Western Europe

Citation:

Lodovici, Manuela Samek, Flavia Pesce, Patrizia Malgieri, Silvia Maffi, and Caterina Rosa. 2012. The Role of Women in the Green Economy: The Issue of Mobility. Brussels: European Parliament.

Authors: Manuela Samek Lodovici, Flavia Pesce, Patrizia Malgieri, Silvia Maffi, Caterina Rosa

Abstract:

This note highlights the characteristics and determinants of gender differences in mobility patterns emerging from the literature and presents an overview of how transport policies have been adapted to support women’s mobility needs, focusing on examples of practices implemented in four European countries. The results show significant, albeit declining, gender differences related to gender roles within households and the labour market as well as demographic trends. The policy recommendations underline the need to consider gender and environment mainstreaming in transport policies.

Topics: Economies, Ecological Economics, Environment, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gender Mainstreaming, Households, Infrastructure, Transportation, Livelihoods Regions: Europe, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Western Europe Countries: France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom

Year: 2012

Citation:

Alessi, Edward J., Sarilee Kahn, Leah Woolner, and Rebecca Van Der Horn. 2018. "Traumatic Stress Among Sexual and Gender Minority Refugees From the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia Who Fled to the European Union." Journal of Traumatic Stress 31 (6): 805-15.

Authors: Edward J. Alessi, Sarilee Kahn, Leah Woolner, Rebecca Van Der Horn

Abstract:

In 2015, more than 600,000 individuals from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan fled to Europe in search of protection. Among the most understudied of this population are individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ). These individuals have not only fled war but also violence due to their sexual and/or gender identities. At the same time, LGBTQ individuals from other parts of the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and North Africa have also fled to Europe to escape persecution. The purpose of this multimethod study was to understand how traumatic stress shaped the experiences of 38 LGBTQ individuals who fled to Austria (n = 19) and the Netherlands (n = 19) from these regions. We assessed participants for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and conducted qualitative interviews to understand their migration experiences. Of the 37 participants assessed for PTSD, 33 (89.2%) reported that their most distressing event occurred prior to migration. For the 24 (64.9%) participants who met criteria for a provisional diagnosis of PTSD, 15 reported that the precipitating event was related to their sexual and/or gender identities and 9 reported that it was related to another type of event (e.g., war). Grounded theory was used to analyze qualitative data. Themes demonstrated that participants encountered targeted violence and abuse throughout migration and upon their arrival in Austria and the Netherlands. Findings indicate that LGBTQ refugees may be vulnerable to ongoing trauma from other refugees and immigration officials. Recommendations for protecting and supporting LGBTQ refugees during humanitarian emergencies are provided.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Health, PTSD, Trauma, Humanitarian Assistance, Sexuality, Violence Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa, Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, South Asia, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Afghanistan, Austria, Iraq, Netherlands, Syria

Year: 2018

Citation:

Schmidt, Rachel. 2020. “Duped: Examining Gender Stereotypes in Disengagement and Deradicalization Practices.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. doi: 10.1080/1057610X.2020.1711586.

Author: Rachel Schmidt

Abstract:

In narratives around insurgencies, terrorism, and other forms of political violence, the media—and policymakers—frequently portray women as victims or unintelligent pawns of men. But these violent women get more media attention than their male counterparts because they are a shocking departure from gendered expectations of nurturing, peaceful women. However, even such narratives of deviance can reinforce societal stereotypes about women by emphasizing that they are emotional but not political, easily manipulated, often deranged, or simply unintelligent. Using in-depth interviews in Ireland and the United Kingdom with practitioners in counter terrorism (CT) and countering violent extremism (CVE), this paper argues that a failure to ask meaningful questions about women’s roles in extremist violence has reinforced gender stereotypes, leading to disengagement and deradicalization practices that ignore or downplay women’s importance in fostering violence.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Media, Post-Conflict, Terrorism, Violence Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Ireland, United Kingdom

Year: 2020

Citation:

Gilmartin, Niall. 2017. “‘Without Women, the War Could Never Have Happened’: Representations of Women’s Military Contributions in Non-State Armed Groups.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 19 (4): 456–70.

Author: Niall Gilmartin

Abstract:

Feminist international relations theory argues that male consolidation of power in the aftermath of armed conflict often occurs as men gain the status of heroes in the post-war appraisals. Explorations of republican commemoration in the North of Ireland have uncovered the dominance of the male protagonist with a notable relative absence of militant republican women. Militarized masculine narratives and patriarchal understandings of what is deemed a combatant role, and therefore deemed worthy of commemorating, consistently fail to value or recognize women’s multiple and vital wartime contributions. This article argues that conventional definitions of military contributions and combatant roles are imprecise, highly gendered and ultimately function as a mechanism to denigrate and exclude women’s wartime labor. Based on in-depth interviews with former combatants, the article critically explores the ways in which republican women themselves conceptualize their contributions to armed struggle. Emerging from this is a theoretically rich narrative of women’s multiple and diverse military roles which firmly challenge the limited definition of “a person with a weapon.” It is suggested that by paying careful attention to the lives of combatant women, feminist scholars can use their experiences, narratives and meanings to challenge existing frameworks and discourses, and redefine combatant roles and wartime contributions.

