His observations are connected with reflections on women and peace, in particular with the need for more women in leadership position and what prevents it from happening.

Here are some passages from Shirky’s blog:

I’m not concerned that women don’t engage in enough building of self-confidence or self-esteem. I’m worried about something much simpler: not enough women have what it takes to behave like arrogant self-aggrandizing jerks.

It’s just that until women have role models who are willing to risk incarceration to get ahead, they’ll miss out on channelling smaller amounts of self-promoting con artistry to get what they want, and if they can’t do that, they’ll get less of what they want than they want.

There is no upper limit to the risks men are willing to take in order to succeed, and if there is an upper limit for women, they will succeed less. They will also end up in jail less, but I don’t think we get the rewards without the risks.

And it looks to me like women in general, and the women whose educations I am responsible for in particular, are often lousy at those kinds of behaviors, even when the situation calls for it. They aren’t just bad at behaving like arrogant self-aggrandizing jerks. They are bad at behaving like self-promoting narcissists, anti-social obsessives, or pompous blowhards, even a little bit, even temporarily, even when it would be in their best interests to do so. Whatever bad things you can say about those behaviors, you can’t say they are underrepresented among people who have changed the world.

Some of the most important opportunities we have are in two-sided markets: education and employment, contracts and loans, grants and prizes. And the institutions that offer these opportunities operate in an environment where accurate information is hard to come by. One of their main sources of judgment is asking the candidate directly: Tell us why we should admit you. Tell us why we should hire you. Tell us why we should give you a grant. Tell us why we should promote you.

In these circumstances, people who don’t raise their hands don’t get called on, and people who raise their hands timidly get called on less. Some of this is because assertive people get noticed more easily, but some of it is because raising your hand is itself a high-cost signal that you are willing to risk public failure in order to try something.

That in turn correlates with many of the skills the candidate will need to actually do the work — to recruit colleagues and raise money, to motivate participants and convince skeptics, to persevere in the face of both obstacles and ridicule.

It’s tempting to imagine that women could be forceful and self-confident without being arrogant or jerky, but that’s a false hope, because it’s other people who get to decide when they think you’re a jerk, and trying to stay under that threshold means giving those people veto power over your actions. To put yourself forward as someone good enough to do interesting things is, by definition, to expose yourself to all kinds of negative judgments, and as far as I can tell, the fact that other people get to decide what they think of your behavior leaves only two strategies for not suffering from those judgments: not doing anything, or not caring about the reaction.

Part of this sorting out of careers is sexism, but part of it is that men are just better at being arrogant, and less concerned about people thinking we’re stupid (often correctly, it should be noted) for trying things we’re not qualified for.

It would be good if more women got in the habit of raising their hands and saying “I can do that. Sign me up. My work is awesome,” no matter how many people that behavior upsets.

I think that there are still heavy challenges for women, even the most fortunate ones, born in very favorable conditions, educated, apparently succesfull and well-adjusted.

Women themselves are often suspicious of women, “arrogant” women are weary of other women who present themselves as equally arrogant. Men cannot stand this kind of women, they deal with them only if they are so powerful that they cannot be ignored.

It’s amazing and uplifting –to go back to impressions previously expressed in previous posts- that there are remarkable African women who are so capable of being assertive at times, with a courage and a freshness of approach, with sweetness, compassion, but also grit. That surprises me all the time and I admire them a lot. You see humanity shining through these women. Their eyes have seen a lot, horrific visions, but they are still capable of transmitting support and love. They have been beaten and violated, they are hated and feared. A lot of the preeminent women who started initiatives, and those who organized and gave hope to the most battered people in their countries, are in exile, and run risks every time they operate. But they can still dance barefoot, with a big smile on their luminous faces.

(see the video of Betty Makoni in a previous post)

(Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday the United Nations needs more women in top positions as it strives to raise the profile of women’s issues and fights gender-based violence.

She identified equality for the world’s women and girls as the central challenge that will determine the peace and progress of the 21st century.

