Women, War & Peace

Women, War & Peace, a five-part documentary series exploring women’s strategic role in conflict and peacebuilding, aired in Fall 2011 on PBS. It that revolutionized how we talk about war by telling it through the eyes of the women who shaped the course of history. The series uplifted the stories of women fighting for peace in Bosnia, Liberia, Afghanistan, and Colombia, placing them at the center, where they have always been.
Some campaign highlights include:

Distributed nearly 2,000 screening kits

We were able to reach 85 countries, on all seven continents, including Antarctica.

Shifted the narrative around women and war

From engaging the general public through information gatherings and viewing party resources, to partnerships with international organizations that resulted in Twitter chats, newsletters, and social media campaigns, we were able to engage audiences around the world about women being agents of change instead of only being victims of war.

We worked with the iSchool at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to assess whether the release of the series had changed media discourse on the topic of “women, war and peace.” Through analyzing media and social media discourse before and after the release of the series, they showed across the board that the series added a new dimension to the conversation around women, peace and security.

SUPPORTED THE USE OF THE SERIES AS A TOOL FOR PEACEBUILDING

We were able to bring the films to grassroots women’s groups from Talcahuano, Chile to Yefren, Leben working to prevent conflict. MADRE shared the films at trainings for indigenous women protecting human rights in Colombia and Guatemala, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom screened the films for Bosnian and Syrian women participating in both countries’ peacebuilding processes. A screening tour of Pray the Devil Back to Hell for rural communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo directly led to an increase in women running for local office.

Lifted up local immigrant and refugee communities impacted by war

Public television stations around the country received grants to develop original content expanding on the series’ themes and spotlight local immigrant and refugee communities impacted by war. including a twenty-minute documentary, Women Who Conquer War; three short television pieces on three women changemakers; a series of radio interviews featuring Abigail Disney and local refugees from Bosnia, Sudan, Burma, and Vietnam; and four shows with renowned journalists and a group of Bosnian women who came to the U.S. as refugees.

Women, War & Peace returned to PBS with four feature documentaries in March of 2019.