The Pill is Mightier Than the Sword

Abstract

One determinant of peace is the role of women in society. Some studies suggest that a young age structure, also known as a "youth bulge" can facilitate conflict. Population growth and age structure are factors amenable to change in a human rights context. We propose that policies which favor voluntary family planning and the education of women can ameliorate the global burden of disease associated with conflict and terrorism.

A Little Bit of Sugar Helps the Pill Go Down: Resilience, Peace, and Family Planning Comment on "The Pill Is Mightier Than the Sword"

“…These include, inter alia, joint assessments across sectors, agencies and donors; increased flexible funding and improved procurement processes; commitments towards breaking the humanitariandevelopment divide; directive communications from headquarters and donor capitals to the filed on resilience; and incentivizing personnel to embrace resilience in their work. 26 Development interventions that focus on ways to build resilience, however, are criticized for their inability to address local realities, especially power dynamics -which underlie the opportunities for women's engagement in peacebuilding efforts especially in geographies where population pressures, youth bulges and gender inequities pose great risks to development and humanitarian efforts [1] . [27][28][29] Ultimately, governments and policy-makers can reinforce resilience by addressing conflict and fragility dynamics and facilitating peacebuilding.…”

“…[1] These gender inequities include differential sensitivities to shocks and stresses as well as different skills, mechanisms and strategies used to cope with these disruptions.…”

“…T he article by Potts et al, 1 "The Pill is Mightier than the Sword," notes that family planning has an important role to play in building peace by increasing women's empowerment and their agency, ultimately helping peacebuilding efforts. Yet, peacebuilders and conservation groups may be less apt to see the immediate benefits of family planning to their immediate causes.…”

Women's Education and World Peace: A Feminist Dream Comes True Comment on "The Pill Is Mightier Than the Sword"

“…This theme occupies a central role in the paper by Potts et al 1 They extend the idea further to suggest that presenting women with opportunities to pursue education while providing them with easily available and accessible birth control methods may not only improve population health, but also reduce the incidence of wars and terrorism globally. Figure presents the youth bulge theory of war.…”

“…In addition, in an age of technological warfare, both men and women may train their weapon against enemy targets even as these targets remain invisible. High fertility rates according to Potts et al 1 produce a large number of men, prone to violence increasing the likelihood of war. 4 This assumes that women by nature are passive and that they neither participate in any significant way in war time activities nor do they belong to the male bastions of military organizations.…”