Women in Peace Building Initiatives for Integrated Development: Using Faith-based Organisations and Women’s Academic discipline.
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This paper investigates the extent to which faith-based organisations and women’s academic discipline influence them as agents of peace in Nigeria. The study employed an inter-disciplinary approach in analysing situations in which women have acted as agents of peace. To what extent do women in science and those in Arts/Humanities participate in peace building? To what extent do faith-based organisations promote women’s participation in peace building? The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Two research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. 470 women participated in the study. Data was collected using questionnaires (women in peace building questionnaire: WPBQ). The reliability of the instrument was determined and found to be 0.85 using split half reliability coefficient. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions, while t-test was used to test the hypotheses. The result of the study showed that faith-based organisations enhance women’s active participation in fostering peace at local, state and national levels. It also revealed that women in different academic fields possess varied skills that promote their participation in peace building at varying capacities. However, more women in Arts/Humanities rise to top positions that give them greater opportunity to be part of the decision making bodies. From the findings of the study, the paper recommended that women in faith-based organisations should be more encouraged and better empowered to increase their participation in peace building for integrated development. It also recommended that education of the girl-child should be encouraged to increase the level of formally educated women’s participation in peace building in Nigeria.
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