Among others she mentioned Wangari Maathai (see my post) and she spoke of the importance of empowering girls (see my post on Betty Makoni).

See the whole transcript of the speech.

Here are some passages of Hillary Clinton’s UN speech on March 12:

So as we meet here in New York, women worldwide are working hard to do their part to improve the status of women and girls. And in so doing, they are also improving the status of families, communities, and countries. They are running domestic violence shelters and fighting human trafficking. They are rescuing girls from brothels in Cambodia and campaigning for public office in Kuwait. They are healing women injured in childbirth in Ethiopia, providing legal aid to women in China, and running schools for refugees from Burma. They are rebuilding homes and re-stitching communities in the aftermath of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. And they are literally leaving their marks on the world. For example, thanks to the environmental movement started by Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, 45 million trees are now standing tall across Kenya, most of them planted by women. (Applause.)

And even young girls have been empowered to stand up for their rights in ways that were once unthinkable. In Yemen, a 10-year-old girl forced to marry a much older man made headlines around the world by marching into court and demanding that she be granted a divorce, which she received. And her courage helped to shine a spotlight on the continuing practice of child marriage in that country and elsewhere.

Now, these are just a few of the stories, and everyone here could stand up and tell even more. These are the stories of what women around the world do every day to confront injustice, to solve crises, propel economies, improve living conditions, and promote peace. Women have shown time and again that they will seize opportunities to improve their own and their families’ lives. And even when it seems that no opportunity exists, they still find a way.

[…]

Now, I know there are those – hard to believe – but there are those who still dispute the importance of women to local, national, and global progress. But the evidence is irrefutable. When women are free to develop their talents, all people benefit: women and men, girls and boys. When women are free to vote and run for public office, governments are more effective and responsive to their people. When women are free to earn a living and start small businesses, the data is clear: they become key drivers of economic growth across regions and sectors. When women are given the opportunity of education and access to health care, their families and communities prosper. And when women have equal rights, nations are more stable, peaceful, and secure.

[...]

So whether we live in New York or New Delhi, Lagos or La Paz, women and girls share many of the same struggles and aspirations. The principle of women’s equality is a simple, self-evident truth, but the work of turning that principle into practice is rarely simple. It takes years and even generations of patient, persistent work, not only to change a country’s laws, but to change its people’s minds, to weave throughout culture and tradition in public discourse and private views the unassailable fact of women’s worth and women’s rights.

See the video of the March 12 speech.

“As the United Nations strives to better support the world’s women, it would benefit from having more women in more of its leadership positions,” Clinton said during her speech. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who took over from Kofi Annan in January 2007, has made an effort to increase the number of women in high-level positions at the organization. Among high-ranking women are Asha-Rose Migiro of Tanzania, named Deputy Secretary-General shortly after Ban arrived, and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, whom Ban appointed to head the U.N. Development Program last year.
On April 28 Secretary Clinton announced the Secretary’s International Fund for Women and Girls and the Secretary’s Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. Read more on this.
Interview With NBC’S Andrea Mitchell.
The video of the interview
The trascript of the same interview with additional videos. 

Interview With CNN’s Jill Dougherty.
The transcription of the remarks Hillary Clinton delivered, while First Lady, to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, Plenary Session in Beijing, China: 5 September 1995.

Video of Hillary Clinton at the UN Security Council, October 2009.

Video of the Press conference following the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1888, in 2009. 

“Resolution 1325 (2000) holds out a promise to women across the globe that their rights will be protected and that barriers to their equal participation and full involvement in the maintenance and promotion of sustainable peace will be removed. We must uphold this promise.”

(Secretary-General’s 2004 report on women, peace and security)

The unanimous adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on 31 October 2000 was a watershed in the evolution of international women’s rights and peace and security issues. Resolution 1325 was the first Security Council Resolution specifically addressing the disproportionate and unique impact of war on women and children, as well as women’s contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace. The Resolution expressed concern that women and children accounted for the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict. As such, it urges Member States to take specific actions to ensure women’s equal and full participation as active agents in peace and security. The resolution is historic not only in that it constituted the first time the Council systematically addressed the manner in which conflict affects women and girls differently from men and boys, but also because it acknowledges the crucial link between peace, protection of women and girls during and after conflicts, and women’s equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.

