Empower Women |
|
Empower Women - A Catalyst for Ending War
"If women around the world in the twenty-first century would get their act together they could, partnered with men of like mind, shift the direction of world history to create a future without war." - Judith Hand, Author of Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace. Questpath Publishing, 2003
[Examples of projects or organizations that have worked on or now work on some
aspect of this cornerstone can be found here]
The Historical Background
Thousands of years of human history demonstrate conclusively that complex, state-level societies governed by men alone (patriarchies) are unable to avoid war as an instrument of policy. This is true no matter what the political organization. [Why? A detailed, biologically-based exploration of the origins of and causes of war can be found in Shift: The Beginning of War, The Ending of War (Hand 2014.)]
The framers of the American Constitution recognized how powerfully sovereigns or small groups of determined men could be tempted to unleash the dogs of war.
aspect of this cornerstone can be found here]
The Historical Background
Thousands of years of human history demonstrate conclusively that complex, state-level societies governed by men alone (patriarchies) are unable to avoid war as an instrument of policy. This is true no matter what the political organization. [Why? A detailed, biologically-based exploration of the origins of and causes of war can be found in Shift: The Beginning of War, The Ending of War (Hand 2014.)]
The framers of the American Constitution recognized how powerfully sovereigns or small groups of determined men could be tempted to unleash the dogs of war.
In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department. Beside the objection to such a mixture to heterogeneous powers, the trust and the temptation would be too great for any one man. - James Madison, 1793
History since Madison's time shows that, unfortunately, giving war-making decisions to the legislature could not prevent his country from going to war. Far from it. The United States has even slipped to the point of accepting a policy of preemptive war.
There are many proximal causes of armed conflicts, the things people fight over (e.g., resources, religion, territory). But the root, or ultimate, cause lies in our biology (Differences Between Men and Women With Respect to Physical Aggression and Social Stability). (1) Two evolved traits in particular can be used to rouse men to take up arms.
Differences Between Men and Women With Respect to Physical Aggression
It's not that men don't long for an end to war. At a conscious level, most men would love to be free of this primitive remnant of our past. But because of their biological roots (Biological Differences), they find the thrill of dangerous activity and male bonding to be compelling. (2) These instincts served our primate ancestors in many ways. They facilitate hunting. They may also explain why competitive, contact team sports appeal to men. But that same attraction to aggressive male group bonding can also be used by ambitious leaders to build an army and lead it into war.
Women, in contrast, are typically more inclined to avoid direct physical aggression in their dominance interactions and they also prefer to engage in negotiation, mediation, and compromise during conflicts. (1,3,4) They have a strongly evolved preference to avoid war. The roots of these female preferences also lie in their biology, but in the case of women, the prevailing evolutionary pressure has been to predispose them to prefer social stability (see Biological Differences). (6)
Why are women, in general, thus disposed? Women must bear, protect, and care for a child for a minimum of twelve to thirteen years before that child is capable of reproduction. In bearing, giving birth to, and rearing offspring, women risk and invest--in risk, time, and resources--far more than men do. What this has meant, in women's evolutionary history, is that any serious turmoil—which certainly includes a war that might result in the woman's death or the death of her children before the children can reproduce—has been highly counterproductive for our female primate ancestors. Serious social turmoil, for our female ancestors and for modern women as well, is reproductively dangerous in a way that is not equally true for men. Why this is so is explained in the essay Biological Differences Between Men and Women with Respect to Physical Aggression and Social Stability. (6)
The willingness of men to use aggression to overturn the social order and thereby rise in rank is obvious. One biological explanation for this has been that this is a remnant inherited from male primate ancestors in our deep past that may have specialized more in gaining dominance within their group in order to mate with as many females as possible rather than investing heavily in one or a few offspring. Whatever the reason, men today still compete on a regular basis to overturn the social order, and are much more inclined to use physical aggression to rise in rank. Unless restrained by police, strong social prohibitions, or both, male groups will readily use physical aggression to achieve dominance over other male groups. In short, while social stability is a very high priority for women, it is not such a high priority for men.
The Effect of Male/Female Differences on Governing Bodies
Because of these differences in male and female biology, a congress with roughly 50% men and women would be much less likely to vote to go to war.* Historically, the generators of war have been almost entirely specific types of men, referred to here as hyper-alpha men. Famous examples are Alexander the Great, Caesar, Atilla the Hun, Genghis Kahn, Napoleon, and Hitler. Modern hyper-alfa men lead governments, large and small, on all sides of our current conflicts. Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, and his invasion of neighboring Ukraine, is the most recent egregious example. Most men find war games or planning for war, even sometimes the fighting itself attractive. (2) But actual killing (at least close up) does not come naturally, and men who have witnessed war's devastations in person tend to loath war (see Promote Nonviolent Conflict Resolution). The majority of men who are happy with their lives are not easily persuaded to go to war (although they are more eaily convinced into doing so than are women)(see Biological Differences).
