Eastern Europe

"Being Strong Enough to Defend Yourself": Untangling the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda amidst the Ukranian Conflict

Citation:

O'Sullivan, Mila. 2019. ""Being Strong Enough to Defend Yourself": Untangling the Women, Peace and Security Agenda amidst the Ukrainian Conflict." International Feminist Journal of Politics 21 (5): 746-67.

Author: Mila O'Sullivan

Abstract:

Following the outbreak of armed conflict in 2014, Ukraine adopted a National Action Plan within United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 for the period 2016–20, the first country in conflict to do so. Ukraine's case demonstrates that in a situation of active conflict, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda becomes strongly linked to military security. Drawing on interviews, documents, and narratives by feminist and public figures, I argue that the WPS agenda in Ukraine has taken a narrow militarized form as a result of a combination of three interrelated and mutually constitutive factors: the ongoing conflict, nationalistic feminism, and the role of international organizations. The open conflict has generated a militaristic and nationalistic discourse among mainstream Ukrainians with an emphasis on defending the country. This discourse has been translated by international organizations and national actors into the WPS agenda, which has prioritized security sector reforms. Implementation of the WPS agenda in Ukraine therefore seems to be at odds with this norm's feminist principles. It is not leading to peace but to militarization, neglecting broader insecurities, including socioeconomic inequalities that have, in turn, been exacerbated by the conflict and the state's institutional reforms.

Keywords: conflict, UNSCR 1325, women, peace and security, Ukraine, nationalism, international organizations

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Feminisms, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Nationalism, Peace Processes, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Ukraine

Year: 2019

Aftermath: Women and Women’s Organizations In Postconflict Societies: The Role of International Assistance

Citation:

Kumar, Krishna. 2001. Aftermath: Women and Women’s Organizations In Postconflict Societies: The Role of International Assistance. USAID Program and Operations Assessment Report No. 28, U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington, DC.

Author: Krishna Kumar

Annotation:

Summary: 
Since the end of the Cold War, intrastate conflicts have increased worldwide. Poverty, the struggle for scarce resources, declining standards of living, ethnic rivalries and divisions, political repression by authoritarian governments, and rapid social and economic modernization—all these factors contribute to intrastate conflicts. All intrastate conflicts share a set of common characteristics that have major implications for women and gender relations. First, the belligerent parties deliberately inflict violence on civilian populations. Second, the intrastate conflicts displace substantial numbers of people, mostly women and children. Third, women’s participation in war contributes to the redefinition of their identities and traditional roles. Fourth, there is usually a conscious attempt to destroy the supporting civilian infrastructure, leading to increased poverty and starvation. Finally, these conflicts leave among the belligerent groups within the countries a legacy of bitterness, hatred, and anger that is difficult to heal.

Both men and women suffer from such conflicts. This study examines specifically the effects on women in six casestudy countries: Cambodia, Bosnia, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, and Rwanda. It looks as well at the rise of indigenous women’s organizations—their role, their impact, their future. Teams from USAID’s Center for Development Information and Evaluation visited those countries during 1999. They found the effects of war on women to fall into three broad categories: Social and psychological. Women often were traumatized by the conflict. After the hostilities, many feared for their physical safety. During the early phases of postconflict transition, unemployed militia continued to pose a serious threat to the lives and property of women and children. Fear of violence and sexual abuse (rape had actually been used as a tool of war, to subjugate, humiliate, terrorize) often kept women from moving about freely. Abject conditions in many postconflict societies contributed to the growth of prostitution.

Economic. A major problem was lack of property rights. Women were denied ownership of land their dead husbands or parents had owned. Rural women who owned no land or other assets worked as laborers or sharecroppers, at minimal wages. Urban women carved out livings mostly by selling foods and household items. During conflict, women could work in many occupations. As ex-combatants returned to civilian life, though, female workers were the first to lose their jobs.

Political. In the absence of men, all six countries witnessed an expansion of women’s public roles during the conflict. Women volunteered in churches, schools, hospitals, and private charities. They often took charge of political institutions, enhancing their political skills—and raising their expectations.

The conflicts created a ripe environment for the emergence or growth of women’s organizations. For one thing, the wars undermined the traditional social order; women found it easier to take part in public affairs. Moreover, governmental reforms after the wars created political space to launch women’s organizations. Another factor was disillusionment. During or in the immediate aftermath of the wars, women’s expectations of increased political participation had risen. Those expectations were never fully realized. Finally, the readiness of the international community to provide assistance to such organizations contributed to their growth.

