Closing remarks from Diana Villiers Negroponte
Non-resident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy, Brookings Institution

Two areas where women need to push forward are education and support of women in the hard sciences. These professions can help women gain dignity and respect.

Another key area is the leadership of women as peacemakers. In El Salvador’s 12-year-long civil war, women played a key role both in the guerrilla movement and in peace talks. Women were good development officers. They could raise money and thus had a seat among men when it came to peace negotiations. But once the negotiations were complete, men excluded women from the rest of the peace-building process.

Now we need women to lead an anti-violence movement in Mexico. They’ve tried marches and protests, but after months of work, these movements fade away and fail because they are not able to create associations that can support one another during times of strife.

That is why organizations such as CIPE are key: they connect the dots and empower women. Through connecting and forming associations, groups of men and women can find peace.