1,000 heroines

1,000 heroines - The Boston Globe: "LAST JANUARY an international group of 1,000 women was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Ruth Vermot-Mangold, a member of the Swiss Parliament, organized the effort to highlight the achievements of women in 153 countries who work, often anonymously, to prevent or alleviate conflict. Although the 2005 Peace Prize ultimately went to Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the women have continued to be honored in events across the globe.

Last month the Ford Hall Forum featured a panel discussion with two of the Boston-area women who were nominated: Kip Tiernan, founder of the homeless women's shelter Rosie's Place, and Betty Burkes, activist, educator, and past president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Tonight the two will be joined by Swanee Hunt, whose Women Waging Peace project supports initiatives in conflict areas from Rwanda to Iraq, and Elise Boulding, a Quaker and retired sociology professor. They'll be feted with a musical tribute at the Old South Church in Copley Square.

At the Ford Hall Forum, Tiernan was asked to draw the connection between her three-decade-long fight for affordable housing and the Nobel Prize. What, exactly, does preventing homelessness have to do with world peace? Graying and gravel-voiced, with a large leather cross hanging from her neck, Tiernan captured it succinctly: ''I certainly don't think there will be any peace unless there is justice," she said.

The 1,000 Women project is intriguing for the broad way it defines peace. Building houses, working for access to clean water, fighting for universal education, reintegrating prisoners and former child soldiers and people with AIDS into society -- all these activities help build a more stable, sustainable world. And far from being dominated by politicians or diplomats, this kind of peace work is largely the domain of women.

Not that the 1,000 nominees eschew politics. Tiernan, for one, believes that her fellow social service workers should get more explicitly political, searching for the root causes of human misery and war. ''We are so busy pulling babies out of the stream that is rushing by that we have yet to go upstream and see who is throwing them in," she said.

Characteristically, perhaps, the founders of the 1,000 Women project do not feel their effort is diminished a bit by the fact that they did not ''win" the Peace Prize. The 1,000 are meant as representatives of millions more, in any case. The idea is to inspire another generation of women to pick up the mantle and fight fiercely for harmony and equality.

That would be an even bigger victory."