Birgit Brock-Utne, "Educating for Peace: A Feminist Perspective"

"If women are to create a more peaceful world and do away with the male institution of war we must get more power before men have destroyed our earth."


"Educating for Peace" looks deeply into the question of peace from the standpoint that peace is not something that can be solved within our current patriarchal framework. Instead, peace is a subject that must be tackled by women, since it is women who can see and approach the problem from a holistic, caring, and rational point of view. Our current societal framework is one where aggression, violence, competition, dominance, and compartmentalized knowledge are rewarded and men, who are especially prone to this pattern of normative behavior due in some respect to biological predisposition but which is extremely exacerbated through their socialization and education, are the recipients of the benefits. Women on the other hand are currently and have historically been oppressed and marginalized, both through direct and structural violence, in this patriarchal system that does not reward humane concern for societal matters and ills. Historically, women have been at the forefront of peace movements. One of the best examples of this can be seen from the institution of the Nobel Peace Price, funded by Alfred Nobel who was the inventor of dynamite, but which was inspired by the much less recognized and more magnanimous peace figure, Bertha von Suttner. Yet women's role as peace leaders, as well as much of the body of our popular historical occurrences, is largely invisible. In order for peace to become a reality, Utne argues that there needs to be a paradigm shift from a patriarchal framework that we are currently forced to work with, to a framework that is defined by compassion, cooperation, sharing, and other qualities that embody a positive model of peace. To get this new model, women must continue to lead the charge and "get power" without conceding to the currently championed destructive system of men.

Links:
Birgit Brock-Utne's Homepage

Citation Information:
Brock-Utne, B. (1985). Educating for peace: A feminist perspective. The Athene series. New York: Pergamon Press.