An article by Antonia Potter, October 2005
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!
