Gender and Conflict in East Asia

Citation:

Bjarnegård, Elin, and Erik Melander. 2017. “Gender and Conflict in East Asia.” In Routledge Handbook of Asia in World Politics, edited by Teh-Kuang Chang and Angelin Chang. New York: Routledge.

Authors: Elin Bjarnegård , Erik Melander

Abstract:

In East Asia, as in the rest of the world, peace and conflict display clear gendered patterns. These patterns contribute both to a better understanding of peace and conflict per se, but gender is also of importance for grasping the causes and consequences of armed conflict. This chapter illustrates numerous ways in which a gender perspective contributes to the knowledge of issues of peace and conflict in East Asia. The constructivist argument points to some interesting possible ways in which changing gender relations may be working for peace in parts of East Asia. The view of China as an enemy is clearly the most widespread in South Korea, but the gender gap is very small with 36" of men and 34" of women thinking of China as an enemy. The gender gap is more evident in Japan where almost a quarter of the male population think of China as an enemy, while only 16" of women do.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Gender, Peace Processes Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: China, Japan, South Korea

Year: 2017