CALLS

Graduate Women International (GWI) underscores the critical and often overlooked truth that peace is directly related to education and is unachievable without the full and equal access of women and girls in today’s education systems, including online.

The 2025 theme, “Act Now for a Peaceful World,” speaks directly to GWI’s core mission since 1919 that educating women and girls is a means to build lasting, sustainable peace. GWI stresses that investing in education for women and girls is not only a matter of equity but also a proven foundation for peace and security.  Yet this demonstrated foundation is undermined when women and girls remain excluded, both from classrooms and from decision-making.

Concerned about this persistent situation, GWI has long placed education at the heart of peacebuilding. Its 2019 policy resolution on Building Peace through Women’s Education affirms that educating women and girls is a powerful means to promote dialogue, prevent violence, and build inclusive, peaceful societies.

The resolution urges GWI National Federations and Associations (NFAs) and partners to act urgently by promoting education as a tool for peace, raising awareness of the risks of exclusion, and working with governments, institutions, and civil society.

“Peace begins at home and in the classroom. When women and girls are educated, societies grow stronger, conflicts fade, and peaceful societies have room to take root,” says Stacy Dry Lara, GWI Executive Director.   GWI is in special consultative status with ECOSOC since 1947 and is an NGO maintaining official relations with UNESCO and ILO.