“When a movement includes in its discourse language around gender equality, it increases dramatically the chances it will adopt nonviolence, and thus, the likelihood that it will succeed”
Julia Bacha is a filmmaker and creative director of Just Vision, an organization that uses film and multimedia storytelling to foster constructive conversations on some of the most divisive issues of our times. The stories we tell (or don’t tell) about the women in political movements will be a critical variable in whether or not a movement will be successful.
She explores how a study of 323 conflicts between 1900 and 2006 found that nonviolent campaigns are almost 100% more likely to succeed than violent campaigns, and the greatest predictor of whether or not a movement embraces nonviolence is its ideology regarding the role of women in public life.
