As a woman myself I felt obliged to step in and make a change. However, if all women don’t listen to other people’s stories, we will never be able to make a global change.
On Wednesday the 24th of March I listened in to the event, “Woman’s Leadership in Community Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding.” Coming from very minimal knowledge regarding this topic, I decided to dedicate my time to see the significance of women’s leadership around the world and see how women play such an important role in benefiting other women.
As an international event, I found it very interesting to hear women’s first hand experiences of conflict to the international peace and security agenda. This was even more fascinating, as in Australia we seem to not recognise the impact of conflict on women and the importance of their role in maintaining peace, stability, and security. This broadened my perspective and made me feel oblivious to the situations happening outside of our country, making me feel like women in other countries do need our help. As a woman myself I felt obliged to step in and make a change. However, if all women don’t listen to other people’s stories, we will never be able to make a global change.
I found it incredible how so many of women’s contributions to society go unrecognised and unvalued, including towards conflict prevention and peace-making. Despite the disproportionate impact of conflict on women, this event truly proved the strength that women show when united as one, overpowers all the conflict. To this day, people are still calling for women’s engagement in conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
The CSW65 has called upon me individually. Although we are now seeing a difference and changes in peace-making and peacebuilding, I believe that women need to experience full equality and participation as active agents in peace and security. This change has inspired me to take a step further, to create change, to protect women from sexual and gender-based violence but do it in union with other women. It is critical for a difference to be made, women’s participation and concerns needs to be brought to the centre of people’s attentions.
In collaboration with other women, I would love to be a part of a movement to strengthen everyone’s knowledge in women’s leadership in community conflict prevention and peacebuilding. And together build women’s engagement in public decision-making at a much higher level. People need to recognise how important women’s involvement and their individual voice are.
Author: Georgina Tenny