Recent developments (or should we call them: chronicle of inertia?):

A year ago:

UN Security Council Open Debate:
Mediation and Settlement of Disputes 
April 21, 2009

Resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008) urge Member States and the Secretary-General to ensure increased representation of women at all levels of conflict resolution and peace processes. Yet an analysis by the United Nations Development Fund for Women shows that, in 13 major comprehensive peace processes since 2000, not one single woman has been appointed chief mediator. We hope to see more appointments of women in the future. For that to happen, it is of course clear that we, the Member States, must ourselves nominate more female candidates for such positions. Also, all mediators need to have adequate expertise in dealing with gender issues as part of their mandate. In order to achieve sustainable peace, we must ensure the availability of adequate resources for gender mediation expertise in all peace efforts.

[…]

Since 2000 not a single woman has been appointed as a mediator in negotiations of comprehensive peace agreements, and only one woman is currently serving as a special representative of the Secretary-General. What is important in the relevant part of the report is that the involvement of women is not a matter of political correctness, but a question of making mediation efforts more effective.

Among the peace negotiators deployed by the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and Member States over the past decade, women have been few and far between. We know that women bring different issues to the table, and that they contribute to a more durable and inclusive peace. We know that we only recruit from 50 per cent of the talent pool as long as we do not include women in sufficient numbers. And we know that half of the population can feel excluded from the process and less committed to the outcome when they have not been part of the decision-making.

A few days ago

Women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution still limited – Ban Ki-moon

23 April 2010 – The implementation of a call by the United Nations a decade ago to have women play a more prominent role in conflict prevention and resolution remains slow, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, releasing a report that outlines measures intended to expedite the process.

See the UN Security Council 6 April 2010

Women and peace and security: Report of the Secretary-General

Conclusions and recommendations

53.   Ten years after its adoption, the overall implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) remains slow, and the assessment of the progress of the implementation is constrained by an absence of baseline data and specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound indicators. The Security Council’s request for the development of a set of indicators for use at the global level to track the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) is therefore timely.

27 April 2010 (two days ago)
SC/9914

Briefing the Council earlier, Margot Wallström, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict, shared her assessment of gaps in efforts by the United Nations to address sexual violence, recommending top-priority treatment and continuous consideration of the issue.  Far from being a “niche” issue, sexual violence was part of a larger pattern, she said, pointing out that rape was used by political and military leaders to achieve political, military and economic ends.

[…]

Following the briefings, Council members called resolution 1325 (2000) a “landmark document”, but voiced concern at the slow pace of its implementation, noting the devastating and disproportionate effect of conflict on women and girls ‑‑ the very people relied upon to rebuild society and deliver peace and long-term stability after conflict.  They expressed hope that, at the upcoming tenth anniversary of the resolution’s adoption in October, the Council would be in a position to endorse the draft indicators, which required further work and refinement.  They stressed that that task should be carried out in a transparent manner and in consultation with all stakeholders, and with consideration for the special circumstances of each conflict and its root causes.

Some speakers drew attention to the role of women as agents of peace and the need to ensure their empowerment in post-conflict situations in order to ensure their participation in peacebuilding activities.  Brazil’s representative stressed that “the opportunity to rebuild a post-conflict society in a manner respectful of women must not be missed as it might not present itself again for a long time”.  Expressing hope that the indicators would allow for a more rigorous and results-oriented assessment of success in turning words into deeds, she warned against putting additional reporting burdens on developing States, especially those emerging from conflict.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/wps/index.html

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/ianwge/taskforces/wps/history.html

http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=1076

On the anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, this paper offers a cogent set of reasons as to why the impediments often cited to women’s participation at the Track One level (family, culture, security, gender identity) are largely surmountable or even irrelevant, and suggests a range of practical options to counter the discrimination and inertia the article describes (role modelling, mentoring and master classes, quotas and a range of time limited affirmative action and positive discrimination practices).

