Until and unless we challenge violence as some men s natural response to regaining control, the problem will not be solved. And all the shelters in the world won t prevent men from murdering women. As the world watches in horror the activities on all sides in Kosovo and Yugoslavia, we can t help but think that things would be different if women were full partners in decision making for all sides. Surely, we would not have been offered the choice of allowing genocide and murder to continue, or to bomb the populace. War marginalizes women politically.
War is defined as a man's game.
Once our nation engages in war, women are moved to the sidelines physically, and women's voices and women's views are less likely to be heard. And a few can never turn the tide. And we cannot be sure that gender-balanced governments will not resort to violence, since gender balanced decisionmaking has never been tried. But we do know that continuing to keep women out of their fair share of power is having murderous results right now in Kosovo.