Foreign policy should focus on helping women

Hang around child advocates long enough, and you'll invariably hear someone relate the story of the Masai tribe of Africa. Their traditional greeting, as the story goes, is, "And how are the children?"

It acknowledges the high value the Masai place on their children's well-being, which child advocates say should be our top priority, too. And they're right. If the children are well, it means they are safe and at peace.

As we look around the globe, though, children are not well. And a large reason they are not well is that their mothers and other women in their lives are not well. They are victims of rape and other sexual violence. In places such as Zimbabwe, sexual violence is used as a weapon no different than guns or knives. Girls are raped to intimidate their families. Women in opposition-party politics are raped in attempts to silence political uprisings.

Rape is every bit as effective as conventional weapons. Women who are raped are effectively paralyzed. The children in their care suffer, too, because women are the caregivers, the cooks, the farmers and the traders.

In many places in the world, gender-targeted hostility is increasing. In Pakistan, for instance, some 50,000 girls lost their chance for an education after Islamic militants shut down 200 schools for girls. This has far-reaching consequences.

A new study by Brigham Young University researchers concludes that the best predictor of a society's peacefulness is how it safeguards the interests of women. The researchers based their findings on a number of factors, such as laws and social mores regarding women's rights, crime statistics, maternal health, women's voice in government and access to victims' services. If these findings are correct, helping to ensure that the interests of women are promoted and protected should be a key function of our foreign policy.

The BYU study, "Heart of the Matter," in the Harvard University journal International Security, suggests that gender-based violence had more bearing on peace than democracy, wealth and Islamic cultural identity.

Reading about this study made me think about Muhammad Yunus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Yunus is the founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. The bank specializes in microcredit. Most loans go to women, because they tend to be more responsible with money and they're more likely to spend profits from their businesses on their families.

Still, in largely Muslim Bangladesh, women didn't line up for the loans. Many had to be persuaded to borrow money, because they feared backlash from husbands who might feel undermined in their roles of traditional breadwinners. Some lenders found themselves in the unaccustomed role of marriage counselors.