In the case-study countries, women’s organizations have been active in virtually all sectors: social, educational, economic, political. They have established health clinics, provided reproductive health care, organized mass vaccination programs. They have carried out programs to generate income and employment for women, emphasizing microcredit and vocational training. They have grappled with domestic violence, prostitution, and the plight of returning refugees and internally displaced women. And they have promoted democracy and human rights, supported social reconciliation, and worked to increase women’s participation in political affairs.

International assistance has been important to the development of women’s organizations—and will be far into the foreseeable future. Beyond financial support, international bodies have helped indigenous women acquire managerial, accounting, and technical skills. International assistance has also helped legitimize women’s organizations, for example by sheltering them from government interference.

Attending the emergence of women’s organizations is an array of obstacles. They are social and cultural, imposed from without, and organizational, imposed from within. Chief among the former is women’s low social status. At the family, community, and national levels, women confront a lack of support for their public activities. Another outside encumbrance is the short-term nature of international assistance, which prevents long-term planning. Chief among internal obstacles is the reluctance of women leaders to delegate authority and to train junior staff for future leadership. There is, moreover, a lack of communication and sharing among organizations.

The six individual CDIE country evaluations yielded a number of recommendations aimed at making assistance to women’s organizations more effective. Among them: 
1. Build on women’s economic and political gains. Because the postconflict era provides an opening to build on the progress made by women during conflict, it makes sense for USAID to continue to capitalize on this opportunity. 
2. Pay greater attention to civilian security. USAID can assume a leadership role in publicizing the problem of civilian security and the need for concerted action to protect women. The Agency can also encourage other organizations to carry out programs that can enhance physical security for women.
3. Make concerted efforts with the rest of the international community to prevent sexual abuse of women. Measures might include protecting witnesses, training international peacekeepers in gender issues, and promoting more women to international judicial posts.
4. Promote microcredit. USAID should support microcredit programs but not ignore their limitations. They are not cures for all economic problems facing women in postconflict societies.
5. Support property rights for women. USAID should continue supporting property-rights reforms affecting women. This should include not only constitutional and legislative reforms but also their effective implementation.
6. Consider multiyear funding. The assurance of assistance for periods longer than 6–9 months will help build institutional capacity and boost staff morale.
7. Promote sustainability of women’s organizations. USAID could provide technical assistance, when necessary, to improve management; consider funding a portion of core costs, in addition to program costs, for a limited period; and help organizations become self-reliant by such means as improving skills in advocacy, fundraising, networking, and coalition.
8. Promote greater women’s participation in elections. USAID should consider steps to encourage political parties to field women candidates and assist women candidates on a nonpartisan basis.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Civil Society, Displacement & Migration, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Gender Roles, Women, Governance, Elections, Health, Trauma, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Political Participation, Rights, Land Rights, Security, Sexual Violence, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Americas, Central America, Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe, South Caucasus Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cambodia, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Rwanda

Year: 2001

New Institutions, New Gender Rules? A Feminist Institutionalist Lens on Women and Power-Sharing

Citation:

Mackay, Fiona, and Cera Murtagh. 2019. “New Institutions, New Gender Rules? A Feminist Institutionalist Lens on Women and Power-Sharing.” feminists@law 9 (1).

Authors: Fiona Mackay, Cera Murtagh

Abstract:

This article examines the apparent tension between power-sharing as the dominant approach to conflict settlement and the inclusion of women and provisions for gender equality as promoted through the Women, Peace and Security agenda. We argue that applying a feminist institutionalist (FI) lens - which attends to the interactions between political and social institutions, and the interplay between formal and informal rules, norms and practices - provides a means of explaining the so-called ‘gendered paradox of power-sharing’, including the gap between the promise of formal frameworks and outcomes for women in practice. We draw upon extant feminist research on three post-conflict power-sharing cases: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, and Burundi. Using the concepts of: nested newness, formal and informal institutions, the gendered logic of appropriateness, and gendered actors, we illuminate why it has been so difficult for the gender progressive institutional innovations to be instantiated. In so doing, we answer the call of Byrne and McCulloch (2012) for more systematic analysis and theorising around the gendered paradox of power-sharing, and we also provide a basis for identifying what institutional mechanisms might be needed to embed the inclusion of women and the integration of the WPS norms in power-sharing frameworks in the future.

Keywords: power-sharing, feminist institutionalism, Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, women, peace and security

Topics: Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Africa, East Africa, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Western Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Burundi, United Kingdom

Year: 2019

Investigating “Missing” Women: Gender, Ghosts, and the Bosnian Peace Process

Citation:

McLeod, Laura. 2019. "Investigating “Missing” Women: Gender, Ghosts, and the Bosnian Peace Process." International Studies Quarterly 63 (3): 668–79. 

