Shelley Lightburn

RE: Discussion on women in peace-building roles with Michelle Bachelet . The fact that the vast majority of women lack access to education and are not free to vote etc, is the major issue. Poor health care, poor education, constant risk of violence prevents women from being in a position where they can contribute to peace-making, peace-building and peace-keeping. No one can say whether women would be more effective in peace-building, conflict resolution roles because of how few women have been granted access to these processes. Until we have equal representation on a global scale, where women have equal quality of living as men, we can't really start the discussion of how women in power would react, respond and act in conflict resolution. Personally, I think it's counter-productive to try and prove women would be better at such roles because it opens up a "are women-better-than-men" debate. What needs to be said is, can women, without gender-profiling, have equitable representation and be part of the processes that affect them.