They were tired of being raped and abused, tired of their children being sentenced to death as child soldiers. In 2003, the women of Liberia came together by the thousands, a single goal in mind: peace now.

They called themselves the mothers of Liberia, the ones who were devoted to bring about peace for themselves and their children through non-violent means. Christians and Muslims together, they formed The Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace campaign, held signs and made up songs about peace, enduring the Liberian heat in white T-shirts and hair ties.

Their story attracted international attention.

Years later, after successfully bringing peace to the people of Liberia, their leader, Leymah Gbowee, will speak at Indiana Wesleyan University’s Marion campus Feb. 16 on the subject of peace and reconciliation.

Gbowee, along with Yemeni activist Yawakkul Karman and the current Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her role in bringing peace to Liberia after the most recent civil war.

“The thing that is the most impressive to me about her story is how she is an ordinary Liberian woman. She doesn’t come from the elite class of Liberia, from one of the older Liberian tribal groups. And she acted, really, out of necessity,” said Dr. Lisa Toland, associate director of the John Wesley Honors College and coordinator for Gbowee’s IWU visit.

Gbowee, along with more than 2,500 women, staged peace protests in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, attempting to attract the attention of Liberia’s oppressive former president, Charles Taylor. The women, an assembled group of Christian and Muslim women from all walks of life,  demanded an end to the violence instigated by Taylor’s troops and pushed for official peace talks between high-level government and rebel leaders. To prove their point to the men in the community, the women instigated a sex strike, calling for peace. After being ignored, the women threatened to remove their clothing in public, a shameful action in Liberian culture.

Eventually, the women’s work spread to other communities within Liberia, as well as neighboring Ghana.

To Dr. Norman Wilson, associate professor of intercultural studies at IWU, Gbowee’s  courage and optimism are examples of the power of overcoming differences and stereotypes to unite for a common cause.

“Throughout much of Africa and in parts of the world, the role of women has been underestimated and de-emphasized. And what is just so wonderfully refreshing and surprising is that God used women to break through stereotypes and to be instruments through whom He could introduce a whole new perspective to the situation,” Wilson said.

Wilson, who visited Liberia a number of times through his work with the organization Global Partners, had the opportunity to observe Liberians at various stages of the most recent civil war, noting their optimism and resiliency.

In preparation for Gbowee’s visit, the IWU community had the opportunity to view a critically acclaimed documentary on the Liberian women’s movement called “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.” Through talkback sessions and dialogue in various classes, students were invited to grapple with the issue within the film.

“It’s not a perfect story, she’ll tell you that – about the bitterness and the anger. It’s a very human experience, and it would be disturbing to me if it wasn’t a very human experience,” said Toland.

According to Toland, both the film and Gbowee’s testimony speak to many relevant issues for the IWU community.

“All kinds of aspects of the human experience that favit in with her being here. Everything from gender studies, the racial studies, economics, international politics, and the list goes on and on,” Toland said. “So I think, on one hand this is an opportunity for there to be a central event around which we have multiple interdisciplinary conversations.”

Gbowee will speak at the Chapel Auditorium Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

“I think our campus is ready; I think our campus has to be ready,” said Toland. “Because I think that her experience represents the experience of many other people’s lives in the world, lives torn apart of warfare and economic and class divisions and religious divisions.”

To many, Gbowee’s story serves not only as an example of courage, but a testimony of the possibility of peace.

“It’s one of those things where it’s a beautiful story of seeing how a peace movement was actually able to be accomplished,” said Laurel Stone (sr), an international relations major who has spent the last six years researching issues in Western Africa.

“I think the very fact that it was achieved shows that there is the ability for it to happen again and I think it also shows a movement, a larger movement in Africa, specifically, but also in the world, really, of seeing the effects of peace and reconciliation and restoration rather than clinging on to war,” Stone said.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer education and research foundation, announced Jan. 31 it would pull funding from Planned Parenthood, ending a 20-year partnership between the organizations.

Komen officials then backtracked, issued a public apology Feb. 3 and announced that they would continue to lend monetary support to Planned Parenthood, an organization with nearly 800 reproductive health clinics in the U.S.