See the whole document.

This is the conclusion, by the title Just do it!

It seems that the days when women need to band together to achieve change, empowerment and recognition are not over; and equally that men can continue to be able to ignore or discount those efforts, whether through ignorance, lethargy, persistent prejudice or jealousy of power and position. In response, this paper has presented options for real and present action, and hopes to stimulate further suggestions for what should be done to turn rhetoric into reality.

So let those disproportionately represented, decision-making men hear these words not as a threat but as an invitation, and an appeal to their better nature: peace matters today more than ever. Our lives are more connected than ever, and some might say more at risk than ever. So don’t we owe it to ourselves and future generations to do everything we can to get better at ending violent conflict and building sustainable peace? Should we not constantly be on the search for new techniques, new methodologies, and new approaches to refine the profession of conflict mediation?

A simple way to start that search would be to appoint women, who suffer so disproportionately from the scourges of war, and who have proved themselves so eager and able to participate in combating them, to join forces in equal status with men as senior conflict mediators. Just do it!

Antonia Potter, the author of the article

(http://www.mediationconference.eu/speakers.htm)

U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008) urged Member States and the Secretary-General to ensure increased representation of women at all levels of conflict resolution and peace processes.

Since 2000 not a single woman has been appointed as a mediator in negotiations of comprehensive peace agreements, and only one woman is currently serving as a special representative of the Secretary-General.

In the U.N. there are 61 individuals each with critical roles in making and building peace, which include ensuring appropriate responses in terms of humanitarian provision and attention to human rights.

How many of them are women?

4 (2 in top jobs, and 2 deputies) in 2005

In 2000 there were NO women.

In the E.U. there are 9 current, 11 former Special Representatives.

How many women?

0

In the Peace and Security Council of the African Union

How many women?

0

In Track “One and a half” mediation processes, namely NGOs.

How many women leaders in mediation teams?

0

Wangari Maathai, the Tree Mother, has adopted this expression and encourages us to act to pass the beauty of the world to future generations, through the 3Rs:

reduce waste,

reuse finite resources

recycle what we can

Wangari Maathai speaks about mottainai

I’m doing the best I can.

Collectively it will make a difference.

Wangari Maathai tells the Japanese story of the humming bird to exhort us when we feel overwhelmed.

Tagged: environment, hummingbird, Japan, mottainai, Wangari Maathai ]]> http://marilui.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/earth-day-%e3%82%82%e3%81%a3%e3%81%9f%e3%81%84%e3%81%aa%e3%81%84/feed/ 0 marilui http://marilui.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/wangari-maathai/ http://marilui.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/wangari-maathai/#comments Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:43:27 +0000 marilui http://marilui.wordpress.com/?p=41 ]]> It’s Earth Day!

On this occasion of Earth Day, I send you greetings and best wishes. It is appropriate for us to call ourselves to action wherever we are and whatever we are engaged in. Each one of us can make small changes in our lives to better the Earth. Together we can make a huge impact. Wangari Maathai http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/

Let’s celebrate Professor Wangari Maathai, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her “contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.”

“Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment” said Ole Danbolt Mjoes, the head of the Norwegian Nobel  Committee.

Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai, was born in Kenya. She was the first woman to earn a doctoral degree in East and central Africa. She has been active for decades for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation.  She was the chairperson of the National Council of Women of Kenya from 1981 to 1987. She stood up against the former oppressive regme in Kenya, which was From 2003 to 2007 Professor Maathai served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in Kenya’s ninth parliament.  She founded the Green Belt Movement, a grass-root organization that fights poverty and promotes environmental conservation through tree planting.

She believes that ordinary people can make a difference realizing that the power is in each of us.

In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.

She said in her acceptance speech at the Noble prize ceremony.

Through education, family planning, nutrition and the fight against corruption, the Green Belt movement has paved the way for development at grassroot level.

