Feminist Peace Network

Marianne Schnall has written a thought-provoking review of last month’s “Women, Power and Peace,â€? at Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York. She writes,

“The need to define a new paradigm of power, especially in order to create peace, is critical for progressive women. “The only point of having power, it seems to me, is to empower others,â€? said Eve Ensler, of the anti-violence organization V-Day, which sponsored the event along with the Nobel Women’s Initiative and the Women’s Institute at Omega. “Unfortunately,â€? she continued, “we have now come to identify women and power not as the radicalization of the mechanism and definition of power, but instead women climbing to the top of the current patriarchy and bureaucratic hierarchy at any cost.â€?

In a recent interview, Jane Fonda, who spoke at the conference, told me, “Women view power differently. It’s not power over-it’s power with. It’s about empowering others. Now, again-there are some women who view power the way men do. But generally speaking, women do it differently. It’s not hierarchical, it’s circular.â€? Fonda (also a WMC board member) added that women needed to “get over the feeling that the two words don’t go together-women and power. The fact is, if we don’t put the two together, and don’t understand how power changes complexion in the hands of women, then we’re not going to make it.â€?”