Excerpts from the Workshops:
"How Women Wage Peace"

The following excerpts are from the delegate workshops held during the third annual Women Waging Peace Research Symposium, November 9-11, 2001, at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. The theme of the workshops was "How Women Wage Peace," with each workshop addressing a different aspect of women's peace building work.

Workshop 1: Gender Identity and Mobilization for Peace
This workshop addressed how women have used "traditional" identities to maximize the effectiveness of their movements for peace and to deflect charges of subversion. Participants discussed how the sanctifying images of traditional women's roles and the language of nurturing are often used to amplify their voices as peace builders.

"Gender identity and mobilization raise different issues during conflict and post-conflict. The type of conflict produces a certain type of gender identity. There are several types of conflict defined as ideological (in terms of communist, socialist, democratic) or ethnic/national. Political and class divides also play a major role in defining the conflict. Depending on the type of conflict, different issues are raised, and even different gender issues."

"The word gender was introduced in the feminist movement to differentiate between sex (biological) and gender (sociological). This differentiation indicates that socio-cultural norms are influenced and consequently can be transformed. It is interesting to point out that this differentiation between sex and gender is not found in all languages."

"The way that women have mobilized depends on the cultural, religious, political, and economic environments in which they find themselves. Individually and collectively they have been able to transform their situations. An important issue to pursue here is how to sustain the gains of women during national crisis periods."

Nira Yuval-Davis, Professor and Program Director, Gender & Ethnic Studies, University of Greenwich

Workshop 2: Women, War, and Coalitions Against Violence
From Rwanda to Bosnia rape, torture, and violence against women have been used in political campaigns of ethnic cleansing and humiliation of the enemy. Women have responded to these atrocities by organizing support networks for victims in their communities. Participants discussed how these networks have been used to create forums for peace and to develop effective coalitions against war.

"The nature of violence is very diverse � the absence of war is not peace."

"We also have to look at the perpetrators of violence. More and more non-state entities are becoming the perpetrators of human rights violations. We need to address the cycles of impunity and the need for reparations. In addition, there is absolutely no accountability for international perpetrators."

"Then there is the question of whether violence is the direct exploitation of women or whether violence is also created from circumstances that make women more vulnerable. We must remember there are economic and social forms of violence that are not necessarily physical in nature. For example, starvation in the refugee camps, the impact of self-worthlessness and lack of empowerment, if sustained, could lead to drug-taking and prostitution."

"Women should be concerned with the causes as well as the manifestations of violence and the reasons that give rise to tensions and conflicts. Women do understand politics - they practice politics in their homes and lives everyday. They understand the concepts but they are just not allowed to think of their lives as having public interest. Their attempts are always undermined and resisted. If women are able to assert their own agenda they may be able to shift the agenda to make their contributions more possible. Therefore developing coalitions is very important."

Hina Jilani, Secretary General of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders.

Workshop 3: Women as Community Builders
Women are often the center of community life as caregivers for children and elders, and as active members of their religious assemblies. This makes women integrally connected to their communities and thus experts on local needs, fears, and concerns. Participants discussed how women peace builders use these roles effectively to create a sustainable "bottom-up" approach to peace building.

"The overall structural, economic situation - impact of poverty - is what defines the role for women (as head of household, breadwinner, holding several jobs, etc). This is a constant theme across the conflicts in the different countries. The role of women can be put into two words: change and challenge. Women face lots of changes that are challenging, and the challenges they overcome result in lots of change. Women become involved as soldiers, peacemakers, and sole heads of households. It is important to understand the impact and context of war on a community - this is the basis from which countries have begun to develop their response."

"What is happening to women is related to what is happening to men. Therefore men must be part of the dialogue. Community building can't happen without recognition of all the different roles that have changed. Otherwise we create a new form of violence."

"It is important for women to achieve personal empowerment and personal consciousness and move beyond the role of victim. There are also local context constraints, for example, the physical act of getting together and therefore we need new kinds of strategies to set up the network and to get women together."

"One of the strategies women need to apply is the use of the appropriate language. There is a need for training in how to be effective politically so as not to threaten or override party differences. Women need to challenge the definitions of ethnicity and politics and find alternate ways to define themselves."

