International Organizations

Women participants in Conflict

United Nations and Afghanistan

Citation:

King, Angela E. V. 2002. “United Nations and Afghanistan.” In Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future, edited by Sunita Mehta, 145–55. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Author: Angela E. V. King

Topics: Gender, Women, International Organizations, Religion, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2002

Muslim Women's Rights: A Contemporary Debate

Citation:

Hassan, Riffat. 2002. “Muslim Women’s Rights: A Contemporary Debate.” In Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future, edited by Sunita Mehta, 137–44. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Author: Riffat Hassan

Topics: Gender, Women, International Organizations, Religion, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2002

Military Women in the NATO Armed Forces

Citation:

García, Sarah.1999. “Military Women in the NATO Armed Forces.” Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military 17 (2): 33-82.

Author: Sarah García

Abstract:

In June 1998, officers (men and women) assembled in Brussels to discuss means to improve equity and expand the employment of women in the NATO armed forces. About 90 comrades in arms from fourteen allied nations, plus guests from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, now new NATO members, as well as from  Sweden, met to discuss the committee's goals and objectives. This first-time participation by Partner nations unequivocally enhanced the committee's work, especially where it involves mentoring, equality, and recruiting programs. The dialogue and cooperation between Allied and Partner nations at the conference was mutually advantageous to NATO's mission readiness capabilities and efforts to ensure the recognition and empowerment of all military personnel. The Committee prepared an "Issue Book" containing recommendations and rationales for the Military Committee and national authorities to consider when determining integration policy/initiative within their armed forces. That was the first time the committee had developed such a comprehensive product geared specifically to focus NATO in this process. In support of NATO's Enhanced Partnership for Peace (PfP) program, which began five years ago and centered on "fostering military co-operation between NATO and non-NATO states to, among other aims, strengthen the ability to undertake peacekeeping and humanitarian missions and developing military forces better able to operate with those of NATO members," 8 the 1998 Brussels Conference sparked the beginning of the Committee on Women's cooperative dialogue with PfP nations. For example, discussions centered on equality, in terms of training and promotion (rank and career opportunities); utilization and development via recruitment, mentoring, and retention; and improving the quality of life for women in uniform by eliminating gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Since then, Partner nations have expressed  interest in the committee, its goals and objectives, and assistance from the Women In the NATO Forces (WINF) office. In the five decades of its existence, the NATO alliance has "evolved from a traditional military alliance for collective defence into a political-military organisation for security cooperation, with an extensive bureaucracy and complex decision-making processes." The alliance is now redefining its mission as a result of the end of the Cold War. In an even briefer span of time, the position of women in the military has undergone meaningful change in many NATO nations, and "As these changes take place, the disparate gender politics among its member governments take on even more importance." The debate over women's participation in the military is far from over. Despite those debates, new threats to NATO's collective security, the reorganization of armies and international staffs, advanced weapons technology, and new peacekeeping operations challenge traditional military structures and functions and make the utilization of all available human resources, men and women, imperative. Integrating women into any military is an evolutionary process, now underway in all NATO member nations. Personnel policies that insure a military establishment of the highest quality possible with the resources available are an essential part of this process.

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Men, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, International Organizations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Peacekeeping Regions: Europe, Central Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe, Western Europe Countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Sweden

Year: 1999

Gender, the State, and War Redux: Feminist International Relations Across the ‘Levels of Analysis’

Citation:

Sjoberg, Laura. 2011. “Gender, the State, and War Redux: Feminist International Relations Across the ‘Levels of Analysis’.” International Relations 25 (1): 108–34. doi: 10.1177/0047117810396990.

Author: Laura Sjoberg

Abstract:

In her recent article, ‘Women, the State, and War,’ in a special issue of this journal honoring Kenneth Waltz, Jean Elshtain explores the question of what if anything it does to ‘put gender in’ to analysis of Waltz’s three ‘images’ of International Relations, and determines that gender is not definitive or causal in war theorizing. This article suggests that, while the question is an important and appropriate one to ask, the evidence that Elshtain brings to bear and the tools she uses to answer the question are inadequate to the task and not reflective of the current ‘state of the field’ of feminist International Relations. Addressing the question of if gender ‘alters in significant ways’‘man, the state, and war,’ this article provides theoretical and empirical examples from the young but rich field of feminist International Relations to present readers with the substance of feminist claims and the warrants behind feminist arguments. It urges International Relations to decide on the question of the relevance of gender by taking work in the area seriously, and suggests that the discipline might be convinced that acknowledging gender is crucial if scholars engage with the literature that sees ‘man, the state, and war’ as gendered.

Keywords: feminism, Gender, Waltz

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, International Organizations

Year: 2011

“We’ll Kill You If You Cry”: Sexual Violence in the Sierra Leone Conflict

Citation:

Taylor, Louise. 2003. “We’ll Kill You If You Cry”: Sexual Violence in the Sierra Leone Conflict. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Author: Louise Taylor

Abstract:

The 75-page report, “'We’ll Kill You If You Cry:' Sexual Violence in the  Sierra Leone Conflict,” presents evidence of horrific abuses against women and girls in every region of the country by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), as well as other rebel, government and international peacekeeping forces. The Human Rights Watch report, which is based on hundreds of interviews with victims, witnesses and officials, details crimes of sexual violence committed primarily by soldiers of various rebel forces—the RUF, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), and the West Side Boys. The report also examines sexual violence by government forces and militias, as well as international peacekeepers.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Women, Girls, International Organizations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Private Military & Security, Militaries, Militias, Non-State Armed Groups, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2003

Gender and UN Peace Operations: The Confines of Modernity

Citation:

Vayrynen, Tarja. 2004. “Gender and UN Peace Operations: The Confines of Modernity.” International Peacekeeping 11 (1): 125–42.