Regarding the differences between men and women, that African men referred to in order to maintain women under their dominance, she said:

Just use the anatomy that matters right now, from the neck up!

By now women of GBM have planted more than 40 million trees on community lands. See the story of the Green belt Movement:

Professor Wangari Maathai underlines the connection between conflict and scarcity of resources. She tells us that we must learn to share the environment, the “democratic space”, as she puts it.

Hazviperi Betty Makoni is a beautiful radiant woman with powerful eyes, which can be full of compassion and fierce with indignation and determination.I meet her two weeks ago on Thursday April 8^th at the Soka Gakkai Culture Center in New York at a lecture where she spoke about her life and she presented the organization, the Girl Child Network, started in 1998, of which she is the director and founder. On Sunday April 10^th she held a meeting with women at the same location, that I had the privilege to attend and I appreciated even more her amazing energy, compassion and intelligence.

See her in a video, appropriately called Tapestry of Hope:

Betty Makoni is from Zimbabwe, a country where human rights are systematically violated and aids is rampant.  Betty pointed out the disturbing belief that the blood of a virgin prevents and cures aids, which is sadly diffused in sub-Saharan Africa, and is responsible for infant rape. In addition sexual terror is a common practice in the Mugabe’s regime.

Betty herself was raped by a local shopkeeper when she was six. At the age of nine, she saw her mother beaten to death by her father at nine.

It was not only my mother or I who suffered, but virtually every girl and woman who saw abuse perpetrated against her swept under the carpet. It was the norm.

Betty earned a university degree and became a secondary school teacher. She could see the relentless abuse young girls went through and experienced the frustration of seeing her students drop out of school every new season. In 1998 she organized a girls’ club to share stories, ideas, and to find solace and solution to their problems.

Today, there are 500 girls’ clubs in 49 of Zimbabwe’s 58 districts and a full-blown Girl Child Network (GCN) that serves 30,000 girls, raises community awareness and lobbies government to protect girls. Our goal is to dismantle the link between culture and violence against the girls and enable them to take charge of their own destiny.

Ten girls per day report rape cases. Most of the time they also get infected with hiv. Betty has helped thousands of girls and taught them to believe in themselves. She wants them all to become future leaders.

Girls coming together in solidarity to build the spaces where they can be valued… this is how we transform victims into survivors.

See the site of GCN

After having been arrested several times in Zimbabwe, Betty now lives in exile in London, with her husband and three sons (“I don’t hate men any more”, she joked). She has received numerous prizes for her activity, and she is indefatigable in her work to protect girls and children and to help them feel valuable and become future leaders.

So each time a girl smiles I actually score a point emotionally myself and I tell myself that it is getting better so I also heal through the girls and I enjoy doing it.

See Betty tell her story at the Firelight Foundation:

You can read Betty’s story on the GCN blog
Her CNN profile for CNN heroes
The profile for her nomination as Decade Global Vote 2009.

“Women are the ones that bear the greatest burden,” Leyman Gbowee says. “We are also the ones who nurture societies.”

By the age of 17, Leyman Gbowee had come to realize that “if any changes were to be made in society it had to be by the mothers.”

Leyman Gbowee was one of the founders and organizers of the Women in Peacebuilding Program / West African Network for Peacebuilding, and in March 2003 she became the spoke-person and leader of the movement.

Liberia had been ravaged by a decade long civil war: on a daily basis the country underwent violence, rapes, murders. Children soldiers were used by both sides, the depotic president Charles taylor and his opponents.

The courage and determination of about 3,000 ordinary women, Christian and Muslim working together, brought the civil war to an end. Lead by Leyman Gbowee women initially held workshops and devised slogans such as  “Women as strategic thinkers”, and “Women building bridges for reconciliation”. They stopped consulting their men and joined beyond their differences to establish peace.

Women dressed in white held signs saying: “We want peace”, organized sit-ins and other forms of resistance , went together to talk to warring leaders, until they brought the president Charles Taylor to meet with the rebels in Ghana, barricading them in a conference room. They used all sort of strategies, from declining to have sex with their men, to threatening to get naked in public, an act that would bring shame to their men, according to the Liberian mores.