Most women would require a higher level of perceived threat than would most men before consenting to war. (6, #) As a group, women would be inclined to negotiate longer. (3,4) The majority of women would not be nearly so concerned about appearing weak in the eyes of their peers. Their chief concern would be defense: preserving the stability of the place where they are raising children and resisting the call to send their children into war. (6)
The votes of most women combined with the votes of the many men similarly inclined to favor nonviolent means to achieve security would create majority voting blocks with a different, more stability-seeking orientation about many issues of governance, including making war. The addition of women into the governing mix would greatly strengthen the power of democracy to rein in hyper-alpha men (see Spread Liberal Democracy).
To be clear, women aren't less inclined to physical aggression because of any superiority in education, morality, social conscience, or religious conviction. In fact, women raised in a patriarchy that practices war can be convinced to support a war effort. Moreover, women provoked by urges for defense, to protect their children or way of life, can and will fight and have done so historically; they can be fierce and even vicious fighters. (1) Rather, they're reluctant to use physical force if it can be avoided because of biological priorities and innate preference for social stability. Because of these preferences, fully empowered women (5, *) will be the catalyzing force in a successful campaign to end war (see The Secret Ingredient). There will be no enduring peace without shared governing and decision-making by women and men. In War and Sex and Human Destiny, Judith Hand introduced the word koinoniarachy, from the Greek word koinonia, to share (governing bodies where men and women share in approximately equal influence) as a contrast to patriarchy (virtually all-male governing), arguing that shifting to koinoniarchies is a necessary condition for permanently ending wars.
* The exact percentage of women required to reach a critical mass that tips the balance in decision-making bodies in favor of nonviolence is unknown. Research clearly reveals the effect of gender differences in other areas. In a cross-cultural study sponsored by the World Bank and reported in The Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, David Dollar, Raymond Fisman, and Roberta Gatti found that governments with more women in power had less corruption. Swedes, who have a legislature at this time that is roughly 45% women, grant paternity leave for fathers and lead the world in fighting sex trafficking. Research could establish the actual proportion needed to bring nonviolence to international affairs. There may be cultural differences: a greater number of women might be required in societies that, for example, have historically been extremely aggressive. When the American Senate voted to support the second Iraq war, only 13% of the Senate was female, and the Senate's response speaks for itself. It's reasonable to assume that when half the citizens in a governing body are female, the shift in preference favoring social stability using nonviolence (compromise and negotiation) would be pervasive in all aspects of decision-making, not just in decisions about war and peace.
# The word "most" is a significant qualifier. Women are fierce defenders and women heads of patriarchal societies have not hesitated to declare war when a threat is perceived (e.g., Golda Mier, Margaret Thatcher). But powerful women, historically, have not initiated wars of conquest to the same extent as powerful men. (for a detailed discussion, see #1 (Hand 2003) below, Women, Power and the Biology of Peace - that book's section entitled "Women As Warriors").
Why We Need Male/Female Partnership
There is a flip-side to women's preference for avoiding conflict. Empowering women will be an enormous change, requiring that we turn the social order upside down, something women, in general, will prefer to avoid. Shifting our economies away from war will be similarly wrenching. Women alone will not bring about a future without war. Willingness to embrace change, even if for a time it creates serious turmoil, is what men who share the desire for social stability will bring to the campaign. Some individuals will prefer to keep things as they have always been, women being excluded from power. They'll wish to preserve war as a legitimate option. They'll fight back. Sometimes the engagement may turn violent. When Rosa Parks, an African-American woman in the segregated American south, refused to give up her seat in a public bus to a white man, the ensuing social disruption eventually cost lives, many lives, before segregation there was officially ended.
Sadly, the nonviolent campaigns of Gandhi and Martin Luther King were not free of bloodshed. With the possible exception of the development of the Internet, not one of the six steps described in the essay "War is Not Inevitable" that have prepared the ground for this promise of freedom from war was achieved without bloodshed. The drive and the willingness of men who've grasped the vision of ending war to rebel will be needed to push events forward. No compromise. Even if it means serious turmoil for a time, there has to be a willingness to embrace change. Full male/female partnership will be required if we are to create a warless future. (6)
Women and Long-term Global Stability
The first major success in any campaign to end war can be an enforceable, global peace treaty that prevents war between nations; a global treaty that has teeth. The need for such a treaty was made evident by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. On the foundation of international social stabiliy provided by such a treaty, resources freed from planning, executing, and cleaning up after major wars can be directed to achieving cornerstone goals that over time reduce and ultimately eliminate civil wars. Once the goal of ending international war is achieved, and assuming that empowered women continue to share in governing our lives, it's the preference of women for social stability that will ensure that we maintain a warless global community. This is what will make our future different. This is what will allow us to achieve what the League of Nations and the United Nations failed to achieve. We could justify empowering women because it's the morally right thing to do. A civilized thing to do. A humane thing to do. Part of human rights. From the practical view, however, it is the necessary thing to do. The important question is not what the global community can and should do for women, but what women will be able to do for the global community.
