September 30

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1832 Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis born Culpepper, VA (d. 1905). "The Mother of Mothers Day" founded Mothers' Friendship Day for peace and reconciliation after Civil War 1865 Pruntytown, WV; this became inspiration for her daughter Anna Jarvis who made Mothers Day official 1914.

  • 1875 Anne Henrietta Martin born Empire City, NV (d. 1951). Suffragist historian; author and journalist under the pseudonym Anne O'Hara. Jailed for suffrage protests London 1910, White House 1917; sentenced to Occoquan Prison; opposed both World Wars; Women's Peace Party 1915; first chair of National Woman's Party 1917; leader of WILPF Peoples Mandate against War; first woman to run for US Senate 1918.

  • 1883 Nora Stanton Blatch Barney born Basingstoke, Hampshire, England (d. 1971). First American woman civil engineer; radio electronics pioneer and architect; third generation suffragist peacemaker: granddaughter of Seneca Falls pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton, daughter of Harriet Stanton Blatch; author of World Peace Through a Peoples Parliament, 1944; opposed Korean War.

  • 1929 Dorothee Solle born Cologne, Germany (d. 2003). German liberation theologian; pacifist led protests against Apartheid, war in Central America and nuclear weapons; book The Arms Race Kills Even Without War, 1983; feminist.

  • 1929 Leticia Ramos-Shahani born Lingayan, Philippines. Diplomat, Secretary-General of UN Womens Conference Nairobi 1985; UN Assistant Secretary-General for Social & Humanitarian Affairs 1981-86; career diplomat Ambassador to Australia 1981-86; headed white paper on South China Sea 2012 recommending regional peace and stability; educator: Dean and professor of comparative literature.

  • 1949 Flora Brovina born Skënderaj, Kosovo. Kosovar Albanian poet and pediatrician; tortured during 19 months Serbian prison; Millennium Women's Peace Prize 2001.

  • 1963 Maite Nkoana-Mashabane born Makgobaskloof, Limpopo, South Africa. Anti-Apartheid leader; diplomat: Minister of International Relations 2009, High Commissioner to India 1999, Malaysia 1995; Chaired UN Climate conference Durban 2011.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1921 Signing of the League of Nations Treaty on Traffic in Women and Children, Geneva.

  • 1937 League of Nations created first international women’s body Committee on Legal Status of Women.

  • 1968 Canadian woman Claire Culhane began 10-day fast against Vietnam War.

  • 1991 Peg Miller sentenced to 3 years for anti-nuclear conspiracy in Arizona.

  • 1996 Four women tried and convicted for "Weep for Children" protest against launch of 18th nuclear sub "Louisiana" at Groton CT.

  • 2009 "Women, Peace and Security" resolution 1888 of UN Security Council on sexual violence in war.