According to USA Today, Komen created a new policy that blocks funding to any organization under investigation, citing an inquiry by a Florida congressman who wanted to determine whether or not Planned Parenthood used federal dollars for abortions. Komen, which funds breast cancer screenings through Planned Parenthood, also stated that Planned Parenthood didn’t always provide mammograms directly through the company per their agreement, instead, referring women to other centers.

Dot Clark, assistant professor of nursing at Indiana Wesleyan University, has experience in grant-writing and management. Clark said she was not surprised by Komen’s decision to pull funding. She said private granting foundations, like Komen, can give money and take it away from any organization at any time.

“They are very much focused on breast cancer prevention, and if they are a funding agency, then they should be scrutinizing how their money is spent,” Clark said, “and it seems like Planned Parenthood was not providing mammograms.”

Planned Parenthood has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, as some opponents have overplayed the organization’s role as a provider of abortions. According to the organization’s 2009-2010 annual report, Planned Parenthood provided 11 million services to its 3 million patients in 2010. Only 3 percent of those services were abortions, whereas 33 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services involved preventative contraception solely.

In the days between Komen’s two decisions, many people protested the decision on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, according to USA Today. Additionally, Planned Parenthood supporters started pledging up to $3 million to cover the lost funds. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged $250,000, even though Komen’s Planned Parenthood funding was only $680,000 in 2011.

Karen Handel, Komen’s senior vice president for public policy, resigned from her position one week after Komen reneged on its decision to discontinue funding of Planned Parenthood. Handel, who was a major player in stopping the funding, said she was “deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale and my involvement in it.”

The Komen-Planned Parenthood controversy cropped up just weeks after another political dispute raised a furor from all sides on the subject of reproductive health.

The Obama administration finalized a decision Jan. 20 that requires health insurance companies to offer birth control coverage to all women, the decision has angered Catholics, who have historically opposed the use of contraceptives, and roused heated debates over the apparent absence of exemptions for religiously affiliated organizations, according to the Indianapolis Star.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed Feb. 3 the lowest national unemployment level in three years. Recorded at 8.3 percent, the rate shows a decrease of 0.2 percent since December 2011.

According to Dr. Tom Lehman, professor of economics at Indiana Wesleyan University, the decrease isn’t surprising.

“We were expecting this kind of sluggish, upward trend and growth in the economy, which would lead to a kind of sluggish, downward pressure being put on unemployment rates,” Lehman said.

According to the BLS report, growth occurred primarily in the private sector, especially concerning jobs in “professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing.”

The lowering of unemployment rates is also indicative of the slow economic recovery following the 2007 recession, according to Lehman.

Still, Lehman said 8.3 percent might not serve as an accurate predictor for the rest of 2012.

“One month does not a trend make,” Lehman said. “But when you couple January with the downward movements in unemployment in October, November and December of 2011, you see a full quarter, four or five months there, of falling unemployment, so that would suggest that 2012 would be a better year.”

Numbers in Indiana also suggest a downward trend, as of December 2011. On a state level, unemployment rates in Indiana hovered at 8.7 percent, while the local unemployment rate for Marion came in at 11.2 percent, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s online database.

January 2012 unemployment rates for Indiana have not yet been published.

“The trends are similar,” said Lehman. “But the gap is what you really want to explain.”

According to Lehman, the difference between the national rate of 8.5 percent and Marion’s 11.2 percent as of December 2011 is an indicator of the local work force.

“I believe one of the primary reasons for that gap is because there is still a residue of lower-skilled, semi-skilled, blue collar labor in the Grant County area, even when the Grant County economic base might be shifting more toward a service-based and education/professional-based economy,” Lehman said.

For Susanna Spencer, a December 2011 graduate of IWU, finding a job in the Marion area has been more challenging than expected, even with a college degree.

“It’s been difficult,” Spencer said. “I haven’t yet found a job, but I just had a second interview at a company in Wabash for a marketing assisting position, and it was really good.”

Spencer began her job search in summer 2011, before her final semester, expecting to have plenty of job opportunities.

“I really thought that I was going to have a job when I graduated. One, because I started early, but two, because I need to be doing something all the time. I need to be working and I need to be busy,” Spencer said.

According to Lehman, recent graduates may have a more difficult time finding a job immediately following college compared with graduates from years like 2006 or 2007, before the recent recession.