There are many proximal causes of armed conflicts, the things people fight over (e.g., resources, religion, territory). But the root, or ultimate, cause lies in our biology (Differences Between Men and Women With Respect to Physical Aggression and Social Stability). (1) Two evolved traits in particular can be used to rouse men to take up arms.
- A male proclivity for aggressive group bonding that includes conformity to and support of the group
- The proclivity of males to seek dominance and authority through force
Differences Between Men and Women With Respect to Physical Aggression
It's not that men don't long for an end to war. At a conscious level, most men would love to be free of this primitive remnant of our past. But because of their biological roots (Biological Differences), they find the thrill of dangerous activity and male bonding to be compelling. (2) These instincts served our primate ancestors in many ways. They facilitate hunting. They may also explain why competitive, contact team sports appeal to men. But that same attraction to aggressive male group bonding can also be used by ambitious leaders to build an army and lead it into war.
Women, in contrast, are typically more inclined to avoid direct physical aggression in their dominance interactions and they also prefer to engage in negotiation, mediation, and compromise during conflicts. (1,3,4) They have a strongly evolved preference to avoid war. The roots of these female preferences also lie in their biology, but in the case of women, the prevailing evolutionary pressure has been to predispose them to prefer social stability (see Biological Differences). (6)
Why are women, in general, thus disposed? Women must bear, protect, and care for a child for a minimum of twelve to thirteen years before that child is capable of reproduction. In bearing, giving birth to, and rearing offspring, women risk and invest--in risk, time, and resources--far more than men do. What this has meant, in women's evolutionary history, is that any serious turmoil—which certainly includes a war that might result in the woman's death or the death of her children before the children can reproduce—has been highly counterproductive for our female primate ancestors. Serious social turmoil, for our female ancestors and for modern women as well, is reproductively dangerous in a way that is not equally true for men. Why this is so is explained in the essay Biological Differences Between Men and Women with Respect to Physical Aggression and Social Stability. (6)
The willingness of men to use aggression to overturn the social order and thereby rise in rank is obvious. One biological explanation for this has been that this is a remnant inherited from male primate ancestors in our deep past that may have specialized more in gaining dominance within their group in order to mate with as many females as possible rather than investing heavily in one or a few offspring. Whatever the reason, men today still compete on a regular basis to overturn the social order, and are much more inclined to use physical aggression to rise in rank. Unless restrained by police, strong social prohibitions, or both, male groups will readily use physical aggression to achieve dominance over other male groups. In short, while social stability is a very high priority for women, it is not such a high priority for men.
The Effect of Male/Female Differences on Governing Bodies
Because of these differences in male and female biology, a congress with roughly 50% men and women would be much less likely to vote to go to war.* Historically, the generators of war have been almost entirely specific types of men, referred to here as hyper-alpha men. Famous examples are Alexander the Great, Caesar, Atilla the Hun, Genghis Kahn, Napoleon, and Hitler. Modern hyper-alfa men lead governments, large and small, on all sides of our current conflicts. Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, and his invasion of neighboring Ukraine, is the most recent egregious example. Most men find war games or planning for war, even sometimes the fighting itself attractive. (2) But actual killing (at least close up) does not come naturally, and men who have witnessed war's devastations in person tend to loath war (see Promote Nonviolent Conflict Resolution). The majority of men who are happy with their lives are not easily persuaded to go to war (although they are more eaily convinced into doing so than are women)(see Biological Differences).
Most women would require a higher level of perceived threat than would most men before consenting to war. (6, #) As a group, women would be inclined to negotiate longer. (3,4) The majority of women would not be nearly so concerned about appearing weak in the eyes of their peers. Their chief concern would be defense: preserving the stability of the place where they are raising children and resisting the call to send their children into war. (6)
The votes of most women combined with the votes of the many men similarly inclined to favor nonviolent means to achieve security would create majority voting blocks with a different, more stability-seeking orientation about many issues of governance, including making war. The addition of women into the governing mix would greatly strengthen the power of democracy to rein in hyper-alpha men (see Spread Liberal Democracy).
To be clear, women aren't less inclined to physical aggression because of any superiority in education, morality, social conscience, or religious conviction. In fact, women raised in a patriarchy that practices war can be convinced to support a war effort. Moreover, women provoked by urges for defense, to protect their children or way of life, can and will fight and have done so historically; they can be fierce and even vicious fighters. (1) Rather, they're reluctant to use physical force if it can be avoided because of biological priorities and innate preference for social stability. Because of these preferences, fully empowered women (5, *) will be the catalyzing force in a successful campaign to end war (see The Secret Ingredient). There will be no enduring peace without shared governing and decision-making by women and men. In War and Sex and Human Destiny, Judith Hand introduced the word koinoniarachy, from the Greek word koinonia, to share (governing bodies where men and women share in approximately equal influence) as a contrast to patriarchy (virtually all-male governing), arguing that shifting to koinoniarchies is a necessary condition for permanently ending wars.
