Women Demand a Culture of Peace

TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 6 Apr 2026

David Adams | Transition to a Culture of Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service

1 Apr 2026 – Once again this year, we see around the world on International Women’s Day that women are demanding a culture of peace.

In some cases this is quite explicit.

In Europe, there was protest against the American/Israeli attack on Iran and other wars in general. This was the case in Brussels, Belgium, Barcelona, Madrid, Merida, Toledo and Valencia in Spain, as well as Milan and Rome in Italy. In Ljubljana, Slovenia, their banner read “We will not work for your wars.”

In most cases, women are demanding equality and freedom from violence, which corresponds to the fourth action area of the United Nations programme of action on a culture of peace: Actions to ensure equality between women and men . . . (d) Promotion of equality between women and men in economic, social and political decision-making ; (e) Further strengthening of efforts by the relevant entities of the United Nations system for the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against women; (f) Provision of support and assistance to women who have become victims of any forms of violence, including in the home, workplace and during armed conflicts.

The intrinsic relation between women and the culture of peace goes back throughout human history and into prehistory as described as follows in my blog of December 2017:

Violence against women has always been an intrinsic component of war. This goes back to prehistory when women were excluded from war. This was necessary because of patrilocal exogamy (husband remains in his native village and marries a wife from outside) since wars were local and the warriors could be the husband of a woman on one side and her father and brothers on the other side. As a result, since warriors were exclusively men, they were free to capture and rape the women they found when vanquishing another community.

The male domination of the culture of war has characterized all human societies since the beginning of history. The male rulers of the first empires were not only the military commanders but also the heads of the state religion. Female heads of state and religion were so rare that they are considered to be curiosities of history: for example the pharaoh Hatshepsut in ancient Egypt, and the (mythical?) female Catholic Pope in the Middle Ages.

The male domination of the culture of war has come down to our present world system transformed by previous changes in economic systems, from slavery to colonialism to neocolonialism, but all of these systems remain essentially sexist.

Huge economic industries, part of the culture of war, are essentially sexist. Of course, female prostitution goes back to the beginning of recorded history. But what about modern advertising the use of scarcely clad female models to sell automobilies, beauty products, etc. etc.? In capitalist economies, women are often considered as a commodity to be bought and sold. Seen in this context, rape can be considered in many cases as the forceful theft of the female commodity.

Apart from physical violence the exploitation of women in the modern economy is a form of structural violence. Women are not paid for their essential work in the bearing and raising of children. And in the workplace they continue to be paid substantially less than men in the equivalent occupation.

Political leaders often echo the sexism. The current US President is an example as reported on many occasions.

Second, violence against women diminishes their capacity to play their essential role as leaders in the transition to a culture of peace. Their role is essential as a result of their exclusion and suffering from war and the culture of war which gives them special reason to take action. In fact, we find women in leadership wherever there are campaigns for a culture of peace, but it would be even greater if all women were free from the threat of violence.

Third, the struggle for any one of the eight program areas of the culture of peace is a struggle for the others as well, because the movement for a culture of peace is an integral and synergistic struggle. For example, the rights of women are an important component of human rights in general. Similarly, sustainable and equitable economic development and democratic participation require the economic and political equality of women. Education for peace requires that girls have the same access to education as boys. In fact, as UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said, unless the international community tackles the problem of violence against women, the world will not eradicate poverty or reach any of its other goals.

In general, we should not make the mistake of thinking that the struggle to eliminate violence against women is just a struggle of the women themselves. It has to be the struggle of everyone, men as well as women, if we are to advance towards a culture of peace.

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Dr. David Adams is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment and coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network. He retired in 2001 from UNESCO where he was the Director of the Unit for the UN International Year for the Culture of Peace.  Previously, at Yale and Wesleyan Universities, he was a specialist on the brain mechanisms of aggressive behavior, the history of the culture of war, and the psychology of peace activists, and he helped to develop and publicize the Seville Statement on Violence. Send him an email.

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