Champions for peace [Book] : women winners of the Nobel Peace Prize / Judith Hicks Stiehm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Bertha von Suttner : noble woman and nobel friend -- Jane Addams : the greatest woman who ever lived -- Emily Greene Balch : the dismissed professor -- Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan : sisterhood created by tragedy -- Mother Teresa : from Macedonia to India -- Alva Myrdal : world diplomat -- Aung San Suu Kyi : resisting by staying home -- Rigoberta Mench Tum : a story that broke the world's heart -- Jody Williams : internet activist -- Shirin Ebadi : Muslim judge -- Wangari Muta Maathai : Kenya's ?green doctor -- Tawakkol Karman, Leymah Gbowee, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf : 2011, the year of the women.

Only fifteen women have won the Nobel Prize for Peace since it was first awarded in 1901. Hailing from all over the world, some of these women have held graduate degrees, while others barely had access to education. Some began their work young, some late in life. In this compelling book, Judith Stiehm narrates these women’s varied lives in fascinating detail. The second edition includes the stories of three additional outstanding women—Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkol Karman—who were honored in 2011 with the Nobel Peace Prize “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” Engaged and inspiring, all these women clearly demonstrate that there is something each of us can do to advance a just, positive peace. Whether they began by insisting on garbage collection or simply by planting a tree, each understood that peace must be global in order to be sustained. All learned that peace is not always popular, but believed they must persevere. They shared a common vision and commitment undiminished by obstacles and opposition. As Judith Stiehm convincingly shows, all are truly "champions for peace."