Abstract
This article explores the challenges and contributions of women in building and sustaining peace in protracted conflicts by conducting a comparative case study on Northern Ireland and Korea. Similarities in the histories of the conflicts and the concurrences in the peace processes have been attracting policy makers and researchers to share lessons between the Northern Ireland and Korean peace processes. However, the peacebuilding role of women and their transversal perspective have not yet received significant attention compared to the high-level agreements, signed predominantly by male politicians. This article identifies the similarities in the peacebuilding activities of women in Northern Ireland and Korea, in terms of their recognition of the interconnection between identity politics and patriarchy, building relationships across the divide through transversal dialogue, and initiating nonviolent peace movements against the militarism of their societies. The comparative case study also shows dissimilarities between the two cases, with regard to the freedom of women to move beyond boundaries, and being part of the official peace process. This article concludes the role of women in both contexts is a key element in sustainable peacebuilding; however, it appears that women’s peacebuilding would not be able to reach its full potential to break down violent structures in conflict-affected societies, as long as their transversal perspective remains at the level of social movement, not part of peacebuilding at all levels of societies, including high-level negotiations.
Highlights
This article explores the challenges and contributions of women in building and sustaining peace in protracted conflicts by conducting a comparative case study on Northern Ireland and Korea
Every conflict is unique in terms of root causes, history and culture, but more often than not, we find women working across the identity lines of these conflicts to build peace
Unlike identity politics, which tends to build solidarity within an identity group against other identity groups, the transversal politics utilised by these women, was not to build alliances against men, but to promote peace for all women and men with different identities
Summary
Every conflict is unique in terms of root causes, history and culture, but more often than not, we find women working across the identity lines of these conflicts to build peace. According to Yuval-Davis, transversal dialogues on diverse issues in conflict-affected societies would bring together women with opposing identities, not to build women’s alliances against men, but to prevent the reproduction of present power relations based on masculine values and identity politics, thereby producing empowered knowledge for a more sustainable peace (Yuval-Davis 1997). In the Korean peninsula, both North and South Korean authoritarian regimes claimed they valued equality between men and women, in reality, they maintained patriarchal social and cultural norms by promoting identity politics during the Cold War. Park Kyung Ae says that in North Korea, women were expected to implement their Bhonourable revolutionary duty^ by giving birth to Korean children and Beducating and rearing children along Communist lines^ (Park 1992: 539). The compulsory national military service by men had the Bcultural spill-over effects^ of a Bmilitarised masculinity^ and reinforced Bwomen’s status as auxiliary citizens^ in the Korean society (Jones 2006: 28–33)
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