Keywords: female combatants, conflict transition, combatant roles, commemoration, Republican women

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Post-Conflict Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2017

Citation:

Toivanen, Mari, and Bahar Baser. 2016. "Gender in the Representations of an Armed Conflict." Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 9 (3): 294-314.

Authors: Mari Toivanen, Bahar Baser

Abstract:

The Syrian civil war has been, without doubt, the war most widely covered by international media in this millennium. Having engaged in an armed combat against the Islamic State (IS), Kurdish military troops, especially the female battalion, have received considerable international media attention. This study examines the gender dimension of national media representations of female Kurdish combatants belonging to the Protection Units (YPJ) in Syria. How have the female combatants been framed in British and French media? To what extent are these representations gendered? The overall data consists of news articles from national media outlets in France and in the United Kingdom between 2014 and 2015, and is analyzed with frame analysis. The results show that the juxtaposition of female combatants with IS fighters allows the depiction of the participation of the former as exceptional and heroic and as one that deconstructs the masculinity of its adversary. The role of female combatants in the ongoing conflict is represented in the British and French media through the construction of sexualized and modern-day heroine figures that are largely glorified.

Keywords: Kurdish, media, Gender, framing, female combatant, Islamic state

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Media, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Northern Europe, Western Europe Countries: France, Syria, United Kingdom

Year: 2016

Citation:

Hutchinson, Susan. 2018. "Leading the Operationalisation of WPS." Security Challenges 14 (2): 124-43.

Author: Susan Hutchinson

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, DDR, Gender, Women, Governance, International Organizations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Security, Security Sector Reform, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Americas, North America, Asia, South Asia, Europe, Balkans, Nordic states, Northern Europe, Western Europe, Oceania Countries: Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Rwanda, Sweden, Timor-Leste, United States of America, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2018

Citation:

Bigio, Jamille, and Rachel Vogelstein. 2016. How Women's Participation in Conflict Prevention and Resolution Advances U.S. Interests. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 3-16.

Authors: Jamille Bigio, Rachel Vogelstein

Annotation:

Topics: Conflict Prevention, Gender, Women, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes Regions: Africa, West Africa, Americas, Central America, Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Guatemala, Liberia, Philippines, United Kingdom

Year: 2016

Citation:

Swaine, Aisling. 2018. Conflict-Related Violence against Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author: Aisling Swaine

Abstract:

By comparatively assessing three conflict-affected jurisdictions (Liberia, Northern Ireland and Timor-Leste), Conflict-Related Violence against Women empirically and theoretically expands current understanding of the form and nature of conflict-time harms impacting women. The 'violences' that occur in conflict beyond strategic rape are first identified. Employing both a disaggregated and an aggregated approach, relations between forms of violence within and across each context's pre-, mid- and post-conflict phase are then assessed, identifying connections and distinctions in violence. Swaine highlights a wider spectrum of conflict-related violence against women than is currently acknowledged. She identifies a range of forces that simultaneously push open and close down spaces for addressing violence against women through post-conflict transitional justice. The book proposes that in the aftermath of conflict, a transformation rather than a transition is required if justice is to play a role in preventing gendered violence before conflict and its appearance during and after conflict.

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Gender, Women, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa, Europe, Western Europe, Oceania Countries: Ireland, Liberia, Timor-Leste

Year: 2018

Citation:

Gilmartin, Niall. 2019. Female Combatants after Armed Struggle: Lost in Transition? New York: Routledge. 

Author: Niall Gilmartin

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Female Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Peace and Security, Post-Conflict, Peacekeeping, Violence Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Ireland

Year: 2019

Citation:

Gilmartin, Niall. 2019. "Gendering the ‘Post-Conflict’ Narrative in Northern Ireland’s Peace Process." Capital & Class 43 (1): 89-104. 

Author: Niall Gilmartin

Abstract:

The Good Friday Agreement negotiations gave a unique opportunity for the insertion of women’s rights and equal formal representation in the new post-conflict Northern Ireland. Notwithstanding the robust and unambiguous commitments in the text of the agreement, the primary architects of the peace process, however, situated gender and women’s position as peripheral to the main priorities of ‘guns and government’. While conventional forms of peacebuilding claim to be beneficial for all, evidence from the so-called ‘post-conflict’ period around the world demonstrates a continuity of violence for many women, as well as new forms of violence. This article explores the position of women in Northern Ireland today across a number of issues, including formal politics, community activism, domestic violence and reproductive rights. By doing so, it continues feminist endeavours seeking to problematise the ‘post-conflict’ narrative by gendering peace and security. While the Good Friday Agreement did undoubtedly provide the potential for a new era of gender relations, 20 years on Northern Irish society exhibits all the trademarks and insidious characteristics of a patriarchal society that has yet to undergo a genuine transformation in gender relations. The article argues that the consistent privileging of masculinity and the dominance of male power is a commonality that remains uninterrupted by the peace process.

Keywords: Gender, Northern Ireland, peace, post-conflict, security

Topics: Domestic Violence, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Peace and Security, Post-Conflict, Political Participation, Peace Processes, Rights, Reproductive Rights, Women's Rights, Violence Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2019