Forum discusses women's role in war and violence

Women play a vital role in the building of societies and in rebuilding nations after the ravages of war, three speakers said at a March 24 forum.

Nita Kumar, a visiting history professor at U-M, explored the story of the Ansaris, a weaving caste in northern India. The Muslim women in this caste elected to stay in India after the partition of that country and Pakistan in 1947. Women play a crucial role in this society, she said, noting that without women the Ansaris wouldn't be able to turn a profit. In the area where these women live, however, men dominate society despite the fact that women make up half the population. Women are educated, performing such jobs as teachers, but most people are unaware of their significance because of the structure of the society, Kumar said.

Kumar said women are in charge of making the house run, and they perform all the necessary tasks in this sphere. Some women who are separated from their husbands or whose spouses have died are forced to undertake the domestic role while also acting as the breadwinner for their families, she said.

"Women need to ensure their sons are brought up in a purposeful way," Kumar said. Through their duties, women need to make certain that they are raising distinguished citizens of the nation. Kumar said the roles of the family and the mother are much greater than that of social institutions. The importance placed on the mother brings her into the political sphere as a target of, and resister to, reform, Kumar said. However, these women also should be seen as collaborators in reform, constructing the particular kind of nation state that India is today—just as much as men, she said.

Cindy Schipani, a professor of business law in the Business School, presented the question of what peace is. Schipani questioned whether peace is the absence of war or something else entirely. In her research, Schipani has explored how corporations serve to reduce violence in society. "The definition of peace is not only war related, but also should include a general reduction of violence in society," Schipani said.

Her research, co-authored with Prof. Terry Dworkin of Indiana University, has explored the correlation between gender equality and violence. Schipani discovered that countries with better gender development were less violent in resolving conflicts than countries that had less gender development. This has led Schipani to explore how more female involvement in the economy can improve society. Schipani suggested that corporations take such measures as providing equal pay and equal work, as well as childcare. "Making childcare easier, for both families and single men and women, saves business 30 percent the cost of absenteeism and tardiness," Schipani said.

Schipani closed her presentation with the assertion that there is a correlation between involving women in the workforce and a reduction of violence in society. She said an effort needs to be made to integrate more women into the economy, and that companies are one engine for change.

Carolyn Nordstrom, an associate professor of anthropology at Notre Dame University, discussed the role that women play against the backdrop of war and the subject of rebuilding during and after war. "The difference between the past, the present and the future is an illusion, albeit an extremely stubborn one. The same can be said of war and peace," Nordstrom said, citing an Albert Einstein quote.

She said that women are invisible in war, and she gave examples of a teacher who taught her students a freedom song and now faces death if caught, a nurse who will be killed if her secret nightly clinics are discovered, and women in war-torn Angola who trade to get basic needs for their families despite the risk of being shot by soldiers. These instances illustrate that most war is about unbuilding a nation, she said.

"A nation is essentially defined by government intersections with society, such as health, education and basic social services," Nordstrom said. Wars are about the unmaking of these elements. She noted that women who work to re-establish these core social institutions—often risking death—are helping to rebuild the foundations of a nation.

The forum was sponsored by the Women's Studies Department, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and the Center for the Education of Women.

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