The late Dr. Wangari Maathai taught women how to plant trees in Kenya. She did not provide the women with seeds because she believed they had to learn to do it themselves instead of relying on someone else to do it for them. By helping them to re-plant the forests they had lost, Dr. Maathai was able to show the women the link between the environment and their own well-being; just like the story of the tree and the stream at the beginning of the movie she is able to show them the benefits of the forest. It was an added bonus that the forest was able to provide certain civilian groups with refuge from the government. However, by teaching the women to plant trees Dr. Wangari was able to show the women how they can make a change themselves. She showed them that they are important, that they can make a difference for themselves and future generations. Although this reinforces the idea that women are caretakers and the givers of life, I believe it empowers women; the well-being of their community is in their power. She also highlights an important issue when she says that the government did not intervene with her project until a few years in. At the beginning, the government was willing to allow the grassroots movement to go about their tree-planting in peace. It was almost as if the government acted as a parent allowing their children, the women, to do what they pleased until it became a threat to their authority. This is an important issue because it plays to the predetermined gender roles. Women are able to go about their business until it gets in the way of men, at which point they must be stopped.
The Puechguirbal reading in the Shepherd textbook this week was quite interesting. When dealing with peacekeeping missions, most people think of protecting the weaker groups of society: women, children and the elderly. However, most people don't think of women as being part of the actual peacekeeping, as the ones doing the work after a conflict. The reading this week discussed how the contribution of women in war and in peacekeeping is often overlooked. There is a belief that women have no place in peacekeeping because they have no place in war. This reading ties in with the previous Adam Jones reading about the genocide in Rwanda. Puechguirbal makes it clear that women should not be left out of peacekeeping. The previous reading about the role of women in the Rwandan genocide highlights the role that women played in the actual killing. It is clear in both the Puechguirbal and Jones readings that the international community still struggles with the idea of women as villains. This belief goes back centuries. It has long been believed that women's hands were not designed to hold a weapon and that women are not strong enough to even carry a weapon. Of course we can see from modern armies that women do assume the mantle of soldier even though not everyone believes they should. Both Jones and Puechguirbal agree that women play a key role in war and in the aftermath.
The Puechguirbal reading and the movie about Dr. Maathai make it obvious that women play a significant role in many different aspects of life. They also make it clear that women can make a real and important difference in their communities. However, certain conventions still stand in the way. The belief that women can go about their business until it gets in the way of masculine objectives spreads in the public and private spheres of war, peacekeeping and nurturing the community. Women should not be delegated to the role of either a soldier or a mother; women have proven time and time again that they can be both.
Nadine Puechguirbal "Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding and Post-Conflict Resolution" Shepherd
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai
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