A JOINT plea to encourage more women to get actively involved in politics was made by the Minister for Justice and by Ms Brid Rodgers of the SDLP at a weekend seminar.
"Our innate sense of compromise can be a vital resource in transcending boundaries and achieving honourable, balanced agreements," Mrs Owen told more than 200 widows at a seminar on "Women Working Together for Peace".
Other speakers included Ms Noirin Byrne, chairwoman of the National Women's Council, and Ms Joan Towle, president of FIAV, an international federation of widows and widowers organisations. The event was organised by the Dublin branch of the National Association of Widows in Ireland. Ms Eileen Proctor, national life president and founder of the NAWI, which has a membership of approximately 15,000, also addressed the seminar.
Mrs Owen told the entirely female audience there were very blew women "in the front line" of the Northern Ireland talks. She said that in spite of this the contributions of all the women involved in the talks process had been "invariably constructive and forward looking" and "aimed at finding common ground among the parties".
Women, she said, continue to make an impact, in spite of the fact that their contributions are often dismissed with words like "hysterical" and "lecturing" in comparison to dismissive comments about men who are invariably described as "robust", "assertive" and "combative".
Ms Rodgers, executive member of the SDLP, said "there are times when it has been very hard to find that you are the only woman in the room.
"My appeal [to women] is to Join a political party, whichever one suits you," she said.
After Drumcree and the violence of the past few months, "women in the communities will have to start building up again," she said.
Ms Byrne also called for more involvement by women. She said that all women should "go a further step and combine this work with more overtly political engagement.
"It is not enough that we do the work at ground level," she said. "This is a vital backdrop, but if we remain in this arena then we leave it to others, mainly men, to determine whether we are working in a time of peace or a time of violence."