On March 5th, GEIA hosted the Women, Peace and Security 2020 Conference in celebration of International Women’s Day. The conference marked 100 years of women’s suffrage in the United States, the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, and the 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 on women, peace and security. GEIA Director Dr. Shirley Graham convened a student leadership team to design, create, organize, and moderate the event. Holly Cookson, Madeline Elliott, Luca DiDomenico, Rebecca Howe, Jihee Wang, Monika Jones, Nicole Sharkey, and Katie Chambers took responsibility for arranging speakers, social media, and event planning for the conference. The student leadership team was also joined by over twenty volunteers who kindly gave their time to help manage the day.
The conference began with a celebratory lunch and round table discussions between students and expert practitioners, scholars and policymakers working on issues of gender equality. Experts included Christie Arendt, Kayla Brochu, Molly Burke, Sanola Daley, Stefania Fabrizio, Christina Fink, Abby Fried, Jane Henrici, Cheng Hoon Lim, Liz Pender, Paula Tavares, Leora Ward, Kristina Wilfore, and Gwen Young. Thank you to students for your engagement and thoughtful questions and to the experts for sharing your experiences and knowledge!
The conference continued with a panel discussion on Women in National and International Security with:
- Admiral Michelle Howard, Shapiro Visiting Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School
- Christina Renzetti, GW undergraduate student and Shapiro Essay Contest winner
- Cori Fleser, National Security Policy Analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton
- Jenna Ben-Yehuda, President and CEO at Truman National Security Project
- Moderator Holly Cookson, former MIPP graduate student and Captain in the Air Force Reserve at USAID
The panelists discussed women’s roles in military peacekeeping efforts, implementation of the U.S. women, peace and security 2019 strategy, and opportunities for women’s leadership in national and international security.
Following afternoon tea, the evening featured a panel discussion on Women as Change Agents in Peace and Security with:
- Shirley Graham, GEIA Director and Associate Professor of Practice in International Affairs at the Elliott School
- Uzra Zeya, President and CEO of Alliance for Peacebuilding
- Sinam Mohamad, Syrian Democratic Council Representative to the United States
- Bonnie Jenkins, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Ambassador, Special Envoy and Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs at U.S. Department of State
- Moderator Madeline Elliott, MAIA graduate student
The panelists discussed the importance of women as change agents in peace and security in grassroots movements, leadership and parliament, and foreign policy.
The conference ended with a celebratory reception launching the Raise Your Voice for Gender Equality Photography Project. The photo exhibit features messages of solidarity from students to women living in areas of violent conflict.
Rebecca Howe, MAIA graduate student, organized the Raise Your Voice for Gender Equality Photography Project and shared these remarks:
“In my home city, London, two years ago, the first statue of a woman was put up in Parliament Square outside our House of Parliament. The statue was a leading activist in the women’s suffrage movement, Millicent Fawcett. It’s an incredible statue of her holding up a placard which includes a line from one of her most famous speeches: “Courage calls to courage everywhere.” And this has really stuck with me. What I really hope from this exhibition is that these images convey courage, hope, solidarity, agency, and community. In these images, courage truly calls to courage everywhere. So today, through our conference, through International Women’s Day, and hopefully through these images, we celebrate the people who have come before us. The progress we see in our world today is based on their courage, and to me that is our inheritance. Today, we also recognize and honor the courage of women around the world who face conflict, displacement, violence, hatred, oppression, and injustice, whose agency and rights have been undermined, whose potential have been prevented, and whose lives have been prevented from being fulfilled. We recognize the women who resist, who persist, and who challenge the structures that hold them down. Their courage now propels us forward. And finally, today we take stock. We understand the challenges ahead. We get ourselves ready. We learn from the experience and the expertise of the women all around us. And, we continue to work. We do what we are each able to, and we move forward together. We vote, if we are able. We use every platform we can to help those who cannot vote to fight for their right to do so. We use these platforms to raise our voice, and we amplify the voices of those women who are silenced. We build community and we move forward together. When courage calls to courage everywhere, I urge you – keep answering the call.”
Thank you to the volunteers, students, and expert practitioners, scholars, and policymakers who contributed time and energy to the conference. We are grateful for the support and look forward to continuing the conversations on issues of gender and women, peace and security.
