The 1990s were a significant period in Naga politics. The period witnessed the intensification of inter-factional violence between warring Naga insurgent groups. The signing of the ceasefire agreement between the Indian government and the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) in 1997, and the subsequent peace talks that followed decades of violence, opened democratic space for Naga civil society to actively engage in the political process. Within this new dispensation, Naga women’s entry into the public sphere as ‘mothers’, rooted in private values and attributes such as nurturing, caring, and pacificatio, assumes significance. Naga women, traditionally confined to the private sphere, carved out a space for themselves in the public sphere by mobilizing for peace through a motherhood strategy. Based on primary and secondary sources, the paper examines the unique role that Naga women play in the public sphere, within the constraints of a traditional patriarchal ethos and Naga tribal customary practices that define gendered roles and perceptions for women. The paper concludes that the peace activism of Naga women in the public sphere has, in a way, empowered their political agency to assert for gender justice and greater participation and representation in formal politics. The 1990s were a significant period in Naga politics. The period witnessed the intensification of inter-factional violence between warring Naga insurgent groups. The signing of the ceasefire agreement between the Indian government and the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) in 1997, and the subsequent peace talks that followed decades of violence, opened democratic space for Naga civil society to actively engage in the political process. Within this new dispensation, Naga women’s entry into the public sphere as ‘mothers’, rooted in private values and attributes such as nurturing, caring, and pacification, assumes significance. Naga women, traditionally confined to the private sphere, carved out a space for themselves in the public sphere by mobilizing for peace through a motherhood strategy. Based on primary and secondary sources, the paper examines the unique role that Naga women play in the public sphere, within the constraints of a traditional patriarchal ethos and Naga tribal customary practices that define gendered roles and perceptions for women.