Collective actions of women´s organizations for peace in Colombia

Abstract

Currently, Colombia is conducting a peace process that could glimpse the peace the country craves. This peace would bring the end of the armed conflict but not systematically the end of all kind of violence. To ensure the participation and influence of women in this process, it is essential to know the current role performed by the Colombian women’s peace networks. This is the aim of this article.

This article explores the main ways of political action undertaken by Colombian women in peacebuilding. In order to do it, we have analyzed the main repertoires of collective action, organizational structure, framing processes and impacts of two women’s networks —Women’s Pacific Route and the Initiative of Colombian Women for Peace—. This analysis was conducted using qualitative techniques. We have made thus three in-depth interviews with the main leaders of each organization studied.

Our results present what are the differences and similarities between both women’s networks through the observation of their political practices and their relationship with the concepts peace/conflict; and gender/feminism. While for the Pacific Route the articulating axis is the feminist movement, for the IMP it is the institutional framework. On the other hand, we remarked on identifying civil resistance developed by women in the different Colombia’s peace processes, the limits found by themselves, the strategies to overcome them and the political health of these movements.