Muriel Duckworth (1908-2009) was a Canadian activist, feminist, and pacifist.
Muriel Duckworth (1908-2009) was a Canadian activist, feminist, and pacifist.
Women’s contributions to peacekeeping efforts are often overlooked, but no more. This month on Womanica we're highlighting women who have spearheaded peacekeeping initiatives all over the world — from India to South Africa to the United States. We cover women like Doria Shafik who led Egypt’s female liberation movement, as well as Coretta Scott King who was a fierce advocate for equality for Black Americans and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Tune in to hear the stories of women who were integral to creating peace in their communities.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Meltem Burak. I’m the host and producer of the podcast, Sesta. We aim to harness the power of arts and culture to foster conversation and build peace in Cyprus. I’ll be your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This month, we’re highlighting Peacebuilders: In times of conflict, these women have stepped in, bringing their creativity and insight to help facilitate peace across the globe.
Today, we are talking about a woman who worked tirelessly for justice both in her own communities and for other causes. She founded and worked with 17 organizations, and integrated the causes of feminism and pacifism. She lived for 100 years and filled each day bettering the lives of others.
Please welcome Muriel Duckworth.
Muriel Ball was born on October 31, 1908 in Austin, Canada about 80 miles east of Montreal, on her parent’s farm. She was the third of five children to Anna Westover and Ezra Ball. Farm life was difficult, and not very profitable. To make ends meet, Anna ran a boarding house and Ezra sold lightning rods.
Muriel grew up in a lively Methodist home. The family often had people over to gather and sing hymns or debate politics. Anna read Muriel works by Nellie McClung, a prominent Canadian suffragette, and turned their china cabinet into a community lending library.
At age sixteen, Muriel entered McGill University in Montreal. At McGill, she joined the Student Christian Movement, a progressive – and at times controversial– campus organization. It encouraged students to explore the Christian faith radically and critically. For Muriel, that included opposing anti-Semitism on campus, and helping raise money for student relief. Muriel later described it as the beginning of her adult search for truth. She called it unsettling, painful, and exciting.
It was through the Student Christian Movement that she met her husband Jack Duckworth. The couple was married in 1929,the same week as her graduation. Following her time at McGill, both she and Jack went on to study at the Union Theological Seminary in New York for a year.
There, they took part in the social gospel movement, which emphasized that being Christian meant aligning oneself with the poor and powerless. Muriel began to internalize these teachings– and at a pivotal time. Less than a year into her time in New York, the stock market crash of 1929 plummeted the country into the Great Depression. The city was rife with opportunity to take the teachings of the social gospel into her real life. Muriel spent her time volunteering with young immigrant girls in Hell’s Kitchen.
The following year, she and Jack returned to Montreal where they raised their three children. There, she continued advocating for social causes and joined several organizations which promoted living wages, unemployment insurance, healthcare, affordable housing and more.
In 1947, the family moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Muriel quickly became a well-known face in her new community as a parent education advisor for the Nova Scotia Department of Education. It was through her work in the thick of Halifax’s community that her eyes were opened to more and more social issues. Muriel’s list of causes kept growing. Each issue she tackled made her commitment to social change and justice even more impassioned.
Above all, Muriel was invested in peace at a time of acute tension across the globe. In 1960, the United States and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war. After hopes of peaceful compromise were dashed at the failed 1960 Paris Peace talks, women across Halifax began phoning the only woman they knew would relentlessly champion the pacifist cause.
Muriel heeded the call. Twenty five women huddled in her living room to organize around peace. Within a month of forming, the group had successfully blocked the United States from dumping nuclear waste off the Nova Scotia coast.
This was just the beginning. Over the next few years, Muriel’s chapter joined with women across Canada to become the nationally-recognized peace organization Voice of Women, or VOW. Muriel served as VOW’s national president from 1967 to 1971, at the height of the Vietnam War.
The Voice of Women publicly opposed the war and Muriel took it upon herself to spearhead anti-war efforts. She invited three Vietnamese women from the National Liberation Front to tour Canada, giving talks and meeting delegations of women working toward peace. She also protested Canada’s involvement in nuclear weapons testing as she learned about its connection to the United States chemical warfare in Vietnam.
In Halifax, Muriel also became involved in the Quaker faith and found that many members of the religion became active participants in Voice of Women.
Though Muriel never faced incarceration for her peaceful protests, she did obtain a federal tax at age eighty for withholding 9 percent of her federal income tax over several years: the amount she had calculated the country was using for war preparations.
Even as she aged, Muriel did not stop her activities in pursuit of peace. Muriel became a member of the lively Canadian geriatric group, the Raging Grannies, who use humor and song to bring awareness to social justice issues.
While in her cottage, Muriel fell and broke her hip. She passed away at 100 years of age in Magog, Quebec. The Canadian Voice of Women for Peace now presents an annual award for peace activism in Muriel’s honor.
All month, we’re talking about peacebuilders. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan, for having me as a guest host.
As always, we’ll be taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you on Monday!