Women and Their Contributions to Struggle for Peace

Women worldwide have done incredible things in the battle against violence and arms. From Sierra Leone, to Italy, to Russia, to Columbia, to Australia, to the United States, women have gotten together to protest violence, educate others about the effects of violence, and to support each other when someone, or some group has been a victim of violence. The effect that women and women’s organizations have had is astounding, and gives us hope, that with these courageous women fighting for the basic human right to live without fear of violence we may wake up in a world that is free of conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction.

Women’s groups are invaluable to the peace process. From the grassroots level upward, women’s voices and opinions are essential. Their capacities for self sacrifice, courage, and determination make them a precious resource in the world of disarmament. They foster communication between the various parties, espouse concern over social issues that tend to be forgotten in discussions held solely by men, and engender conversation on prevention over resolution when it comes to stopping violence.

Unfortunately, women are too often pushed into the peripheries when important disarmament conferences take place. The reasons for this often go beyond the restrictions of gender roles and expectations that women worldwide are fighting to overcome, and expand into the realm of economic and social issues, such as lack of adequate food, shelter, education, and healthcare. As a direct result of these issues, women have a hard time making their voices heard, thus it is always a cause for celebration when a group of women manage to not only make their voices heard, but to make sure that their voices make a difference. The main aim of this essay is to highlight some of the things that women have done to further the cause of peace, and to share some insight into what women can do in the future to continue to combat violence and promote disarmament.

Much work has been done by women within their communities on the continent of Africa, where the usage of small arms and light weapons causes much death and suffering. After their split with Somalia in 1991, the tiny nation of Somaliland suffered from small wars and various infighting between clans groups. The women of Somaliland took matters into their own hands and helped get the clans to disarm by spreading their nonviolent message via traditional songs altered to fit their disarmament message. In a society with a strong oral tradition these songs were highly instrumental in spreading their beliefs and concerns and in provoking action.

Before the elections in Liberia, women demanded demilitarization, in order to ensure that the elections were free and fair. A group of women led by Mary Brownwell ran radio announcements throughout the country, calling women to a meeting in the capital of Monrovia, to discuss what should be done to disarm the country before the elections. The Liberian Women’s Initiative (LWI) was born from this meeting at the City Hall in Monrovia in 1994. The LWI took a stance of “disarmament before elections” and not only did women all around Liberia remove guns from the hands of men and boys at disarmament depots, but the women of the LWI organized programs to assist in organizing and peace talks with regional officials, and carried the voice of the everyday Liberian women directly to the regional heads and directors. These efforts, while not solely responsible for the demilitarization in Liberia before the elections, were certainly influential.

In addition to these groups of women who work within their own countries and their communities, international women’s groups, Non-Governmental Organizations and coalitions have done a tremendous amount to help with issues of women’s rights and disarmament. For example, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Women Strike for Peace and the Women of Greenham Common have all managed to make great strides in the field.

In Afghanistan, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs have set up centers where women can go to relax and escape the pressures and oppression they face in their daily lives. In these centers there are gender awareness and legal literacy classes, tailoring, carpet weaving, and beauty parlors. Also in Afghanistan, the Afghan Women’s Lawyer Council is training women so that they can take an active role in the upcoming constitutional meeting. These NGOs are training women to be leaders in representing women’s issues with success in an environment dominated by men.

Other Women’s groups such as Women’s EDGE educate the general public and policy makers on the situation of women in the world, especially concerning such issues as education and training, health care, reproductive health and family planning, child survival, the environment and economic growth. Organizations such as Women's EDGE petition the United States government to take more of an active role in protecting women’s rights world wide, to take into consideration how international treaties, agreements and situations affect the welfare of the women, and to incorporate the needs of women into international assistance programs.

Aside from advocating on specific women’s issues, many women’s NGOs call for reductions in military spending, international arms trafficking, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. For example, during the Cold War two women’s groups, the Geneva Committee for Peace and the Greenham Common Women, met in Geneva to protest nuclear weapons. Groups of women held hands, formed circles, and sang songs on the Avenue de la Paix in front of the US and Soviet Missions. Several of these women climbed fences into the Soviet mission, sat down and refused to move until a representative came and talked with them. In the meantime, they told stories about the horrors of nuclear war to the guards, talked to them about their families and the effects a war would have on them, and sang Russian children’s songs, winning smiles from soldiers who remembered the songs from their youth. Eventually the women were able to give their statement to a mission representative, who promised to share it with the rest of the mission. These women gathered to protest not only the threat of nuclear war, but all types of violence, particularly violence perpetrated by developed countries on developing countries.

Thanks to the efforts of all these miscellaneous women’s groups and organizations, change is occurring worldwide. Three years ago, the women of Afghanistan would never have dreamed that they would have a voice in writing a new constitution, or that the new constitution would proclaim men and women equals. In October of 2000, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1325, which dealt with women, peace, and security, which shows that the Security Council is no longer a gender blind institution, but a forward moving body which will strive for women’s involvement at all levels of conflict prevention and peacekeeping.

Despite these examples of women's work for peace the struggle to achieve disarmament is not even close to being over. Light weapons and small arms still abound in developing countries (often sold to them after being manufactured in developed countries such as the United States) and bans on nuclear weapons development, proliferation, and testing are proceeding slowly, if at all. In some cases, achievements of past arms control efforts have been nullified, leaving the world no better off than before the signing of the failed treaties. In still other cases, the treaties have been signed, but there has been precious little effort to implement them.

There are several things women can do to help ensure that their voices are heard in the push for disarmament. An excerpt from a book written based on the discussions at the May 1999 Hague Appeal for Peace Conference further outlines steps needed to be taken in order to more effectively promote peace and peacemaking as concerns women:

…promote programs aimed at enhancing the capacity and ability of women’s organizations to effectively engage in peace building efforts; increase the proportion of development aid directed at women’s organizations working on peace building and reconciliation; make gender considerations central to post – conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction to develop initiatives to respond to women’s and girls special needs in the reconstruction processes; to implement internationally agreed commitments; and to ensure the participation of women as leaders in all spheres of life, from the community to the political level.

Other suggestions for creating a culture of peace include: making intensive demonstrations of what women actually are doing (this is necessary because one does not normally hear about everyday feminist action for peace in prominent media sources such as the New York Times, and CNN); mobilizing a public peace process to educate people about the fact that security does not necessarily come via having power over others; and intensifying the special peacemaking programs, such as peer mediation and conflict resolution training, which are now found in a growing number of schools.

Finally, there are some things that everyday people can do in their spare time to help out on these issues. First, if people inform themselves about gender and disarmament issues by reading literature, watching videos and keeping up with current events they can then educate others, who can then educate a third group of people, and so on, thus creating a chain effect in which sizeable amounts of people will become better informed about the issues. Second, people should write to their government representatives urging them to support the cause of disarmament. Sending information about disarmament to representatives is also helpful. Third, demonstrations are an excellent way to let people know that there are people out there willing to dedicate their time and energy to the cause of disarmament. Lastly, it is necessary to reach out to all available media sources - using avenues such as television, radio, posters, e-mail, and the web are all helpful for spreading the word about disarmament issues. Making sure that the disarmament message is widely available greatly increases the chance of other people hearing it and joining the cause.

In sum, women have made great strides in the area of disarmament and the fight against violence; through demonstrations, meetings, conferences and more, women throughout the world have made an effort to make the world a more peaceful place, and have made a difference in their various local contexts. While strides have been made in many areas, much more work needs to be done. Further organizing is necessary for women to have their voices heard.

To view the sources used in this article, click here.

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