Colombia

Citation:

Kreft, Anne-Kathrin. 2018. "Responding to Sexual Violence: Women’s Mobilization in War." Journal of Peace Research 56 (2): 220-33.

Author: Anne-Kathrin Kreft

Abstract:

Gender scholars show that women in situations of civil war have an impressive record of agency in the social and political spheres. Civilian women’s political mobilization during conflict includes active involvement in civil society organizations, such as nongovernmental organizations or social movements, and public articulation of grievances – in political protest, for example. Existing explanations of women’s political mobilization during conflict emphasize the role of demographic imbalances opening up spaces for women. This article proposes a complementary driving factor: women mobilize politically in response to the collective threat that conflict-related sexual violence constitutes to women as a group. Coming to understand sexual violence as a violent manifestation of a patriarchal culture and gender inequalities, women mobilize in response to this violence and around a broader range of women’s issues with the goal of transforming sociopolitical conditions. A case study of Colombia drawing on qualitative interviews illustrates the causal mechanism of collective threat framing in women’s collective mobilization around conflictrelated sexual violence. Cross-national statistical analyses lend support to the macro-level implications of the theoretical framework and reveal a positive association between high prevalence of conflict-related rape on the one hand and women’s protest activity and linkages to international women’s nongovernmental organizations on the other.

Keywords: civil war, Gender, political mobilization, sexual violence

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Conflict, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, NGOs, Political Participation, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2018

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

Citation:

Torres, Andrés Felipe Castro, and B. Piedad Urdinola. 2018. "Armed Conflict and Fertility in Colombia, 2000–2010." Population Research and Policy Review 38: 173-213.

Authors: Andrés Felipe Castro Torres, B. Piedad Urdinola

Abstract:

This paper looks at the association between the Colombian Armed Internal Conflict (AIC) and fertility for women in the first decade of the 21st century when the conflict underwent a strategic change after the escalation of armed action by outlaw groups and frontal response by the Colombian government. We fit a Poisson model that incorporates spatial and temporal information, using individual-level data from the Colombian Demographic and Health Surveys from 2000 to 2010 and novel information, for the Colombian case, on the number of armed actions. In rural areas, we find that the AIC had a significant positive association with fertility and non-significant relationship in urban areas, of any size with robust and consistent estimators. Two possible explanations may clarify these results for a long-term conflict such as that in Colombia: (i) women’s responses to higher mortality levels and (ii) the weakening of local institutions assumed to provide protection and health-related services to women. Other than the improvement of health-related services in areas affected by the conflict, we also suggest data collection on these latter conditions directly from the population involved to facilitate future research on the connection between conflicts and demographic outcomes.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Gender, Women, Health, Reproductive Health Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2018

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

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

Citation:

Svallfors, Signe, and Sunnee Billingsley. 2019. "Conflict and Contraception in Colombia." Studies in Family Planning 50 (2): 87-112.

Authors: Signe Svallfors, Sunnee Billingsley

Abstract:

This study explores how armed conflict relates to contraceptive use in Colombia, combining data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program and Demographic and Health Surveys 1990–2016. Our study is the first systematic effort to investigate whether and how violent conflict influences women's contraceptive use, using nationally representative data across all stages of women's reproductive careers. With fixed effects linear probability models, we adjust for location‐specific cultural, social, and economic differences. The results show that although modern contraceptive use increased over time, it declined according to conflict intensity across location and time. We find no evidence that this relationship varied across socioeconomic groups. Increased fertility demand appears to explain a small portion of this relationship, potentially reflecting uncertainty about losing a partner, but conflict may also result in lack of access to contraceptive goods and services.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Gender, Women, Health, Reproductive Health Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2019

Citation:

Meertens, Danny. 2019. Elusive Justice: Women, Land Rights, and Colombia's Transition to Peace. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Author: Danny Meertens

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2019

Citation:

Shekhawat, Seema, ed. 2018. Gender, Conflict, Peace, and UNSC Resolution 1325. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Author: Seema Shekhawat

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict Prevention, Displacement & Migration, Feminisms, Gender, Peace and Security, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Religion, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, MENA, West Africa, Americas, South America, Asia, Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Colombia, Cyprus, India, Israel, Liberia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Syria

Year: 2018

Citation:

Cóbar, José Alvarado, Emma Bjertén-Günther, and Yeonju Jung. 2018. Assessing Gender Perspectives in Peace Processes with Application to the Cases of Colombia and Mindanao. 2018/6. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. 

Authors: José Alvarado Cóbar, Emma Bjertén-Günther, Yeonju Jung

Annotation:

Summary:
In order to make peace processes more inclusive, increased participation by women and other excluded groups has been emphasised for decades, as well as the need to adopt a gender perspective within peace processes. However, the discussion has tended to focus on counting women and treating women’s participation as synonymous with a gender perspective. Defining what a gender perspective is and how it could be applied throughout a peace process has remained largely unexplored.  This paper seeks to address these lacunae by drawing on current frameworks, proposing a definition of a gender perspective in peace processes and introducing a way of operationalizing this definition. The suggested indicators are used to assess two recent peace processes: the Colombian peace process and the Mindanao peace process in the Philippines. This assessment provides a practical application of the conceptual framework and raises new questions about how the concept can be further measured and assessed.

Topics: Gender, Women, Post-Conflict, Peace Processes Regions: Americas, South America, Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Colombia, Philippines

Year: 2018

Citation:

Macedo, Mariana, Laura Lotero, Alessio Cardillo, Hugo Barbosa, and Ronaldo Menezes. 2020. “Gender Patterns of Human Mobility in Colombia: Reexamining Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration.” In Complex Networks XI, edited by Hugo Barbosa, Jesus Gomez-Gardenes, Bruno Gonçalves, Giuseppe Mangioni, Ronaldo Menezes, and Marcos Oliveira, 269–81. Cham: Springer Publishing Company, Inc.

Authors: Mariana Macedo, Laura Lotero, Alessio Cardillo, Hugo Barbosa, Ronaldo Menezes

Abstract:

Public stakeholders implement several policies and regulations to tackle gender gaps, fostering the change in the cultural constructs associated with gender. One way to quantify if such changes elicit gender equality is by studying mobility. In this work, we study the daily mobility patterns of women and men occurring in Medellín (Colombia) in two years: 2005 and 2017. Specifically, we focus on the spatiotemporal differences in the travels and find that purpose of travel and occupation characterise each gender differently. We show that women tend to make shorter trips, corroborating Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration. Our results indicate that urban mobility in Colombia seems to behave in agreement with the “archetypal” case studied by Ravenstein.

Keywords: gender gap, Ravenstein's laws of migration, urban mobility, networks

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2020