Peg Snyder - A personal reflection

Peg (Margaret) Snyder has passed away.

 I learned this today through a message from Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women

 Peg was born in 1929 and this would have been her 92nd year. Phumzile pays a tribute to her role as “a pathfinder in the work for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Referred to as the ‘UN’s First Feminist’, ..[she was the] first director of the Voluntary Fund for the UN Decade for Women,  [and]she subsequently became the founding director in 1978 of UNIFEM, or the UN Development Fund for Women, which she led for over a decade”  and you can read more about her illustrious career here on Wikipedia.  There is much in that Wikipedia article that as activists following in her footsteps we need to know, admire, celebrate and take forward

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The view from the "West Wing" window

I met Peg Snyder just three or four years ago, when at the request of a neighbour, Nancy Baldwin,  at 10 Mitchell Place where she lived in New York, she graciously allowed me to stay in her spare room or her ‘West Wing’ as she called it.  

I am so happy I got to know this amazing woman, fiercely independent even at 90, intellectually very sharp, politically very aware, yet incredibly modest, with a quiet sense of humour and fun.  Though my schedules in New York were often very packed, I made time to chat, to join her in a simple dinner of soup and salad,  and pick up little bits of her story as it played out in the US (we talked about her meetings with Malcolm X!) or in East Africa.   Nancy and Peg used to take great pride in the roof garden of the apartment block – and when it wasn’t too windy or cold we have spent some time on the roof chatting over a glass of wine and some cheese.  Or I would join Peg for a walk around the block, and for breakfast at a nearby café.

We had several mutual friends and acquaintances – especially Marilyn Carr, who had been at ITDG (now Practical Action) was a close friend of Peg’s and a frequent occupant of the West Wing;  Ipek Ilkaraccan, who is now on IWRAW AP’s Advisory Committee but who I knew when she worked for UNIFEM told me she rented  Peg’s apartment when she was in New York and I know Steve Bonnist  knew her too.

Last year Peg told me that she already had someone coming to stay with her during the period of CSW, but I promised that I would visit her when I came to New York and we even fixed a date and time to meet.  But CSW was cancelled in 2020 as the pandemic unleashed itself on New York and we didn’t keep that date.  It was a difficult year but even as late as October 2020 Nancy told me that Peg was going strong, working on the garden with her usual enthusiasm.

Rest in peace and power, Peg Snyder.  I am sorry I will not be able see you in the Big Apple when I next visit.  It was a great privilege to know you and to be able to stay with you, I will always remember with gratitude the sharing and the friendship.