Feminist Perspective on Peace and Security in the 21st Century

Good morning sisters and friends,

Thank you for inviting me in this very important seminar. Today when the world is intoxicated with great technological advancement, e-commerce, virtual communication, gene cloning, modern weapons, and flooding of our markets of all kinds of goods; and, when despite economic globalisation the gap between the rich and poor has widened and conflicts and wars continue to rage in considerable number of countries; to talk about women's perspective and role in peace building is urgent. Being a woman has always meant living at a time of war and, more so, at this juncture of our history.

A feminist poet in the Philippines wrote:

No moment is without danger in one's own home
In the streets
In my country
For the cruelty of war
Lies not on the heads that roll,
But on empty tables.

Women on the basis of gender live their lives, be it wartime or peacetime, in a seemingly endless state of war. During the World War II, women have not only been witnesses of the poverty and violence but they have become the targets as well. The issue of comfort women and the violence committed against them by military personnel during World War II exploded like bombshell in front of us when the survivors themselves revealed how they were made to suffer as sex slaves by the Japanese imperial army. Never have we imagined such massive trafficking of women to satiate and comfort men at war.

In this era of economic globalisation, majority of poor women are faced with the modern day form of slavery, commodification and violence in the private sphere, and in war and conflict situations. The increasing number of migrant women doing dirty and dangerous jobs with very cheap pay, the swelling number of unemployed and underemployed women, the flexibilisation of their labour in the name of profit, the widespread violence against women in their homes and places of work, the scourge of war bearing on women and children, and worsening poverty which leaves them more hungry and wanting of basic services; are but living proofs of how women fare in this period of economic globalisation.

The Beijing plus 5 meeting held in New York to review the implementation of the Platform for Action to improve the status of women recognized that "globalisation has presented new challenges for the fulfilment of the commitments made and the realization of the goals of the Beijing Conference Of Women". The review said that the "impact of globalisation and structural programmes, the high cost of external debt servicing and the declining terms of international trade, in several developing countries, have worsened the existing obstacles to development, aggravating the feminisation of poverty." Thus, despite numerous achievements to improve the status of women, women's lives continue to be threatened at a much wider scale and in more intense forms.

When we talk of peace, war as its anti-thesis immediately comes to mind. This is because while war is only one of the many causes of the lack of peace, it is the most dramatic, organised, and systematic form of violence against people. It is ironic that in this so-called peacetime, armed conflicts in various parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Middle East, and Europe continue to rage on. It is estimated that close to 90 % of the war casualties are civilians, the majority of whom are women and children, compared to a century ago when 90 % of those who lost their lives were military personnel (UN document). The growing number of armed conflicts and the violations associated with them has resulted as well in an increased in forced internal displacement and refugee flows. More than 75 % of displaced people are women and children (UN document). Women and girls are particularly affected because of their status and their sex. The abuses that they suffer take various forms such are rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, and murder. Militarism and sexism are both built on power and oppression. Both strike against the powerless and oppressed in society, especially in a war setting. Genuine peace for women, aside from being premised on the resolution of the armed conflict takes into consideration the specificity of women's sufferings under patriarchal society and its inclusion in the overall agenda for peace.

Peace and security, therefore, is very much a woman's issue. The UN International Women's Decade from 1975 to 1985 witnessed the unprecedented global organising around issues concerning women's social, economic and political well-being. Peace of course was central to the Decade's activities. The Vietnam War was the catalyst for the renewal of active feminism in the peace movement and the UN Decade for Women added breadth to that new intensity. Feminists committed to peace began to elucidate connections linking poverty, sexism, racism, violence against women and children, ecological damage, and a myriad of other social, economic, and political ills with militarism, the nuclear arms race, and the Cold War intrusions into the affairs of developing nations. The same issues remain to be advanced by women in the next Women's decade. The Beijing Conference of Women in 1995 came out with a Platform for Action, which linked equality, development, and peace. Without changing the situation of women, there can never be real development. Without equity, there can never be genuine peace.

As women from various cultures and background increasingly become active participants in the movement for change, one woman's definition of peace does not necessary match with another's. In fact, very often women found themselves at odds over what conditions were necessary to ensure peace. Although most women agreed that a warless world could not be achieved unless everyone had their basic needs fulfilled - food, shelter, health care, education and employment - they disagreed on political solutions to world tensions. There are groups that only seek to address the issues of women and refrain from responding to more political issues that tend to rock the status quo. Some would tend to look at the issue of peace at a purely patriarchal basis and root the absence of peace to power relations between men and women. Others look at peace and security at a purely economist point, rooting this into conflicting interest between classes. And still other groups will look at peace as a political issue and therefore, women should not participate in this endeavour as their role is not in politics. The approach to the advancement of peace has been varied. As well, there are women who opted to join the armed struggle, to wage war to attain peace, while the majority choose to advance peace through non-violent but militant means. There are also those who opted to work within the status quo to achieve peace.

To be able to pursue real peace, women must look at the real causes of what creates conflict. The competition for power and resources, the relation between classes, and the patriarchal relations existing in society must all be part of the equation in pursuing genuine peace and ensuring human security. All these must be viewed as integral and therefore, efforts to change the situation and pursue genuine peace must address all. In this period of globalisation, such pursuit must address the evils of economic globalisation and all other economic impositions that increase the poverty of peoples especially women and children.

Women must be actively involved in all arenas that will ensure the pursuit of just and lasting peace. They must develop active leadership in various areas of work, whether in the grassroots movement, parliamentary struggles, or in public manifestations. Education and information is a key to active participation of women.

Most important, women should define what living peacefully means to us and to our families. For women, peace means the absence of gender violence that is premised on the eradication of structures that perpetuate the notion of women as property that can be abused and as the inferior other. Fundamental changes that will eliminate social and economic inequality, injustice and political repression should be achieved. For women then, genuine peace is a condition where the majority, more than half are women, can live their full humanity without oppression and repression.

Peace to women should be the shouting of children at play, the babble of tongues set free, the thunder of dancing feet, and a father's voice singing.