As part of an annual seminar hosted by Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, this year’s topic was based on our current campaign regarding women versus militarism and nuclear weapons. Speakers included Rebecca Johnson (Acronym Institute), Diane Perrons (LSE Gender Institute), Tamsin Osmond (Climate Rush) and Nicola Pratt (University of Warwick) discussing insecurities and how they impact women. The seminar was then followed by workshops with a close look at WILPF’s core campaigns: Voice of African Women, Human Security not Military Security, and Strengthening Women’s Rights.
To start, Diane Perrons introduced the affect economic insecurity has on women. At least 73% of world’s workers are affected by economic insecurity, be it the interference of climate change, the global economic crisis, food security or physical security. The financial crisis has been spread by highly paid men, and now we are seeing gender biased cuts in government expenditures. The percentage of women working in health and education sector is high, and it is these sectors that are suffering the most from budget cuts. Public sectors are in difficulty due to cutbacks as there are now shortages of staff in hospitals further burdening women to take on more responsibility for less pay.
Nicola Pratt stated that $40-70 billion is being spent towards Trident renewal, money which could have gone towards expanding and improving public services which are led and supported by women. However, a society that fought for 20 years is a society that has become militarised, and as a member of the UN Security Council member, the UK’s military position is about power, placing public services at the bottom of the list. This situation is common for many countries, both developed and developing. In civilian war-torn countries like Afghanistan, women and girls are forced to pull out of work and schools for their own protection, which results in loss of earnings and education. Of course, war and financial crisis affect men too as shown by the increasing unemployment figures but men are overrepresented in regular employment in the labour market which explains why the number of female unemployment is barely mentioned. While the expansion of wealth to women have timidly gone up, income share of labour and workers earnings have fallen, leading to a rise in inequality.
Environment insecurity is also a challenge especially to women living in developing countries. Women engage in subsistent agriculture with 60-80% who grow their own food and collect fire and water. However, Tamsin Omond stressed that climate change should be viewed as a “one Earth way” that affects everyone in spite of gender and race. Just by living in western world, we expel too much carbon, even if one tries to live holistically. Over-consumption is one of the biggest problems in the West indulging in luxuries, as well as the rate of over-population across the world. 50 million unwanted pregnancies occur due to lack of contraceptives, education and the force of war. Educating children and women is key to reducing over-population, giving them the tools to take control, however educating soldiers too may help reduce the rate of rape and violence in war-torn countries, earning respect and common solidarity.
As Rebecca Johnson stated, military-industrial complexes drive human insecurity. Global military expenditure stands at over $1.46 trillion in arrival expenditure. Since the Cold War, the UK has been involved in the Korean War, Vietnam conflict, war in Afghanistan, Persian Gulf War, Iraq War and many others. The UK is ranked 4 on military sending in 2008 with a world share of 4.5%. The UK also has the largest arms producing companies which include Boeing as the number one arms investor with BAE Systems and Cockhead Martin leading second and third. Judging by these statistics, we need to start working on our nuclear policy in the West before moving into other regions to gain solidarity for disarmament and unjustified spending. Sixth of the people do not have enough food to eat as it is a lack of priority. Race and violence against women is a function of war. War itself is a destruction of the environment, and arms production and trade fuel conflict encourages patriarchy.
Female insecurity in economy, environment and militarism is a circle that has common links. Nuclear weapons cannot be abolished without demilitarising, therefore as a first step, we must try to reach a ‘Global Zero’ level and promote alternative policies that support victims of war, conflict and oppression. Challenging religious, political fundamentalism and racism is also a step towards challenging patriarchy and securing security for women all over the world.
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