Three women who challenge traditional gender roles in peace-building and peacekeeping on a daily basis: Anny Modi, Téné Maimouna Zoungrana and Colonel Stephanie Tutton are at the forefront of the humanitarian responses, mobilizing communities, advocating for human rights and the restoration of peace. Their stories testify to their contribution to fostering positive change within peacekeeping operations and demonstrate why we need more women in peace- and political processes and U.N. Peacekeeping.
Tag: Military
Stories about the effect of the military on marginalized groups related to military history, domestic and foreign politics, mental health and gendered issues, either in the U.S. or abroad.
Dobbs’ Effect on Military Women: ‘Our Fighting Force Is Hindered and Our Security Is at Risk’
Forty percent of active-duty service women in the U.S. are stationed in states with abortion bans, as are 43 percent of civilian women working in the military. The time, cost and stress of traveling out of state will no doubt take a tremendous toll not only on women seeking abortion, but on the military itself and national security.
“Women who are active-duty service members do not get to choose what state they live in, which means they could lose abortion access at the whim of any state with an abortion ban.”
Why Military Women Are at Greater Risk of Breast Cancer
Millions of troops and their families stationed on contaminated military installations were exposed to a deadly combination of toxins responsible for triggering fatal illnesses. North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune is perhaps the most notorious example of widespread contamination affecting U.S. army bases.
Congress passed the Honoring Our PACT Act in August to facilitate veterans’ access to improved benefits through the V.A. for service-connected toxic exposure. The bill recognizes 23 new diseases as presumptive conditions—but breast cancer still isn’t one of them.
The U.S. Can’t Leave Afghan Women Behind—Either in Afghanistan or on Our Shores
The Taliban has broken its promise to girls who hoped to forge a path to a brighter future through education. In contrast, the U.S., by taking some simple and practical steps, can ensure that its promise as a beacon of hope and freedom translates to real opportunities for those who reach its shores.
Don’t Draft Our Daughters—or Our Sons
From a feminist perspective, it is clear that it would be unjust to draft women against their will—not because “women are fragile” or in need of paternal care, but because we should not force anyone, regardless of gender, into war-fighting without their full consent. Instead of arguing about women joining the Selective Service, Democrats should join the bipartisan effort to abolish the Selective Service once and for all.
Poland’s Near-Total Abortion Ban Threatens Ukrainian Refugees
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, more than 3.5 million Ukrainian refugees have entered Poland. Coupled with the strict abortion laws in Poland and the overall circumstances surrounding the refugee crisis, hundreds of women and other pregnant individuals are now forced to carry their pregnancies to term.
Our Abortion Stories: Shamed Into Silence, ‘We Weren’t Fit To Become Mothers’
I was forced to give my son up for adoption, moments after giving birth. Boom. Gone. Just like that. I had no hope of ever seeing him again.
This shameful secret—my pregnancy and loss of my child—festered inside for more than 50 years. Decades later, my middle-aged son reached out by email and we met, a longed-for experience that soon turned into a nightmare. I had no idea that reunion in adoption is often shattering. The pain and anguish I wasn’t allowed to feel when I gave him away exploded inside me.
‘Leap and Hope You Grow Wings’: WWII Woman Aviator Speaks About Her Journey
Alyce Stevens Rohrer is one of the few living Women Air Service Pilots of WWII. Rohrer grew up impoverished with two brothers and two sisters in Provo, Utah, squished into a two-bedroom home on a tiny farm. Everyone worked the farm as soon as they could walk.
“I knew I wanted more,” she told me. “I wanted freedom. As a little girl I would work the fields and watch a plane fly over. The first time I saw one I lit up. I knew I would be a pilot one day, and no one could stop me.”
Pentagon Bucks and Masculinity’s Omega
Investing in weapons is like trusting in a house of cards: overdue for a universal collapse and destruction that seldom makes headlines. While the planet grows warmer and its climate more deadly, we’re adding to Earth’s refugee crisis by building and transporting more bloodshed.
Pro-War Rhetoric Around Ukraine Perpetuates the Patriarchy and Plays Right Into Putin’s Hands
Watching cable news coverage of the tragic events in Ukraine, I hear again and again how brave the Ukrainian men who are staying to fight are. But we should be very careful about who we worship because fetishizing the masculinist and militarist response of war will hurt women and LGBTQ people for decades to come.
Putin is a madman, but his regime depends on these century-old notions of binary gender and “normal” sexuality. The way the U.S. mainstream media is covering the illegal invasion of Ukraine is doing similar cultural work.