Women gather at a peace demonstration in Washington, D.C. Photo by ma neeks on flickr.
Our Vision
The Beyond Militarism Circle was born of the recognition that women and girls pay a heavy price for the growth of militarism around the world. Our vision is to build an international movement of women leaders focused on ending our current culture of aggression.
Formed as a partnership with the Global Fund for Women (GFW), the circle’s members have focused on women’s efforts around the world to resist militarism in their communities, with the goal of gleaning effective methods of dismantling militarism, and scaling those methods up to be implemented on a larger scale.
Our Impact
We are proud of our activities to date, which have included:
- An energizing evening discussion with the Global Fund’s grantee partners from Guam, Brazil, and Colombia working on the frontlines to challenge military expansion in their communities. They discussed how they are using feminist politics to work across borders to resist militarism.
- An informative education call with Global Fund staff to learn more about how women are confronting militarism around the world.
- Global Fund Retreat with Isabelle Allende in the Bay Area in 2010.
Recent educational calls have focused on effective strategies for women confronting militarism, and strategizing about what the Middle East uprisings mean for women. We’ve also engaged with members to host educational discussions on women’s experience of militarism and aid in the context of natural disasters, looking at Haiti, Sri Lanka and Pakistan as examples. We’ve also taken a deeper look at women’s lives in war-town Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our Strategy
Having spent the last few years focused on education, Beyond Militarism has just decided to begin exploring taking collective action, including possible funding. We are studying 5 areas of work, including convening, influencing the philanthropic sector around security issues, and framing and messaging around security and militarism.
