Be sure to watch the first episode of Women, War & Peace tonight on your local public broadcasting station.  This extraordinary series of documentary films produced by Abigail Disney, Pamela Hogan, and Gini Reticker focuses on the role of women as peace-makers in Bosnia, Liberia, Afghanistan, and Colombia.

One hundred years ago, most of the casualties in wars were male soldiers, but in wars today the majority of casualties are women and children. As Abigail Disney points out, unless people have lived in a war-zone, their impressions of warfare are strongly influenced by war movies that glorify soldiers fighting in the old-fashioned way – killing other soldiers instead of civilians.

The goal of this series is to give people a more realistic view of the impact of war on women and children. Although the films include disturbing descriptions of rape and torture, their main focus is on the inspiring stories of women who continue to assert their humanity and work for peace and justice in spite of the violence swirling around them.

The five episodes of Women, War & Peace described below will premiere on local U.S. PBS stations on Tuesday nights from October 11 to November 8, 2011. Check your local listings for air times, and click here to watch the trailer.