Panel Examines Women's Role in World Peacekeeping

Women can act as a bridge between warring parties in the world’s worst conflicts, a panel of women peace builders told an almost all-female crowd at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) last night.

The female ability to be neutral and to naturally attract people towards dialogue rather than aggression acts as a catalyst in conflict resolution, said the peace advocates from Sierra Leone, Guatemala, Iraq and South Korea.

The panel, moderated by KSG lecturer Swanee Hunt, was the concluding event of two days of seminars and workshops on the topic of women and peace, coordinated by the KSG’s Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP). WAPP’s stated mission is to incorporate gender perspectives into the public policy education that the school provides its students.

Joseph S. Nye Jr., dean of the KSG, pointed out that men have a tendency to use coercion in order to achieve control—a phenomenon Nye deems “hard power”—while women generally exude influence through consensus building—or “soft power.”Last night’s panelists used their personal experiences to illustrate what they perceive as a unique feminine ability for bringing about peace.

Luz Mendez, an active participant in the Guatemalan Peace Agreement process, spoke of the role of women in her country.

“Together with all city societies [women] asked for a creation of a table for a dialogue,” she said, highlighting the women’s ability to spark change through discussion.

Zainab Hawa Bangara from Sierra Leone, a former member of the U.N. Development Project Sierra Leone Task Force who has been an active fighter for decentralization of government and against poverty in her country, spoke of the particular power women had in mediation of conflict in Sierra Leone.

“We gave [the National Provisional Ruling Council—composed mostly of men] a hand of support,” she said. “We literally tell them how to run their offices.”

But women will only have limited ability to exercise this influence until they obtain political power through government positions, the panelists said.

Bangara’s South Korean counterpart, Bong-Scuk Sohn focused more on the problems women face when they attempt to run for public office.

“You have to have big money for [the] election or the support of 30 [men] behind you,” she said.

She pointed out the importance of lobbying in politics—in saunas and on the golf course, traditionally male domains.

To counteract this, she says, she has been convincing more women to run for office and training them to raise money and attract voters. She said her goal is to increase the number of women in the South Korean Parliament in the next election, from a mere 10 percent (23 out of 273) to at least 40 percent (70-79).

But she said she will have to fight even harder to combat the constraints of her predominantly patriarchal society.

“It’s very difficult for us [to get women to run for office] because of our culture and the totalitarian regime,” she said.

The restrictive society of Iraq stops many women from getting involved in politics, said Iraqi native Ala Talabani, noting that there still are no women mayors or judges and only two women on the newly formed Government Council.

“Nobody asked Iraqi women who [they] want in Government Council,” she noted.

Talabani remembered an occasion when she asked a woman at a workshop about her opinion.

“She nearly cried and said, ‘This is the first time in my life somebody asked me about my opinion,’” Talabani recalled.

The outlook was not entirely grim last night, however.

Things are improving in Iraq, Talabani noted, as there now is a woman on each of nine City Councils in Baghdad.

But she stressed the importance of women staying strong and united in their fight for political power, as the constitution will be drafted soon, and the election is scheduled for next November.

“We want our voice to be heard,” she said.

But voices can only be heard if the intended audience is there to hear them,

“This is a fantastic opportunity for Harvard to benefit from the experience [of these women speakers],” said Naomi Walcott, a KSG graduate student. “However, look at the crowd here. Where are the men?”

Nye said the absence of men relfects a wider problem.

“The liberation of women depends on liberation of men,” he said. “You don’t need to educate women, but men.”