Lessons Learned from Listening to Women’s Voices in Peace and Conflict Situations

Abstract

In Chiapas and in Northern Ireland, women were actors in the ideological re-creation of the community and in the transformation of its culture. Shifts in women’s ethnic and gender perceptions during conflict are interlinked with changes in the positioning of women toward the state, the community, and the family. However, in order to be widely accepted these shifts at the intersubjective level of identification need to be translated into objectified, social changes in demobilization processes. The opening of autonomous spaces for women to bridge boundaries and form alliances on shared interests has brought about transformations in both ethnic and gender identity, in Chiapas more than in Northern Ireland. This is evident in the visibility of shifts in women’s image from being “silent symbols of resistance” to being “vocal agents of change” and in the translation of these shifts in perception into changes in gendered power structures. Ethnonational mobilizations against unequal power structures provide a space for the formation of shared gender interests amongst women within a certain ethnic category.

Realizing that I [as mestiza] can learn a lot from the indigenous women broke down a hierarchy I had in my head and allowed me to learn from the rich knowledge and experiences of the indigenous Zapatistas, their spirituality and the way they work with men. It taught me to understand that we need a constructive dialogue based on “differences and equality” to transform our society. As white or mestiza women we cannot create this change without our indigenous sisters, women cannot create change without getting men to accept this change. But we can only work together if we understand where we come from, our differences. Indigenous women have taught me to listen carefully, to listen, not only to talk, that’s where we need to start.

Cristina, mestiza women’s rights and community activist, San Crist ó bal de las Casas, Chiapas¹