“You’re at least not graduating into the trough of a recession, but you are coming off of the trough of a recession, when hiring is still sluggish and business firms are still very wary about how many workers they’re willing to take on,” Lehman said.

Despite challenges, Spencer remains positive about her employment prospects.

“It takes a lot of work and a lot of persistence and a lot of patience, but for me, I want to find the right thing, something that is a good fit for me,” Spencer said, noting that finding that fit may require some patience.

“I definitely found that you still need to have hard work, but it may not come the way that you think it will,” Spencer said.

2012 graduates may find themselves in a situation similar to Spencer’s, though unemployment rates could again be different.

While admittedly optimistic, Lehman said he wouldn’t be surprised for unemployment to drop a full percentage point by December 2012 to 7.5 percent nationally.

If such a decrease were to occur, it would have the potential to significantly impact the events leading up to the presidential election, Lehman said. Obama’s public opinion ratings would likely benefit if unemployment rates continue to drop throughout the end of the year, whereas a spike in unemployment could be advantageous to the Republican challenger, according to Lehman.

Still, it all depends on what happens in the months to come.

“There are still many people questioning whether we’re going to have a double-dip recession or whether we’re going to have any kind of major recovery in the economy at all,” Lehman said.

For the first time ever, Indiana Wesleyan University students have submitted papers to the prestigious Cambridge Business and Economics Conference hosted by the University of Cambridge in the U.K. IWU students have submitted 17 papers to the conference, each of which has been accepted within the first two phases of the four-phase acceptance process.

Dr. Shawn Carraher, professor of business at IWU, commented on the professional standard of the CBEC: “We will have the only students to go there. It’s not designed as a student conference. Usually students don’t submit papers, almost none. Even graduate students wouldn’t stand much of a chance. University faculty primarily submit papers.”

Carraher said, in his past participation with the conference, there’s been as low as a 20 percent acceptance rate, adding that sometimes only one paper per university is accepted. Carraher said, of the 400-500 papers submitted, only about 100-150 are accepted for presentation at the conference.

Carraher explained the biggest hurdle in the process began before a single paper was submitted. First, students had to realize that they were capable of competing, so long as they put forth the effort, said Carraher, who taught a fall 2011 course on small-business management.

The course required each student to write a research paper, but Carraher then gave them the additional challenge to step their papers up to the next level to meet submission requirements for the Cambridge conference. A lead author wrote each paper with the help of several chosen co-authors.

Austin Doerr (sr), a business management major, wrote one of the 17 accepted papers. It was through Carraher’s class that Doerr was introduced to the presentation prospect. Doerr’s paper, “Ubiquitous Opinions,” required the help of five co-authors, including Carraher.

Michael Lipetri (sr), one of Doerr’s co-authors, said each co-author wrote a different portion of the paper specific to his or her area of expertise.

Doerr estimates that he spent about 55 hours on the paper, which is now 40 pages long, since the first day of class last semester. As a group, the paper required about 70 hours of work, according to Doerr.

But the paper is still in process. All the groups are currently in the data-collection phase of their projects. The final products will be put on a CD version of the proceedings, which includes the final papers of all the CBEC presentations.

Carraher explained that after each 15-20 minute presentation, a discussant, probably a professor from another country who had previously read the paper, would comment on it. Following the comments, there would be a 5-10 minute audience involvement discussion.

Carraher said he would be applying about four of the lead authors to be workers at the conference, including Doerr. He said that working as a discussant or session chair would be even more prestigious than having one’s paper presented.

Students will learn in July whether or not the Oxford Journal will publish their papers.

For Lipetri, the CBEC means a step up in the marketplace.

“I couldn’t pass up such a big opportunity,” said Lipetri. “It’s great to have on a resume. It really does change the way you’re looked at through human resources.”

“I feel very blessed to be able to have this opportunity,” said Doerr. “I know that I wouldn’t have been able to do it on my own, but through the help of Dr. Carraher and the other co-authors and through God’s grace. All I can do is do my best for God’s glory.”

Carraher said: “It’s really kind of a game-changer for IWU and for the students themselves. It’s a very good way for students to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.”

In addition to presenting at the CBEC, students look forward to spending time traveling around England to visit John Wesley’s church and house, Stonehenge and places related to Tolkein, Lewis and possibly even Harry Potter.