Why I'm Studying Women, War and Peace by Amy Madsen

There’s a scene in the 1964 film Goldfinger where James Bond dismisses a hotel masseuse named Dink from the conversation with a slap on the butt and the words, “Man Talk.” Whenever I think about teams getting together for the purpose of ending mass conflict, creating peace, or engaging in nation building or rebuilding, I’m reminded of that. 

Thanks in part to social progress and the recent #metoo movement, things have changed in the intervening 50+ years. While the James Bond of today would be less likely to dismiss Dink with a slap on the rear end, it’s still very likely Dink would get dismissed when it came time for the men to get down to the serious business of ending wars and negotiating peace. 

For, historically, both conflict and peace have been predominantly a man’s business—despite studies showing that when women are included in a peace process, the resulting agreement is 35% more likely to last 15 years (O'Reilly, Suilleabhain, & Paffenholz , 2015).

Coming from my privileged, western experience, it feels pretty reasonable to include women in peace processes, particularly since their inclusion increases the potential for success. And yet, women still have only a negligible seat at the table, or sometimes, none at all. At the 2014 Geneva II Conference on Syria, for example, not a single woman represented the Syrian government, OR the Syrian opposition, OR the United Nations (Moore & Talarico, 2015).

This leaves me wondering, where are the women? I’ve seen their names. I know there are brilliant female scholars contributing to the field of peacebuilding in meaningful ways. And based on UN agreements, there appears to be international support to include the marginalized voices of women in conflict resolution.

So if women make peace agreements more successful, and if countries value female participation during the peace process (at least on paper) and if peace is indeed the desired outcome: what’s holding female participation back? Is it the James Bonds of today? Is it that women themselves feel they have no place in the room? At the end of the day, is female participation seen as necessary, important or desirable?

To attempt to answer these questions, my research will meander through history: exploring the roles women have played in war and conflict; how those roles change and adapt due to geographic proximity and necessity; and ultimately what value and identity we place on women in war. I will be capturing my journey through the books, films, articles and art that address this topic here in Our Voice. My hypothesis is that from Virgil’s Camilla (29-19 BCE) to our female warriors of today—the voices of strong, capable women who have experienced conflict continue to be marginalized and minimized. I believe that only when we really hear their war stories, will we value their contributions to peace.