The Women Peacemakers Program (WPP)

who we are
what we do
what you can do

Why a Women's Program?
This century has seen a change from soldiers being the primary casualties in war to the bulk of victims being civilians. This fact alone means that women's and girls' lives are being affected by armed conflict as never before. Conflicts can impact on women and girls in very specific ways, ways which have too often been ignored or unrecognised: as primary caretakers of children and the elderly, as victims of war rape, as refugees, increasingly as armed combatants themselves.

War is a very gendered activity, and activists dedicated to eliminating war must incorporate a gender perspective in their work.

Incorporating a gender perspective--looking at the power relationships between men and women, and at how women and men may be affected differently by the same event--raises some very problematic issues. It involves expanding the definition of peace work, to include development issues, such as income generation.

During the last decade development agencies--and their funders--have realised the close links between development and peace, and the key role women play in both. Without peace, development is impossible--and without women, neither sustainable peace nor development can take place.

Another problematic issue is the definition of peace itself. What is the exact difference between "peace time" and "war time" to a woman being beaten by her male partner or a girl being sold into prostitution? According to a study commissioned by the World Health Organization, some 40 to 60 percent of women and girls in any given culture will experience rape, domestic abuse and/or incest. How does this "private" violence against half of humanity differ from the "public" violence of armed conflict?

Yet another issue is the crucial question of increasing women's access to political power and political decision making. Women are not just victims. Groups like the Liberian Women's Initiative and Sudanese Women's Voice for Peace; the experiences of women UN election monitors in South Africa; the role of church women in ending Bougainville's brutal war--all of these cases and more show that women are leaders in peace and reconciliation efforts.

However without access to political decision-making, women's solutions go ignored. The challenge for women peacemakers is both to gain political power--and to transform political structures and processes into more democratic and egalitarian forms. This is linked to yet another issue. When does capitalising on women's strengths in peacemaking--good listening and communication skills, the flexibility to compromise, caring for people above abstract principles--become perpetuating traditional sex role stereotypes that rationalise domination and inequality?