Author: Laura McLeod

Abstract:

Women usually play a limited role in peace processes, at times because of deliberate efforts to marginalize them. As a result, academic and practitioner knowledge has focused on the absence of female bodies from peace processes. I argue that we can generate knowledge about women and peace processes by exploring both the ways that women are omitted and the enduring effects of their exclusion. I use the 1991–1995 Bosnian peace process, which culminated with the November 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, to explore how we can find something meaningful at the site of “missing.” Avery Gordon's language of ghosts and haunting allows us to notice how women are made missing from stories of the Bosnian peace process. Ghosts also linger, allowing us to notice how the past of exclusion continues to shape contemporary activism in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Thus, by paying attention to the effects of being (made) missing we can understand how scholars and practitioners produce knowledge about women and gender. Following ghosts highlights that when we find something missing, it matters how it is missing. It is insufficient just to note the absence of women, whether from peace processes or from other political phenomena. Rather, we need to examine the consequences of their absence.

Topics: Gender, Women, Peace Processes Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2019

Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments

Citation:

Gordon, Eleanor. 2019. “Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments.” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 13 (1): 75–94.

Author: Eleanor Gordon

Abstract:

While gender-responsive Security Sector Reform (SSR) is increasingly recognised as being key to successful SSR programmes, women continue to be marginalised in post-conflict SSR programmes, particularly defence sector reform. By focussing on developments in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Colombia, this article explores the paradox of women’s marginalisation in defence sector reform and post-reform defence structures in places where women were active combatants during the preceding conflict. This article refers to examples of women’s engagement in combat to challenge some of the reasons given for women’s marginalisation, including reference to women’s skillset, aptitude and interests. The article adopts a feminist institutionalist approach to show how SSR helps security sector institutions construct and reconstruct gender power relations, reinforce gendered dynamics of exclusion, and determine gendered outcomes. It concludes by drawing attention to the transformational potential of SSR to alter gender power relations, and thereby enhance the security of women and the sustainability of peacebuilding efforts.

Keywords: defence sector reform, security sector reform, female combatants, Gender, peacebuilding

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Peacebuilding, Security Sector Reform Regions: Americas, South America, Asia, South Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Colombia, Kosovo, Nepal, Sri Lanka

Year: 2019

Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments

Citation:

Gordon, Eleanor. 2019. "Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments." Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 13 (1): 75-94.

Author: Eleanor Gordon

Abstract:

While gender-responsive Security Sector Reform (SSR) is increasingly recognised as being key to successful SSR programmes, women continue to be marginalised in post-conflict SSR programmes, particularly defence sector reform. By focussing on developments in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Colombia, this article explores the paradox of women’s marginalisation in defence sector reform and post-reform defence structures in places where women were active combatants during the preceding conflict. This article refers to examples of women’s engagement in combat to challenge some of the reasons given for women’s marginalisation, including reference to women’s skillset, aptitude and interests. The article adopts a feminist institutionalist approach to show how SSR helps security sector institutions construct and reconstruct gender power relations, reinforce gendered dynamics of exclusion, and determine gendered outcomes. It concludes by drawing attention to the transformational potential of SSR to alter gender power relations, and thereby enhance the security of women and the sustainability of peacebuilding efforts.

Keywords: defence sector reform, security sector reform, female combatants, Gender, peacebuilding

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Peacebuilding, Security, Security Sector Reform Regions: Americas, South America, Asia, South Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Colombia, Kosovo, Nepal, Sri Lanka

Year: 2019

Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments

Citation:

Gordon, Eleanor. 2019. "Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments." Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 13 (1): 75-94.

Author: Eleanor Goldon

Abstract:

While gender-responsive Security Sector Reform (SSR) is increasingly recognised as being key to successful SSR programmes, women continue to be marginalised in post-conflict SSR programmes, particularly defence sector reform. By focussing on developments in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Colombia, this article explores the paradox of women’s marginalisation in defence sector reform and post-reform defence structures in places where women were active combatants during the preceding conflict. This article refers to examples of women’s engagement in combat to challenge some of the reasons given for women’s marginalisation, including reference to women’s skillset, aptitude and interests. The article adopts a feminist institutionalist approach to show how SSR helps security sector institutions construct and reconstruct gender power relations, reinforce gendered dynamics of exclusion, and determine gendered outcomes. It concludes by drawing attention to the transformational potential of SSR to alter gender power relations, and thereby enhance the security of women and the sustainability of peacebuilding efforts.

