedia)
Emma Miller born Chesterfield, England June 26, 1839 (d. 1917). Australian peace activist; suffragist; labor reformer. As President of Queensland Women's Peace Army, opposed conscription in World War I.
On war: "Those who make the quarrel should be the only ones to fight."
"[T]hen conscience was satisfied, unpopularity should not matter—respectability meant acting in humanity's interest." (National Library of Australia; photo Wikipedia)
Mirabehn (née Madeleine Slade) born Reigate, Surrey, England November 22, 1892 (d. 1982). Long-time associate of Gandhi; daughter of British admiral; arrested several times for civil disobedience.
"Gandhi, who served the cause of oppressed the cause of oppressed India through fearless truth and non-violence, a cause which, though focused in India, was for the whole of humanity." (Spirit's Pilgrimage, p. 60; photo c. 1980 GandhiServ)
Olga Misař born Vienna, Austria December 12, 1876 (d. 1950). Founding member of WILPF 1915; secretary Union of Conscientious Objectors 1923-36; exiled; pacifist; suffragist; feminist.
“This task [of enforcing peace] falls to us women especially, and means an incredible work of many decades by hundreds and many thousands of people who each in this sphere must work very hard to give their children, their entire environment, teaching respect for justice, both in international as in personal behavior. If this carried out, one can hope that the international pressure in the individual states will be so strong that such wars are made impossible.” (WILPF Report, 1915, p. 90; 1913 photo onb.ac.at)
Ruth Misselwitz born Zützen, Brandenburg, Germany February 3, 1952. Protestant pastor. Founded Pankow Peace Circle, opposing East German regime, 1981; leader of Women for Peace, 1982. Led church peace and environmental movement in GDR; Action Reconciliation chairman.
"The rainbow has many colors, so it should be with the social order, even with religion." (Die Zeit, March 18, 1988; photo EKIR news)
Hannah Mitchell (née Webster) born Hope Woodlands, England February 11, 1872 (d. 1956). British suffragist; feminist; orator. Democratic Socialist; pacifist; opposed World War I. Member of No Conscription Fellowship and WILPF; member of Manchester City Council, 1924-35; magistrate, 1926-1937.
"All my life I had hated war. . . The idea of men killing each other had always seemed so hideous to me, that my first conscious thought after my baby was born was that he should be brought up to resist war. His father fully agreed with me in this resolve. Apart from the ethical point of view, we both believed that war in the main is a struggle for power, territory or trade, to be fought by the workers, who are always the losers." (Mitchell, The Hard Way Up; photo Spartacus Educational)
Danielle Mitterand (née Gouze) born Verdun, France October 29, 1924 (d. 2011). As French first lady, publicly supported human rights for Tibet, Sahrawi, Central America, Kurds, 1981-95. Awarded North South Prize, 1996.
On the US embargo of Cuba: “[T]he greatest international injustice I have ever seen.'' (Associated Press, Nov. 13, 2005)
“I have joined the World March for Peace and Nonviolence like millions of human beings who want to live with good intelligence, to share the richness of co-existence and to give Peace a chance.” (World March for Peace, Oct. 2009; photo 29minutes.fr)
Diderike Annette Møller born Østfold, Norway June 18, 1838 (d. 1912). "Peace Mother" Norwegian peace activist; founded Norwegian Peace Association 1895; obtained 50,000 signatures for peace petition 1898; important contributor to peaceful separation from Sweden 1905.
"Our league respects the fatherland's holy cause, as we hope that war would be replaced by arbitral judgment, which guarantees each nation's independence while eliminating the cause of discord." (Store Norwegian Lexicon: Møller; photo geni.com)
Eva Moltesen born Jorois, Finland December 17, 1871 (d. 1934). Danish-Finnish historian and peace leader; founding member WILPF, 1915; co-founder Danish Women’s Peace Chain, 1916. (photo familien.stoerup.dk)
Hélène Monastier born Payerne, Switzerland December 2, 1882 (d. 1976). Quaker; co-founder of first nonviolent peace corps, Service Civil International (SCI), 1920, whose motto is "Deeds, not words." (http://bit.ly/w1cW7y; photo c.1904, Wikipedia)
Dora Montefiore (née Dorothy Fuller) born Tooting, London December 20, 1851 (d. 1933). British feminist; Socialist leader. Actively opposed World War I, advocating general strike against war, and hiding to avoid arrest; refused taxes in Boer War and suffrage protest, 1906; barricaded house against collectors, who sold her possessions; arrested for suffrage protest in House of Commons, 1906. Edited Australian newspaper opposing conscription, 1911; arrested for kidnapping in her rescue of 300 starving Irish children, Dublin, 1912.
"I had already, during the Boer War, refused willingly to pay income tax, because payment of such tax went towards financing a war in the making of which I had had no voice." (From a Victorian to a Modern, 1927; photo Wikipedia)
Caroline Moorehead born London, England October 28, 1944. British human rights journalist and author. Chronicled tales of pacifists and war resisters in Troublesome People: The Warriors of Pacifism, 1987; wrote biographies of Bertrand Russell and Martha Gellhorn; told the stories of Magda Trocmé of Chambon and French women resisters.
"There is a stubbornness, and obduracy about pacifism that can be infuriating; it can also be heroic, admirable." (Troublesome People; photo World People's Blog)
Denise Moran Savineau born Paris, France September 11, 1885 (d. after 1946). Journalist. French critic of colonial treatment of women based on experience as administrator (Tchad, 1934; official report, 1938). Ran forum of World Committee of Women against War and Fascism, 1935. Active in Resistance to Nazi violence.
“We recognize customs which are most opposed, and try to let them evolve, protecting the individual on one hand, and assuring the maintenance of the family on the other. . . it’s an imbroglio—At least we should avoid it, as far as we are concerned: Specify our aim, to define family authority and individual freedom, to achieve a balance.” (Report on the condition of the family in French West Africa, and condition of women, Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines, pp. 187-88, n. 44; photo of her book Tchad)
Hannah More born Bristol, England February 2, 1745 (d. 1833). Proto-feminist English playwright. First female abolitionist; member of Clapham Sect, an organization for social reform.
"The means may differ, but the end's the same; Conquest is pillage with a nobler name." ("Slavery", 1788)
"Love never reasons, but profusely gives; it gives like a thoughtless prodigal its all, and then trembles least it has done too little." (Percy, 1777; 1821 portrait by Pickersgill, Wikipedia)
Lina Morgenstern (née Bauer) born Breslau, Silesia November 25, 1830 (d. 1909). German Jewish feminist and peace advocate; educator; founded kitchens for the poor, 1866.
"We demand of state and society that they enables us [women] to realize our talents by admitting us to study like a man." (Patricia Mazon, Gender and University, p. 111; photo 1905 wiki)
Ruth Schachter Morgenthau born Vienna, Austria January 26, 1931 (d. 2006). American professor of international politics, specializing in African affairs; US delegate to UN; founded Food Corps International to combat world hunger.
"We must. . . give, not only take from Africa. . . work for general peace and progress, not just our own." (Africa Today, Dec. 1966, p. 24; photo http://bit.ly/GzRmPt)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
