September 3

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1803 Prudence Crandall born Hope Valley, RI (d. 1890). Quaker pacifist. First to admit black students to her Canterbury, CT school, 1833; arrested for violation of Black Law; speaker on abolition and suffrage.

  • 1878 Madeleine Vernet born Le Houlme, Normandy (d. 1949). French journalist, poet and teacher; anarchist, militant pacifist who opposed all wars; founded League of Women Against War, 1921; started Volonté de Paix, 1927; promoted conscientious objection.

  • 1881 Magda Hoppstock-Huth born Hamburg (d. 1959). Co-founded German WILPF, 1916. Opposed anti-Semitism; defended minorities, 1930s; arrested, 1944, rescued from Fuhlbüttel prison, 1945. In postwar political career, opposed nuclear weapons, Cold War and German remilitarization; advocated total disarmament.

  • 1911 Yvonne Dumont (née Fafe) born Paris, France (d. 1986). French Communist politician; active in Resistance WWII; member of postwar Movement for Peace; delegate of pacifist Women’s International Democratic Federation to UNESCO; believed women worked best politically through pacifist protests.

  • 1961 Isabelle Ameganvi born Kpalimé, Togo. Togolese lawyer, legislator, and human rights activist. Initiated Lysistrata-style sex strike for Let’s Save Togo campaign, followed by two women’s marches, 2012.

  • 1969 Jaine Rose born England. Gloucestershire artist and weaver; self-styled witch. Founded Wool against Weapons Action (AWE); conceived 7-mile-long pink "peace scarf" against Trident missiles from Aldermaston to Burghfield, Berkshire, 2014.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1791 Declaration of the Rights of Women by Olympe de Gouges. "Man, are you capable of being just?"

  • 1934 Zürich Conference of WILPF organized by German exile Gertrud Baer.

  • 1981 Magna Carta of Women, CEDAW, UN Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women became effective.

  • 2014 Afghan woman Samira Hamidi protested the lack of women at NATO summit in Wales with a sign reading "TALK TO ME—NOT ABOUT ME"