Gabrielle Radziwill

Gabrielle Radziwill
BornGabrielle Jeanne Anne Marie Radziwill
14 March 1877
Berlin, German Empire
Died9 January 1968 (1968-01-10) (aged 90)
Havilland Hall, United Kingdom
Noble familyRadziwill
Occupation
  • nurse
  • activist

Princess Gabrielle Jeanne Anne Marie Radziwill (14 March 1878 – 9 January 1968) was a Lithuanian nurse, pacifist and women's rights activist.[1] She was one of first women to join the League of Nations where she was active from 1920 to 1934.[2]

She was born in Berlin as the daughter of the Polish aristocrats Wilhelm Radziwiłł and his wife Catherine, née Rzewuska.[3] Her grandfathers were Russian general Adam Rzewuski and Prussian general Fryderyk Wilhelm Radziwiłł [pl].[3]

Before joining the Secretariat of the League of Nations in November 1920, Radziwill had spent two years working for the Russian Red Cross on the Russian-Persian front where she was in charge of hospitals. Active in women's organizations, in the League she was a strong supporter of women's interests, calling for cooperation with the women's movement.[4][5] In connection with relationships between the League and women's societies, she stressed: "I shall always be ready to do what I can to help and further the aims of the women's organizations — even when I do not see eye to eye with them!"[6]

In the League of Nations, she was initially employed as a Senior Assistant in the Information Section but was promoted to Member of Section in 1927. In 1931, she was transferred to the Social Questions and Opium Traffic Section and, in 1934, to the Intellectual Cooperation and International Bureaux Section where she worked until she left in December 1938.[2]

Speaking at the International Council of Women congress in 1925, Radziwill announced that the "League needs the work of women, and we women need the League of Nations' help, because the work that we are doing can only bear fruit if it is really sanctioned by our Governments and we women must help this sanction to be given."[7]

  1. ^ "Gabrielle Radziwill". Women in Peace. 17 April 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Gabrielle Jeanne Anne Marie Radziwill". Lonsea. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  3. ^ a b "Gabriela Ann ks. Radziwiłł na Nieświeżu h. Trąby". Sejm-Wielki.pl. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  4. ^ Kinnear, Mary (2004). Woman of the World: Mary McGeachy and International Cooperation. University of Toronto Press. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-0-8020-8988-5.
  5. ^ Offen, Karen M. (2000). European Feminisms, 1700-1950: A Political History. Stanford University Press. pp. 350–. ISBN 978-0-8047-3420-2.
  6. ^ Miller, Carol (1994). ""Geneva – the key to equality": inter-war feminists and the league of nations". Women's History Review. 3 (2): 219–245. doi:10.1080/09612029400200051.
  7. ^ Rupp, Leila J. (1997). Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women's Movement. Princeton University Press. pp. 212–. ISBN 978-0-691-01675-7.