El Salvador

Citation:

Kampwirth, Karen. 2002. “Rethinking Women and Guerrilla Movements: Back to Cuba.” In Women and Guerrilla Movements, 117–36. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Author: Karen Kampwirth

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups Regions: Americas, Caribbean countries, Central America Countries: Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua

Year: 2002

Citation:

Bradshaw, Sarah. 2004. Socio-Economic Impacts of Natural Disasters: A Gender Analysis. 32. Santiago, Chile: United Nations - Women and Development Unit. 

Author: Sarah Bradshaw

Abstract:

This paper analyses the socio-economic effects of hurricane Mitch using a gender approach and proposes new analysis indicators for crisis situations that may better reflect women’s disadvantageous position relative to men. The first section of the document discusses key concepts used in gender and disaster analysis, in the context of the region and hurricane Mitch. The following section examines the direct and indirect impacts, and looks at how they have affected women, as well as the responses to Mitch at three levels: first, that of individuals and their strategies for coping with the crisis; second, the actions of governments and the coordinated bodies of civil society; and third, reconstruction initiatives carried out by national and international organizations. The final section attempts to draw together the salient points and challenges suggested by the analysis. It also offers some recommendations for integrating this approach into future emergency and reconstruction scenarios and for reducing women’s current vulnerability.

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Humanitarian Assistance, International Organizations Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua

Year: 2004

Citation:

Pearce, Jenny. 1997. “Sustainable Peace-Building in the South: Experiences from Latin America.” Development in Practice 7 (4): 438–55.

Author: Jenny Pearce

Abstract:

While some recent internal conflicts have attracted international attention, other long-term conflicts with high accumulative death tolls have been relatively ignored. A decontextualised and partial view of conflict and violence is further encouraged by the separation between the emergency and development sections in many Northern aid agencies. Drawing on detailed case-studies of post- conflict experience in El Salvador, Peru, and Nicaragua, the author argues that conflict analysis, emergency intervention,and peace-building must be rooted within specific socio-historical contexts. The article ends with a critical reflection on the extent to which local-level capacities have in fact been able to influence the post-war situation and prospects for long-term and sustainable peace-building in these three countries.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Development, Humanitarian Assistance, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Violence Regions: Americas, Central America, South America Countries: El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru

Year: 1997

Citation:

Blumberg, Rae Lesser. 2001. “Risky Business: What Happens to Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in Post-Conflict Societies? Insights from NGO's in El Salvador.” International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 15 (1): 161–73.

Author: Rae Lesser Blumberg

Abstract:

Using the case of El Salvador, this paper explores how women’s organizational skills developed in civil war translate into work in NGOs in the post-conflict struggle for rights. The paper briefly describes the gender stratification methodology used in the analysis and then presents the situation in El Salvador before, during, and after the war. After discussing how Salvadoran women, despite quite limited economic power, became a well-organized force that was strategically indispensable to the rebels during the war, the paper examines factors that contributed to the success of Las Madres Demandantes (LMD), an NGO focused on the single issue of getting child support payments to women. The experience of other NGOs in El Salvador is reviewed with respect to the factors that contributed to the success of LMD. In conclusion, a few lessons from the issues faced by the post-conflict women’s NGOs in El Salvador are presented.

Keywords: NGO, gender equality, post-conflict

Topics: Gender, Gender Equality/Inequality, NGOs, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: El Salvador

Year: 2001

Citation:

Higate, Paul. 2012. "Martial Races and Enforcement Masculinities of the Global South: Weaponising Fijian, Chilean, and Salvadoran Postcoloniality in the Mercenary Sector." Globalizations 9 (1): 35-52.

Author: Paul Higate

Abstract:

Set against the backdrop of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the private militarised security industry has grown rapidly over the last decade. Its growth into a multi-billion dollar enterprise has attracted the interest of scholars in international relations, legal studies, political science, and security studies who have debated questions of regulation and accountability, alongside the state's control on the monopoly of violence. While these contributions are to be welcomed, the absence of critical sociological approaches to the industry and its predominantly male security contracting workforce has served to occlude the gendered and racialised face of the private security sphere. These dimensions are important since the industry has come increasingly to rely on masculine bodies from the global South in the form of so-called third country and local national men. The involvement of these men is constituted in and through the articulation of historical, neocolonial, neoliberal, and militarising processes. These processes represent the focus of the current article in respect of Fijian and Latin American security contractors. Their trajectories into the industry are considered in respect of both "push" and "pull" factors, the likes of which differ in marked ways for each group. Specifically, states and social groups in Fiji, Chile, and El Salvador are appropriating what is described in the article as an ethnic bargain as one way in which to make a contribution to the global security sector, or "in direct regard to the Latin American context” to banish its more dangerous legacies from the domestic space. In conclusion, it is argued that the use of these contractors by the industry represents a hitherto unacknowledged gendered and racialised instance of the contemporary imperial moment.

Keywords: masculinities, security industry, mercenary, global security sector

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Livelihoods, Militarized Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Private Military & Security, Security Regions: Americas, Central America, South America, Oceania Countries: Chile, El Salvador, Fiji

Year: 2012

Citation:

Deere, Carmen Diana, and Magdalena Leon. 1997. “Women and Land Rights in the Latin American Neo-Liberal Counter-Reforms.” Working Paper #264, Michigan State University, Lansing.

