Women as Architects of Peace: Gender and the Resolution of Armed Conflict

Margaret McGuiness focuses on the role women have played and need to play during the process of armed-conflict resolution. She looks at recent efforts that have been made in international human rights treaties including CEDAW, the UNSCR 1325, and the Beijing Conference in 2005 towards ensuring that women have more active roles in this process. McGuiness argues that armed conflict is not a gender-neutral event and that the resolution process has to include women in order to rectify past harms and to ensure lasting peace going forward. She explores the "gender corollary" with democratic peace insisting that women need to help draft peace settlements in order to create sustainable peace and guarantee womens rights in society. Finally, she makes a distinction between formal and informal processes involved in conflict resolution and how women need a more substantial role in formal processes.