Women’s Conference Wraps Up With Equality as Focus

Issues of female equality dominated the Women Waging Peace Colloquium Friday, as the week-long conference at the Kennedy School of Government came to a close.

Jayantha Dhanapala, under-secretary general for Disarmament Affairs of the United Nations delivered the day’s keynote address, stressing the link between peacekeeping and women’s rights.

“Members of the Security Council have recognized that peace is inexplicably linked with equality between women and men,” Dhanapala said.

He challenged the conference participants to fight for women’s equality.

“Global norms, not built in a day, can certainly be destroyed in a day,” Dhanapala said.

The address, held in the ARCO Forum, was attended by about 100 people.

After the keynote, Donald Steinberg, the principal deputy director of policy planning for the U.S. Department of State, along with three U.N. delegates participated in a panel discussion that focused on the inclusion of women in official and unofficial peace processes.

The three female delegates shared tales of the challenges they faced as women working to promote peace, such as being overlooked by government officials because of gender.

Steinberg was responsive to the delegates’ concerns and said he was motivated to change policymakers views about women’s issues.

“For policymakers, sometimes the urgent squeezes out the important,” Steinberg said.

He explained several issues that government officials face from not addressing women’s issues.

In her closing remarks, Swanee Hunt, director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School and moderator of the colloquium, responded to the stereotype of women’s issues as soft issues.

“There is nothing soft about holding warlords accountable for their actions with women,” she said.

Some of the spectators said they appreciated the day’s events.

“There’s a lot of experience here from women on the front lines,” said Gillian M. Sorenson, assistant secretary general of the United Nations and a fellow at the Institute of Politics. “Women who have moved from being victims of war to being architects of peace.”

Sorenson’s view echoed the motto set by Dhanapala in his keynote address.

“When women move forward and when disarmament moves forward, the world moves forward,” Dhanapala said.