ACT Women’s Initiative

Bringing Women Together

It has been suggested that in order to preserve unity between women-to allow work on areas where they can agree- women’s groups have tended to avoid debating and taking positions on the issues which divide the communities.  Another reason for the preponderance of men in peace building and peace sustaining efforts, according to some commentators is that women generally have no interest in the issues surrounding the conflict. However, the prevailing literature on Loyalism rarely, if ever, mentions women or explores gender issues.  Subsequently, little is known about the role women can play in supporting male ex-combatants on their transformative journey within the relatively new political dispensation in Northern Ireland.  The ACT Initiative attempts to address these issues as it is based on the assumption that since the peace-building process is multilayered, contextual, and at times formal or informal, women need to be seen and heard at all levels. The role of our women’s coordinator is to increase the contribution of women within ACT and to ‘reach out’ to women from all communities to share their narratives.