Gender, armed conflict and political violence

This paper takes a gendered look at some important aspects of the cycle of peace and war, differences between male and female bodies, their characteristic roles in society, and gender ideologies. The author states that gender consciousness invites us to see how women and men may be positioned differently, have different experiences, different needs, different strengths and skills; and how in different cultures these differences have different expressions.

It also invites us to notice gender relations and to see how they shape institutions like the family, the military, the state; how they intersect with relations of class and ethnicity; to see how power, oppression and exploitation work in and through them. In this sense, the paper shows some of the gendered features of political violence and armed conflict in their various phases and manifestations.