* The exact percentage of women required to reach a critical mass that tips the balance in decision-making bodies in favor of nonviolence is unknown. Research clearly reveals the effect of gender differences in other areas. In a cross-cultural study sponsored by the World Bank and reported in The Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, David Dollar, Raymond Fisman, and Roberta Gatti found that governments with more women in power had less corruption. Swedes, who have a legislature at this time that is roughly 45% women, grant paternity leave for fathers and lead the world in fighting sex trafficking. Research could establish the actual proportion needed to bring nonviolence to international affairs. There may be cultural differences: a greater number of women might be required in societies that, for example, have historically been extremely aggressive. When the American Senate voted to support the second Iraq war, only 13% of the Senate was female, and the Senate's response speaks for itself. It's reasonable to assume that when half the citizens in a governing body are female, the shift in preference favoring social stability using nonviolence (compromise and negotiation) would be pervasive in all aspects of decision-making, not just in decisions about war and peace.
# The word "most" is a significant qualifier. Women are fierce defenders and women heads of patriarchal societies have not hesitated to declare war when a threat is perceived (e.g., Golda Mier, Margaret Thatcher). But powerful women, historically, have not initiated wars of conquest to the same extent as powerful men. (for a detailed discussion, see #1 (Hand 2003) below, Women, Power and the Biology of Peace - that book's section entitled "Women As Warriors").
Why We Need Male/Female Partnership
There is a flip-side to women's preference for avoiding conflict. Empowering women will be an enormous change, requiring that we turn the social order upside down, something women, in general, will prefer to avoid. Shifting our economies away from war will be similarly wrenching. Women alone will not bring about a future without war. Willingness to embrace change, even if for a time it creates serious turmoil, is what men who share the desire for social stability will bring to the campaign. Some individuals will prefer to keep things as they have always been, women being excluded from power. They'll wish to preserve war as a legitimate option. They'll fight back. Sometimes the engagement may turn violent. When Rosa Parks, an African-American woman in the segregated American south, refused to give up her seat in a public bus to a white man, the ensuing social disruption eventually cost lives, many lives, before segregation there was officially ended.
Sadly, the nonviolent campaigns of Gandhi and Martin Luther King were not free of bloodshed. With the possible exception of the development of the Internet, not one of the six steps described in the essay "War is Not Inevitable" that have prepared the ground for this promise of freedom from war was achieved without bloodshed. The drive and the willingness of men who've grasped the vision of ending war to rebel will be needed to push events forward. No compromise. Even if it means serious turmoil for a time, there has to be a willingness to embrace change. Full male/female partnership will be required if we are to create a warless future. (6)
Women and Long-term Global Stability
The first major success in any campaign to end war can be an enforceable, global peace treaty that prevents war between nations; a global treaty that has teeth. The need for such a treaty was made evident by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. On the foundation of international social stabiliy provided by such a treaty, resources freed from planning, executing, and cleaning up after major wars can be directed to achieving cornerstone goals that over time reduce and ultimately eliminate civil wars. Once the goal of ending international war is achieved, and assuming that empowered women continue to share in governing our lives, it's the preference of women for social stability that will ensure that we maintain a warless global community. This is what will make our future different. This is what will allow us to achieve what the League of Nations and the United Nations failed to achieve. We could justify empowering women because it's the morally right thing to do. A civilized thing to do. A humane thing to do. Part of human rights. From the practical view, however, it is the necessary thing to do. The important question is not what the global community can and should do for women, but what women will be able to do for the global community.
- Hand, Judith L. 2003. Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace. San Diego, CA: Questpath Publishing. Available as a FREE download; Hand, Judith L. 2014. Shift: The Beginning of War, The Ending of War. San Diego, CA: Questpath Publishing.
- Hedges, Chris. 2002. War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. NY: Public Affairs. This book describes clearly the appeal of war to men.
- Fisher, Helen. 1999. The First Sex: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World. NY: Random House.
- McDermott, R., and J. Cowden. 2001. "The Effects of Uncertainty and Sex in a Simulated Crisis Game." International Interactions 27: 353-380.
- To be "fully empowered," women must have not only voting rights (and exercise them), they must be empowered educationally, legally, financially, and religiously. See Hand, 2018.
- Hand, Judith L. 2018. War and Sex and Human Destiny. San Diego, CA: Questpath Publishing. The full text is also available for FREE at Dr. Hand's Personal Website.