“We stepped out and did the unimaginable” she says, “No one thought that we could sustain a protest fro two and a half years. No one thought that with all of the problems we had and little education we could challenge structures.” Thanks to their effort a peace accord was signed in the summer of 2003.

Listen to Leyman Gbowee speaking at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008, about the award-winning documentary Pray the devil back to hell that depicts the Liberian women’s struggle. Hear the strength these women were able to summon.

After the war the women’s movement was active in the demilitarization efforts and in supporting Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who became  the president of Liberia, the first female president of an African country.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia and Lyeman Gbowee

In 2005 Leyman Gbowee earned an M.A. in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

I think that Africa is a country rich in natural resources, but its most precious resource are the women. In spite of all the insults and the violence they had to undergo (in Liberia alone, 40% of the women had been raped in the course of the civil war), African women, represent the hope and the strength of the continent.

Leymah Gbowee’s remarks of on accepting the 2009 Profile in Courage Award, May 18, 2009.

Close your eyes and imagine a mother leaving her baby half dead by the roadside because she can’t stand to see that child died of hunger. Close your eyes and imagine a mother brutally raped and several objects inserted in her privates. Close your eyes and imagine a group of fighters with guns, betting on the sex of the child of a pregnant woman, and in order to find out who wins the bet, cutting her and taking the child out. Close your eyes and imagine a group of women in white, no shoes, … under heavy rain trying to push a group of world leaders with a statement that, “We too have a stake in this peace process,” being pushed back by security because they were security threats to these world leaders.

Open your eyes and then close your eyes and dream of a world where babies no longer die by the roadside, where women are no longer brutally raped with impunity, where the U.N. is going into villages to find women from rural areas to sit at the peace table, where President Obama goes to Liberia and says, “I want to consult with the rural women first.” Do you see that future?

[…]

This award is a call to action. This award is a call to invade spaces. This award is a call to infiltrate private homes, schools, public buildings, and international spaces.

This award is a call to constructively interfere in the lives of women, children, when the men are so preoccupied with taking power and taking it violently.

This award today has emboldened us to step out of our safe space, to step out of our boundaries, to step out of our poor homes and to step into Sudan, and to step into Zimbabwe, to step into Sri Lanka, to step into Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and to step into schools in the Bronx, in Brooklyn, in other parts of New York. And to use the words of the great African-American freedom fighter, Harriet Tubman: “If you’re hungry, keep walking. If you’re thirsty, keep walking. If you want a taste of freedom, keep walking.”

For us women of Liberia, this award is a call that we will keep walking until peace, justice, and the rights of women is not a dream, but is a thing of the present.

A while ago I wrote  a dissertation on Beowulf. Beowulf is an epic poem written in Old English some time between the sixth and tenth centuries. It tells the story of a Scandinavian warrior, Beowulf. It come to us in only one manuscript from the tenth century, the Cotton Vitellius A. xv manuscript (British Museum). It is unknown who originally wrote, or sang, the poem, when, where, and even how. We don’t know if it was composed by a single author or by several, if it is the result of a combination of different ballads, or if it had various subsequent versions.

Women  in Beowulf, and other Anglo-Saxon texts, are called freoþuwebbe, Old English for “peaceweavers”. The queen Wealhþeow, wife of Hroðgar, king of the Danes, is called friþu-sibb folca (peace-pledge of the nations). According to a common interpretation the term indicated a woman married into a group from another, as a way to try to ensure peace among the two peoples. But the fascinating term ‘peaceweaver’ has somewhat negative implications. It can make us think of women as a commodity, exchanged in order to ensure some suspension of belligerence. Women as freoþuwebbe were indeed daring diplomats, willing to join a tribe perceived as hostile, to dedicate their life to this mission, which required remarkable talents and courage.