"Organizations have to define the community they work in - is it your geographic location or the Diaspora? - since we are now a trans-global world. Communities expand to neighboring countries and all over the world. This Diaspora is very active and can aggravate internal politics or can help it."

Angela Raven-Roberts, Assistant Professor and Director, Research and Training Programs, Feinstein International Famine Center, Tufts University

Workshop 4: Women as Creators of Social-Civic Discourse for Peace
In times of crisis women are propelled into public spaces. Women have found many creative ways to overcome traditional barriers to their participation in political spaces. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo brought international attention to the social injustices in Argentina by marching quietly and wearing white scarves on their head as a symbol of peace and justice. Women in Black have developed a profound and powerful political voice throughout the world by standing in public places in silent, non-violent vigils at regular times and intervals. This workshop explored how women have changed political discourse and created voices for peace through their innovative approaches.

"Women usually get involved with issues that directly affect their lives and in this process begin to see the larger issues - racism, imperialism, and class issues. This is a process of politicization. How do you mobilize the conversation to a more organized effort leading to actions that will live beyond the immediate event? How do we institutionalize the work that women do? Although the solutions might be different for different situations, it is important to conduct conversations that build broader coalitions. This can be aided by outside pressure and support. Women are however usually fearful about being co-opted into politics."

"We often talk about if a strategy has failed, but we should put it in a larger framework and think that one strategy leads to further regrouping and reflection on the limits of certain kinds of intervention. This way we do not think of failure but as ways of regrouping and reflecting. The problem is that women have been left out of the conversation, but if they hear us explain our needs they'll respond. The process of politicization is a painful one. You think it's a simple process of getting heard, but actually it is more complicated."

Nancy Naples, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Connecticut

Workshop 5: Transforming Tradition as a Vehicle for Peace
In many societies, women use indigenous cultural practices to create a discourse for peace and to transform violent conflict. Participants in this workshop tried to identify how women are able to successfully adapt these traditions to present day socio-cultural needs without being seen as a threat to local authorities.

"Tradition is a pattern defined by each community and reflects values or beliefs. One pattern shows women as not visible in public life, while another angle is that women are visible, yet not by modern definitions. One vehicle for peace is to conceptualize these values to increase visibility of women and think of ways to protect interests (for example, legally)."

"Women are transcending traditions through education, joining the military, pursuing jobs outside home, etc. How do we manage when women break the glass ceiling - how does this progress impact peace? Violence such as rape often occurs as a backlash when women take non-traditional roles such as becoming warriors, and is used as a tool to remind women of their status."

"Traditional settings have been valuable in enabling women to have space for negotiation; women are not seen as combatants but as a strong link to family."

"Changes have eroded the very value system of tradition. When we tell our stories, they must be told with a clear historical context so that strategies must be understood with this context in mind and a full picture is given."

Jacqueline Adhiambo-Oduol, Professor, United States International University-Africa

Workshop 6: Creating Healing and Reconciliation
Along with enormous physical destruction, victims of war endure mental atrocities and suffer from loss, grief, and trauma. This workshop examined how women peace builders often engage in activities that create a forum for communication and processes for reconciliation and forgiveness between former warring communities.

"If anger is maintained, it can be debilitating. So there has to be a turning point somewhere along the way. But you can't prescribe to anyone when they should let go of their anger. You need to create the circumstances for the dissipation of anger to happen. The burden to let go is not just on the person who has been angered. The burden, especially, is on the person who has perpetrated the trauma. And people who are peace builders, of course, can work on creating the space for dialogue to happen. Because that is the crucial aspect of transformation. It is dialogue. And to get that, you have to create the environment for it."

"One of the problems - as we've seen with the Bosnian Tribunal and the Rwandan tribunal - is that these processes often drag before people can see that justice is being done. So it can't really be part of the process of justice. It is very different when watching perpetrators testify. Some of the healing comes from witnessing the narrative, the story about the past. But this was taken away from the people in Rwanda and Yugoslavia, because they were not there."

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Visiting Assistant Professor, Peace and Justice Program, Wellesley College

 

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