Rosika Schwimmer, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Rosika Schwimmer

Hungarian activist

Date of Birth: 11-Sep-1877

Place of Birth: Budapest, Hungary

Date of Death: 03-Aug-1948

Profession: politician, journalist, non-fiction writer, peace activist, suffragist

Nationality: Hungary

Zodiac Sign: Virgo


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About Rosika Schwimmer

  • Rosika Schwimmer (Hungarian: Schwimmer Rózsa; 11 September 1877 – 3 August 1948) was a Hungarian-born pacifist, feminist and female suffragist.
  • Born into a Jewish family in Budapest in 1877, she graduated from public school in 1891.
  • An accomplished linguist, she spoke or read eight languages.
  • In her early career, she had difficulty finding a job that paid a living wage and was sensitized by that experience to women's employment issues.
  • Gathering data to provide statistics on working women, Schwimmer came into contact with members of the international women's suffrage movement and by 1904 became involved in the struggle.
  • She co-founded the first national women's labor umbrella organization in Hungary and the Hungarian Feminist Association.
  • She also assisted in organizing the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, hosted in Budapest in 1913. The following year, Schwimmer was hired as a press secretary of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in London.
  • When World War I broke out, she was branded an enemy alien and left Europe for the United States, where she spoke on suffrage and pacifism.
  • She was one of the founders of the Woman's Peace Party and the organization which would become the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
  • In 1915, after attending the International Congress of Women in The Hague, she worked with other feminists to persuade foreign ministers in Europe to support the creation of a body to peacefully mediate world affairs and was instrumental in convincing Henry Ford to charter the Peace Ship.
  • From 1916 to 1918, Schwimmer lived in Europe working on various plans to end the war.
  • With the establishment of the First Hungarian Republic, she was appointed as one of the world's first female ambassadors (from Hungary to Switzerland) in 1918.
  • When the Republic was toppled by a coup d'état, she fled to the United States, renouncing her Hungarian citizenship. Applying for naturalization, Schwimmer was rejected on the basis of her pacifism.
  • The case was overturned on appeal in 1928, and the following year the appeal was overturned by the US Supreme Court in the decision United States v.
  • Schwimmer.
  • For the remainder of her life, she remained stateless.
  • Unable to work because of ill-health and a smear campaign, she was supported by loyal friends.
  • In 1935, Schwimmer and Mary Ritter Beard established the World Center for Women's Archives to create an educational reference for women's history and document the individual and organizational achievements of influential women.
  • She was one of the first world federalists, proposing a world government in 1937.
  • Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1948, she died before the committee decided not to award it that year.
  • In 1952, naturalization laws in the United States were changed to allow for conscientious objection.

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