In  the poem Queen Wealhþeow is the cup-bearer. She acts as a hostess  offering the cup to  the host, Beowulf. She is characterized  as ”mindful of  customs” (613), ”of  excellent heart” (624;  this can also be  translated as ”mature  of mind”), and  “sure of speech”  (624). She  speaks to the king  and to Beowulf   in a confident way.   She is a weaver of peace in an  active way.  She tells to the warriors, and specifically to the hero Beowulf: “Listen, and obey” (1231), or as in the translation provided below: “The warriors
are united, the men drink deep, and they do my biding.”

Larry  M. Sklute, in his  analysis of the women  in Beowulf, says about freoþuwebbe: “Rather it is a poetic metaphor referring to the person whose function it seems to be to perform openly the action of making peace by weaving to the best of her art a tapestry of friendship and amnesty.” According to Stacy Klein the  role of queens in  early Germania was to  foster “social harmony  through active diplomacy  and conciliation.”

The  women in Beowulf – the powerful women; there is no mention of common women in Beowulf, only of queens and monsters – aren’t marginalized, they act with knowledge and grace. They have opinions and know how to express them and how to act diplomatically. They are elegant, eloquent, poised, authoritative, and contribute to peace in an active way.

Therefore, thinking of women as  peaceweavers is not  reductive; rather, it  is inspired by the  figures of ancient queens  depicted in such works as Beowulf, and it also an evocative image of the patience and skill and care the weaving of peace requires.
Wealtheow

Adaptation from the Old English version of Beowulf by Dr. David Breeden

The men laughed, the din
resounding, and the words
turned friendly.
Wealhtheow, Hrothgar’s queen,
came forth, mindful of kin,
adorned in gold to greet the men.
First she gave the cup
to the country’s guardian,
that one dear to his people,
biding joy in his beer drinking.
That king famous for victories
happily took the feast cup.
Then that woman of the Helmings
went round to each, young and old,
sharing the precious cup.
In proper time that ring-adorned
queen excellent in mind
brought the mead cup to Beowulf.
She greeted him, thanking
God that her wish had
been fulfilled, that finally
a hero had come who
she could count on
to stop Grendel’s crimes.

…

Spoke then the queen of the Danes:
“Receive this cup,
my dear lord,
giver of treasure.
Be in joy,
gold friend of men,
and speak to these Geats
with kind words
as men should do.
Be gracious to the Geats
and mindful of the gifts
you have from near and far.
A man said to me
that he would have
this warrior for a son.
Herot, the bright ring hall,
is purged. Give while you can
many rewards and leave
to your kin people and land
when you must go
to learn fate’s decree.
I know my nephew Hrothulf
will keep his honor
if you, king of the Danes,
leave this world earlier that he.
I know Hruthulf will remember
what we two wish
and the kindness we showed
when he was a child.”

Wealhtheow turned then
to the bench where her sons
were, Hrethric and Hrothmund,
children of warriors,
the youth together.
There the good ones sat,
Beowulf of the Geats
and the two brothers.
To him the cup was carried
and friendship offered in words.
Wound gold was kindly bestowed:
two arm ornaments, shirts
of mail, rings, and the largest
neck ring I have heard
tell of on the earth.

…

Music filled the hall. Wealhtheow
spoke before the company:
“Enjoy this neck-ring,
beloved Beowulf, young hero,
and use this armor, these
treasures of the people.
Thrive well, be known
for valor, and give kind
instruction to these two boys.
I will remember your deeds.
You have earned forever

the praise of men,
from near and far,
even to the home of the winds
and the walls of the sea.
Be blessed while you live, prince!
I wish you well with the treasures.
Be gentle, joyful one, to my sons.

In this place is each warrior
true to the other, mild
in spirit, an d faithful
to his king. The warriors
are united, the men drink

deep, and they do my biding.”

She went to her seat.
There was a choice feast,

men drank wine.
They did not know
that grim fate
would come to many nobles
after evening fell
and powerful Hrothgar
went to his house to rest.

(Chapters IX and XVII)

http://www.lone-star.net/literature/beowulf/beowulf5.htm