March 11

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1878 Kathleen D’Olier Courtney born Gillingham, England (d. 1974). British suffragette. WILPF founding member. Chair of British WILPF, 1923-33. President of British UNA, 1949-51. Awarded UN Peace Medal, 1974.

  • 1883 Greta Stendahl born Karlsborg, Sweden (d. 1968). Quaker pacifist, peace activist, and suffragist. Swedish pioneer of peace education. WILPF leader. President, Swedish schools Peace Association; leader of Nordic teachers' peace covenant. Co-founded first peace education society, whose purpose was "to promote the creation of the ethical and social spirit which must form the necessary basis for the relationship between peoples," 1916. Aided refugees during World War II.

  • 1924 Margaret Ellen Traxler born St. Paul, MN (d. 2002). Prominent women’s rights activist; Catholic Sister of Notre Dame. At forefront of civil rights movement at Selma, AL, 1965.

  • 1927 Freda Meissner-Blau born Dresden, Germany. Austrian anti-nuclear activist. Led successful civil disobedience effort to save Hainberg Forest, 1984. Founder of Austrian Green Party, 1987.

  • 1941 Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold born Solothurn, Switzerland. Ethnologist; advocate for peace in Africa. Member of Swiss parliament and European Council. Her organization 1000 PeaceWomen, also known as PeaceWomen Across the Globe, nominated 1000 women for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to highlight women's efforts in forging peace.

  • 1945 Kada Hotić born Kuka Grad, Bosnia. Bosnian Muslim. Bosnian war survivor; husband, son, and brothers murdered in Srebrenica massacre, 1995. Co-founded Mothers of Srebrenica, 1995.

  • 1955 Nina Hagen (née Catharina Hagen) born East Berlin, German Democratic Republic. German singer, songwriter, actress; “Godmother of Punk”; antiwar, anti-nuclear; active protest on Iraq War; funded Afghan relief with song of sadness.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1983 12 women arrested for blockade at Comiso.

  • 2000 Soledad Alvear became first woman Foreign Minister of Chile.

  • 2001 Seven women arrested Faslane Scotland for chaining themselves to a French frigate with banner “Women of the world unite for a world without war.”

  • 2003 At Scotland's Leuchars Air Force Base, Ulla Rōder of Denmark damaged Tornado jet destined for Iraq War.

  • 2003 In Lubbock, TX, biologist Elsa Sabath was arrested for refusal to leave federal building in nonviolent protest.

  • 2004 Susan Lindauer arrested at Takoma Park, MD for alleged aid to Iraq.

  • 2013 Members of Nobel Women's Initiative issued a call for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems AKA killer robots.

  • 2015 Nurse Helen Schietinger interrupted Secretary of State John Kerry during Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, holding sign, “There is No Military Solution.”