Women Gather to Promote Peace

Female community leaders from 45 nations—many of them embroiled in conflicts—are meeting at a unique week-long peace conference in India called "Making Way for the Feminine." The participants represent a religiously diverse group seeking ways for women to play a more prominent role in resolving conflicts and establishing peace, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

Delegates include a Palestinian psychologist and an Afghan woman who secretly founded a school. "The feminine gifts of compassion, empathy and caring prepare women for the urgent role as leaders and reconcilors," said the chairwoman of the Global Peace Initiative for Women. "This is about whether women can chart a new course." (More International Women's Day stories.)