PeaceWomen

An initiative called 1,000 women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 was launched in 2003 as a way to make the thoughts and actions of subaltern women more widely known. From Switzerland, a call went out around the globe and an international committee of twenty women from all continents was formed. After selection and documentation, 1,000 women from over 150 countries were collectively nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Women were chosen for the project without any intention to essentialize 'the feminine' or any biological polarization of women versus men. Rather, the intention was to highlight women's nurturing relations in everyday life; their experience and learned skills so critical for overcoming violence and for fostering lasting peace. The historical marginalization of women, like that of indigenous, peasant, and other groupings, needs to be viewed against the complex economic and cultural forces that keep them in social subjections. At the same time, women's unique initiatives and resistance need to be made visible. PeaceWomen fosters conversations from different quarters of the globe on alternative modes of life and subjectivities, and new imaginings about ways of becoming.