Authors: Carmen Diana Deere, Magdalena Leon

Abstract:

Rural women did not fare very well in the land reforms carried out during the Latin American "reformist period" of the 1960s and 1970s, with women being under-represented among the beneficiaries. This paper investigates the extent to which women have gained or lost access to land during the "counter-reforms" of the 1980s and 1990s.  Under the neo-liberal agenda, production cooperatives as well as communal access to land have largely been undermined in favor of privatization and the individual parcelization of collectives. Significant land titling efforts are also being carried out throughout the region to promote the development of a vigorous land market.

Nonetheless, this latter period has also been characterized by the growth of the feminist movement throughout Latin America and a growing commitment by states to gender equity. This paper reviews the extent to which rural women's access to land has potentially been enhanced by recent changes in agrarian and legal codes. Colombia and Costa Rica are found to be the leaders in gender-equitable legislation.  The Mexican neo-liberal counter-reform is found to be the retrograde in the region. The case studies include Chile, Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Colombia. 

Topics: Economies, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Americas, Central America, South America Countries: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru

Year: 1997

Citation:

Vázquez, Norma. 1999. Refugee and Returnee Women: Skills Acquired in Exile and their Application in Peacetime. Washington, DC: International Center for Research on Women.

Author: Norma Vázquez

Abstract:

The large number of displaced and refugee women in El Salvador is a direct result of the government's indiscriminate repression of the country's poor, peasant population during the 1970s and 1980s. During this period, many people who feared for their lives were forced to flee the country. The women who spent most of the war in the Colomoncagua and Mesa Grande refugee camps in Honduras recall their experience as a catalyst for important life changes. The refugee camps, established in response to a humanitarian disaster, turned women's lives upside down, lives that had been characterized by isolation, exclusive dedication to household chores and care of the family, and strict compliance with a moral code based on obedience to masculine authority. Besieged by both the Honduran and the Salvadoran armies, but supported by a number of international and national organizations, refugee women developed abilities in the public realm that they had never before needed for their survival. Despite these advances, the women never questioned their traditional role in the home during their time in the camps, or during repatriation. New activities were simply integrated with old responsibilities. Somewhat paradoxically, the women have come to view the changes that occurred during the time of exile in a positive light, and to think of the return to El Salvador and onset of peace as events that--while important and desirable--made them take a step backward on the road to empowerment. The experience of women throughout the war-asylum-repatriation-peace cycle forms a kind of kaleidoscope, characterized by nostalgia for what they learned and experienced while in the camps, and by simultaneous recognition that peace and freedom are basic rights that are inherent to any long-term of social transformation.

Annotation:

Quotes:

“On their return to El Salvador...the women took with them the communal systems of education, medical care, and production that had enabled them to be self-sufficient in the resettlement camps. This process of adopting new systems was critical because, upon returning to El Salvador, the women no longer had the support of the international organizations that had guaranteed their survival in the refugee camps.” (6)

“It became clear that following repatriation, women had lost their new roles and reverted to traditionally submissive lives.” (6)

Topics: Class, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Households, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: El Salvador

Year: 1999

Citation:

Luciak, Ilja A., Stephen Lynn, Serena Cosgrove, and Kelly Ready. 2000. "Aftermath: Women's Organizations in Post-conflict El Salvador." Working Paper 309, Center for Development Information and Evaluation, U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington, DC.

Authors: IIja A. Luciak, Stephen Lynn, Serena Cosgrove, Kelly Ready

Keywords: post-conflict, women's organizations, recovery, reconstruction, governance

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Governance, NGOs, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: El Salvador

Year: 2000

Citation:

Luciak, IIjia A. 2001. After the Revolution: Gender and Democracy in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Author: Iljia A. Luciak

Topics: Gender, Women, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua

Year: 2001

Citation:

Conaway, Camille P., Salome Martinez. 2004. Adding Value: Women's Contribution to Reintegration and Reconstruction in El Salvador. Women Waging Peace Policy Commission, Hunt Alternatives Fund.

Authors: Camille Pampell Conaway, Salome Martinez

Abstract:

This report revisits the Salvadoran conflict and peace process from the perspective of women. Drawing on field-based interviews, it outlines women’s role in the war and illustrates how their participation in peace negotiations led to a more inclusive DDR program. This study documents women’s contributions to the reintegration of fighters and their leadership in the reconstruction of El Salvador. Finally, it demonstrates the importance of maximizing existing social capital in post-conflict populations to enhance stabilization and long-term reconstruction efforts.

Annotation:

“The war was very cruel. But it was also a school, one that none of us would have wanted and that left us with many painful memories, but one that also left us with experiences that made us grow. The very fact of living the hardest part of the war awoke in me the need to work in women’s leadership and organizing women.” (21)

“There is ample evidence that women in former conflict zones are active participants in the public sphere -- both productively and in community leadership. Women are using these opportunities strategically to protect their interests, advocate for their rights, and forge and re-negotiate social and political space.” (24)

“In spite of the risks and challenges women faced every day, the war gave them an opportunity to broaden their horizons, acquire new skills and knowledge, and focus their attention on the survival and improved future of their children.” (26)

Topics: DDR, Gender, Women, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: El Salvador

Year: 2004