2021-01-08 Fri

Emily Greene Balch was an American economist, sociologist and pacifist. Balch combined an academic career at Wellesley College with a long-standing interest in social issues such as poverty, child labour, and immigration, as well as settlement work to uplift poor immigrants and reduce juvenile delinquency.

She moved into the peace movement at the start of World War I in 1914 and began collaborating with Jane Addams of Chicago. She became a central leader of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) based in Switzerland, for which she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946.

A member of the Society of Friends, Balch became increasingly committed to the cause of peace and, following her attendance at the International Congress of Women at The Hague in 1915, she devoted her major efforts to that cause.

Depicted here is a Guinea Bissau stamp dedicated to the women Nobel Prize winners, Emily Green Balch. It bears an image of an Emily Green, in the background is a white dove symbolising peace flying across on the globe.

Image Source: https://www.ebay.com