Keywords: security sector reform (SSR), female combatants, Gender, peacebuilding, defence sector reform

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Security, Security Sector Reform Regions: Americas, South America, Asia, South Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Colombia, Kosovo, Nepal, Sri Lanka

Year: 2019

Gendered Legacies of Peacekeeping: Implications of Trafficking for Forced Prostitution in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Citation:

Koester, Diana. 2020. "Gendered Legacies of Peacekeeping: Implications of Trafficking for Forced Prostitution in Bosnia-Herzegovina." International Peacekeeping 27 (1): 35-43.

Author: Diane Koester

Abstract:

A growing body of research shows that peacekeeping missions are ‘gendered’, both in terms of composition and organizational cultures. However, studies have tended to focus on more immediate consequences of these characteristics. This short contribution on effects of trafficking for forced prostitution in Bosnia–Herzegovina suggests that gender norms can also significantly influence longer-term legacies of peace operations. It briefly highlights connections between large-scale peacekeeping and the emergence of Bosnia–Herzegovina as a sex-trafficking destination and discusses enduring implications of these trends for regional, local and human security. This case suggests that considering the role of gender norms and women’s specific experiences can help develop the wider research agenda outlined in this forum: the study of peacekeeping legacies.

Topics: Gender, Women, Peacekeeping, Security, Human Security, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2020

War, Women, and Power: from Violence to Mobilization in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina

Citation:

Berry, Marie E. 2018. War, Women, and Power: from Violence to Mobilization in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author: Marie E. Berry

Annotation:

Summary: 
Rwanda and Bosnia both experienced mass violence in the early 1990s. Less than ten years later, Rwandans surprisingly elected the world's highest level of women to parliament. In Bosnia, women launched thousands of community organizations that became spaces for informal political participation. The political mobilization of women in both countries complicates the popular image of women as merely the victims and spoils of war. Through a close examination of these cases, Marie E. Berry unpacks the puzzling relationship between war and women's political mobilization. Drawing from over 260 interviews with women in both countries, she argues that war can reconfigure gendered power relations by precipitating demographic, economic, and cultural shifts. In the aftermath, however, many of the gains women made were set back. This book offers an entirely new view of women and war and includes concrete suggestions for policy makers, development organizations, and activists supporting women's rights. (Summary from Cambridge University Press)
 
Table of Contents:
1. War, Women, and Power
 
2. Historical Roots of Mass Violence in Rwanda 
 
3. War and Structural Shifts in Rwanda 
 
4. Women's Political Mobilization in Rwanda 
 
5. Historical Roots of Mass Violence in Bosnia-Herzegovina 
 
6. War and Structural Shifts in Bosnia-Herzegovina 
 
7. Women's Political Mobilization in Bosnia-Herzegovina 
 
8. Limits of Mobilization 
 
9. Conclusion

 

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Governance, Elections, Post-Conflict Governance, Post-Conflict, Political Participation, Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Rwanda

Year: 2018

Drawing on the Continuum: A War and Post-war Political Economy of Gender-Based Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Citation:

Kostovicova, Denisa, Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic, and Marsha Henry. 2020. "Drawing on the Continuum: A War and Post-war Political Economy of Gender-Based Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina." International Feminist Journal of Politics 22 (2): 250-72.

Authors: Denia Kostovicova, Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic, Marsha Henry

Abstract:

Current understandings of why and how gender-based violence continues beyond the end of conflict remain siloed along theoretical and disciplinary lines. Recent scholarship has addressed the neglected structural dimension when examining the incidence and variation of post-conflict gender-based violence. In particular, continuum of violence and feminist political economy perspectives have offered accounts of gender-based violence during and after conflict. However, these approaches overlook how war and post-war economic processes interact over time and co-constitute the material basis for the continuation of gender-based violence. The war and post-war political economy perspective that we leverage examines critically the distinction, both in theory and practice, between global and local dynamics, and between formal and informal actors in post-conflict societies. Exposing these neglected structural and historical interconnections with evidence from post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina, we demonstrate that the material basis of gender-based violence is a cumulative result of political and socio-economic dynamics along the war-to-peace trajectory. Our findings point to the need to be attentive to the enduring material consequences of interests and incentives formed through war, and to the impact of post-war global governance ideologies that transform local conditions conducive to gender-based violence.

Keywords: Gender, violence, continuum, political economy, Bosnia

Topics: Armed Conflict, Economies, Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Political Economies, Post-Conflict Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2020

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