Author: Tarja Varynen

Abstract:

The essay seeks to problematize the recent UN discourse on gender, peace and war by demonstrating how modernity sets the limits for the discourse, and therewith confines the discourse to the pre-given binary categories of agency, identity and action. It engages in an analysis of modernity and the mode of thinking that modernity establishes for thinking about war and peace. It is demonstrated in the text that new thinking on post-Westphalian conflicts and human security did open up a discursive space for thinking about gender in peace operations, but this space has not been fully utilized. By remaining within the confines of modernity, the UN discourse on peace operations produces neoliberal modes of masculinity and femininity where the problem-solving epistemology gives priority to the ‘rationalist’ and manageralist masculinity and renders silent the variety of ambivalent and unsecured masculinities and femininities.

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gendered Discourses, International Organizations, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Security, Human Security

Year: 2004

Military Women in NATO: An Update

Citation:

Stanley, Sandra C., and Mady W. Segal. 1988. "Military Women in NATO: An Update." Armed Forces & Society 14 (4): 559-85.

Authors: Sandra C. Stanley, Mady W. Segal

Abstract:

The past few years have witnessed policy changes in several of the NATO nations toward greater reliance on female military personnel, and further movement in this direction appears likely. There is great variation among these countries in the extent to which women are included in their armed forces, ranging from those where women are excluded or involved in very limited ways to those where all or a majority of military positions are open to women. The contemporary situation is discussed as are future plans for women's military roles in Alliance nations. Besides a description of current patterns, several dimensions that characterize women's military participation are outlined. Finally, conclusions regarding women's future military roles are offered, based on history and the current situation.

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Gender Balance, International Organizations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries

Year: 1988

Women, Migration, and Conflict: Breaking a Deadly Cycle

Citation:

Martin, Susan Forbes, and John Tirman, eds. 2009. Women, Migration, and Conflict: Breaking a Deadly Cycle. New York: Springer.

Authors: John Tirman, Susan Forbes Martin

Annotation:

Summary: 
An estimated 35 million people worldwide are displaced by conflict, and most of them are women and children. During their time away from their homes and communities, these women and their children are subjected to a horrifying array of misfortune, including privations of every kind, sexual assaults, disease, imprisonment, unwanted pregnancies, severe psychological trauma, and, upon return or resettlement, social disapproval and isolation.
 
Written by the world’s leading scholars and practitioners, this unique collection brings these problems - and potential solutions - into sharp focus. Based on extensive field research and a broad knowledge of other studies of the challenges facing women who are forced from their homes and homelands by conflict, this book offers in-depth understanding and problem-solving ideas. Derived from a project to advise U.N. agencies, it speaks to a broad array of students, scholars, NGOs, policymakers, government officials, and international organizations. (Summary from Springer) 
 

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women, Girls, Boys, Health, Trauma, Households, International Organizations, NGOs, Sexual Violence

Year: 2009

Gender, HIV/AIDS, and Refugees - Reconceiving Vulnerability and Promoting Transformation: a Kenyan Case Study

Citation:

Morris, Margot. 2005. “Gender, HIV/AIDS, and Refugees - Reconceiving Vulnerability and Promoting Transformation: a Kenyan Case Study.” Dialogue 3 (1): 1-40.

Author: Margot Morris

Abstract:

This article examines the way in which UNHCR is responding to the feminisation of HIV/AIDS within refugee camps. It argues that UNHCR must transform the complex of gendered power structures that place refugee women at an increased risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. It finds that there are significant structures that heighten the risk of female refugees contracting the disease. Current approaches to HIV/AIDS interventions are examined through a gendered understanding of how the epidemic impacts on women and girls. It is contended that approaches that empower women and transform gendered structures are the most appropriate mechanism for addressing the feminisation of HIV/AIDS within refugee camps. Finally, this article examines a case study of two refugee camps within Kenya. It demonstrates that existing HIV/AIDS programmes within these camps are an inadequate response to the feminisation of the disease and argues that UNHCR must employ empowering and transformational strategies.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Women, Girls, Gendered Power Relations, Health, HIV/AIDS, Humanitarian Assistance, Context-Appropriate Response to Trauma, International Organizations Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Kenya

Year: 2005

Lost in Translation? UNAMSIL, UNSCR 1325 and Women Building Peace in Sierra Leone

Citation:

Barnes, Karen. 2010. “Lost in Translation? UNAMSIL, UNSCR 1325 and Women Building Peace in Sierra Leone.” In Women, Peace and Security: Translating Policy into Practice, edited by Funmi Olonisakin, Karen Barnes, and Eka Ikpe, 121-37. New York: Routledge.

Author: Karen Barnes

Topics: Gender, Women, International Organizations, Peacebuilding, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2010

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