Women's Work

Building Peace in War-Affected Communities of Uganda and Sierra Leone

Jennifer Moore

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781512827262
• eBook ISBN: 9781512827286
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Peace & Global Development
• Index: Social Sciences

When women have full socioeconomic citizenship as well as equitable and respectful partnerships with men, transformative justice can be sustained in postconflict societies In Women's Work, Jennifer Moore presents a reimagined theory of peacebuilding and transformative justice based on the experiences and insights of women farmers and microentrepreneurs who lived through protracted civil conflicts, drawing on seven years of interviews with women activists across ten communities—five in the Acholi region of Northern Uganda and five in the Moyamba and Koinadugu Districts of Sierra Leone. Despite the important differences between the preconflict and conflict histories and demographics of the two countries, Moore finds commonalities in the practical, yet visionary, approaches to community life emerging from the core values, daily activities, and long-range goals shared by rural cooperative members in both regions.Collective survival, communal healing, and conflict resolution define the rhythm of these women's daily lives as they go about building peace, piecemeal. They reject punitive retribution models and demand, instead, a peacebuilding model that advocates for advances in material well-being, the acknowledgment of state accountability for community suffering, and reconciliation and restoration of community networks. But most important, Moore amplifies these women's voices when they insist that legal equality for women and healthy partnerships between women and men are also essential components to enduring transformation of their societies.Moore theorizes what peacebuilding look like if it were modeled on these women-led, matriarchically structured communities that proved not only to be effective at holding governments accountable but also to have the capacity to feed their people and revitalize their local economies. Women's Work shows that when women have full socioeconomic citizenship as well as equitable and respectful partnerships with men, transformative justice can be sustained through the arts of collective livelihood, violence-free conflict management, and celebration.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction. Rural Women’s Perspectives on the Practice of Peace and the Meanings of Justice
• 1. Feminism, Human Rights, and Transformative Justice: From Patriarchy to Partnership, from Rights to Reparation
• 2. Historical Pathways: The Roots of Conflict and Peacebuilding in Uganda and Sierra Leone
• 3. Peace in the Home, Peace in the Nation: Conceptions of Justice Within Women’s Collectives in Northern Uganda
• 4. Women in Power with Men’s Support: Social Transformation Among the Peace Mothers of Sierra Leone
• Conclusion. Rural Women Peacebuilders: A Quiet Storm of Social Transformation
• Appendix 1. Women Peacebuilders’ Questionnaire
• Appendix 2. Talking with Members of Gwoko Ter Kwaro in Kitgum District, Northern Uganda
• Notes
• Index
• Acknowledgments