- from : Center for Security and Peace Studies Universitas Gadjah Mada
Abstract:
This paper presents an example how gender function as a resource in peace-building and femininity in specific way becomes productive for peace. It supports the argument that the peace-building process is an important element of social engineering and the creation of gender equality (Gizelis 2009). The women in Poka of Ambon Maluku created community identity the ‘Poka-ness’ to strengthen women’s capacities as peace-builders. Their success in peace-building resulted in them receiving greater trust and respect from the men and youths of Poka, which has led to greater gender equality. This paper finds that women’s strength in peace-building is not only found in their capacity as mothers and as caregivers for the community’s social life (Ruddick 1983; Cohn dan Jacobson 2012) but also in their identities and relations as members of their villages; these identities and bonds reinforce women’s capacity and motherly natures. Identity has a strong influence on women?s unity and helps mobilize them to ensure the security and peace of their families and the community. It shows that identity is an essential element of one’s understanding of one’s self and connections with other individuals as well as one’s community, one which is very real and powerful because it is connected to emotions (Fisher 2000). The data used in this paper is part of the data from a research project on “The Gender Dimension of Social Conflicts, Armed Violence and Peacebuilding” by a team of researchers from Geneva, Indonesia and Nigeria. The research in Maluku was carried out on November-December 2014 and January 2015. The research project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
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