On The Issues Magazine Launches, "Women, War and Peace"

As the U.S. rounds the corner into a decade of war, Women, War and Peace, the Summer 2011 edition of On The Issues Magazine (http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/2011summer/), takes a look at an age-old topic with a 21st century lens.

In Gender Values: The Costs of War, feminist economist Susan Feiner describes how the billions of dollars expended on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan steal money from women’s jobs, healthcare and education. Lori Adelman analyzes the research on war attitudes and finds that women are more inclined to oppose to military action in Fighting to Gratify a Sex Instinct? War Attitudes Vary by Gender. UN representative Cora Weiss takes a strong stand in Peace is a Human Right: Give Us Women Who Get It, calling for the advancement of women who will weigh carefully the burdens of war, and activists who understand that ending rape in war is not enough -- but that war itself must end.

Three writers look more closely at the costs to women who are in target zones. Debra Sweet challenges the notion that the war in Afghanistan benefits women in The Cruel Lie: Bombing to Liberate Women. Yifat Susskind, executive director of MADRE, shows how post-conflict gender violence stalks women and what grassroots groups in Guatemala and Iraq are doing in response in Violence Against Women Surges When War Is Done. Kathleen Barry concludes that a major cultural shift is needed to address the macho fury that embroils men in both war and violence on the home front in A Feminist Looks at Masculine Rage and the Haditha Massacre.

Eleanor Bader zooms in on anti-war activists who try to combat military recruitment in schools in War Resisters Inject Truth into Military Recruitment, while Chris Lombardi gives a multi-layered portrait of the challenges and stresses that face servicewomen in Paradoxes of Women in Uniform Take Deep Listening. Jean Stevens gives us insight into the intersectional thinking of a new generation of peace activists in Next “Wave” Peace Activists Pour Feminism into the Mix. And for a look at an iconic book from earlier years, anthology editor Pam McAllister describes how her thinking has evolved in Finding Hope: Reweaving -- Then and Now.

On The Issues Magazine publisher and editor Merle Hoffman takes us back to the start of our current military engagements in All Wars Are Intimate Wars (http://intimatewars.com/), an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, Intimate Wars, with a step back to 9/11 and how it resonated with the terror threats that abortion providers had faced for years.

In a new feature, the staff of the Feminist Press recommends good reading on war and peace from its catalog and those of other publishers in Books of Note: War and Peace. We get yet another perspective on war from our feature video, Pioneering Women War Correspondents by Milena Jovanovitch, which looks at journalists who took risks and overcame obstacles to be an eyewitnesses to history.

Women, War and Peace is obviously a topic that is complex, multidimensional -- and of vast importance. It tests and challenges our humanity, our values, and our futures.

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