Gendered Discourses

Embroidery as narrative: Black South African women's experiences of suffering and healing

Citation:

Segalo, Puleng. 2014. “Embroidery as Narrative: Black South African Women’s Experiences of Suffering and Healing.” Agenda: Empowering Women
for Gender Equity 28 (1): 44–53. doi:10.1080/10130950.2014.872831.

 

Author: Puleng Segalo

Abstract:

There are stories that many people who have experienced a traumatic and oppressive past carry with them, stories that continue to remain untold. In a country such as South Africa, where ‘empowerment’ and ‘equality’ are the order of the day, it becomes crucial to acknowledge people's lived experiences and how these relate to the changes taking place. Drawing from an empirical study I conducted in Gauteng, South Africa, this article interrogates how Black women's private memories of the conflict/apartheid period influence how they make sense of their new-found freedom. It explores how these women use artistic forms such as embroideries to re-stitch their lives, create personal life stories, and make connections between the past and the present.I highlight how the women's narratives demonstrate the importance of acknowledging the intersection of gender, history, and politics when talking about people's experiences. I point to the significance of revisiting history in order to make sense of the present, and show how freedom should be understood within its historical context. The interweaving of the women's experiences highlights the collectiveness of suffering, and their narratives may be perceived as echoes of both collective and individual suffering, and healing. The embroideries they produced externalise their embodied experience, and allow for the weaving in of multiple life experiences. I conclude by discussing how through creating personal embroideries the women draw attention to the inequalities they continuously have to contend with in their everyday lives.

Keywords: embroidery, suffering, healing, memory, Narratives

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Discourses, Post-Conflict, Race Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2014

Masculinities, Militarisation and the End Conscription Campaign: War Resistance in Apartheid South Africa

Citation:

Conway, Daniel. 2012. Masculinities, Militarisation and the End Conscription Campaign: War Resistance in Apartheid South Africa. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Author: Daniel Conway

Annotation:

Summary:
Masculinities, militarisation and the End Conscription Campaign explores the gendered dynamics of apartheid-era South Africa's militarisation and analyses the defiance of compulsory military service by individual white men, and the anti-apartheid activism of the white men and women in the End Conscription Campaign (ECC), the most significant white anti-apartheid movement to happen in South Africa. Military conscription and objection to it are conceptualised as gendered acts of citizenship and premised on and constitutive of masculinities. Conway draws upon a range of materials and disciplines to produce this socio-political study. Sources include interviews with white men who objected to military service in the South African Defence Force (SADF); archival material, including military intelligence surveillance of the ECC; ECC campaigning material, press reports and other pro-state propaganda. The analysis is informed by perspectives in sociology, international relations, history and from work on contemporary militarised societies such as those in Israel and Turkey. This book also explores the interconnections between militarisation, sexuality, race, homophobia and political authoritarianism. (Summary from Manchester University Press) 
 

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Discourses, Livelihoods, Militarized Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Nationalism Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2012

Gender Difference in American Public Opinion on the Use of Military Force, 1982–2013

Citation:

Eichenberg, Richard C. “Gender Difference in American Public Opinion on the Use of Military Force, 1982–2013.” International Studies Quarterly 60, no. 1 (March 1, 2016): 138–48. doi:10.1093/isq/sqv019.

Author: Richard C. Eichenberg

Abstract:

Recent scholarship indicates that gender correlates strongly with Americans' attitudes toward the use of military force. However, most of its evidence derives from the study of major wars, and the field needs more historical research to evaluate the evolution of gender difference over time. I redress these limitations by updating and extending my earlier (2003) analysis of public support for the use of force during the 1990s. I analyze 965 individual survey questions concerning the use of US military force in twenty-four historical episodes, beginning in 1982 with military aid to El Salvador and continuing through the recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. I find that substantial gender difference characterizes a large number of historical episodes and types of military action. Nonetheless, the magnitude of gender difference varies substantially; in many cases, a substantial percentage of women supports the use of force. The difference between men and women varies most with the salience and level of violence, and women are more sensitive to humanitarian concerns. Women display more sensitivity to casualties in some historical cases, but during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the casualty sensitivity of men gradually increased as the wars dragged on, and gender differences therefore decreased. Thus, I argue that scholars should turn their attention to studying individual-level differences between and among men and women in support for using military force. I also discuss the political and policy implications of the findings.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Men, Gendered Discourses, Humanitarian Assistance, Violence

Year: 2016

Engendering Genocide: Gender, Conflict and Violence

Citation:

Gangoli, Geetanjali. 2006. “Engendering Genocide: Gender, Conflict and Violence.” Women’s Studies International Forum 29 (5): 534–38.

Author: Geetanjali Gangoli

Abstract:

Thematic connections between gender, conflict and violence are significant areas of enquiry in recent times. Engendering conflict has been of some concern to academics, given the context of national and international conflict in areas as diverse as Bosnia, Iraq, India, the UK and the USA. The conflicts have taken forms as varied as internal conflicts between religious and ethnic communities in different parts of the world, acts of aggression against sovereign states, terrorist attacks and the global 'war against terror', the stigmatisation and demonisation of the Muslim community. All these factors impact on, and are impacted by gender.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Femininity/ies, Gender Analysis, Gender Roles, Gendered Discourses, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Genocide, Violence

Year: 2006

Colonial Legacies, Post-Colonial (In)securities, and Gender(ed) Representations in South Asia's Nuclear Policies

Citation:

Das, Runa. 2010. “Colonial Legacies, Post-Colonial (In)securities, and Gender(ed) Representations in South Asia’s Nuclear Policies.” Social Identities 16 (6): 717–40.

Author: Runa Das

Abstract:

Through a comparative study of India and Pakistan's national security discourses, this article explores the linkages between post-colonial India and Pakistan's nationalist/communalist identities, configurations of masculinities, and gendered representations underpinning their nuclear (in)securities. This paper contends that the colonial politics of place-making in the sub-continent has not only inscribed a process of ‘othering’ between these states but has also facilitated the rise of divergent visions of post-colonial nationalisms, which, at each of their phases and with particular configurations of masculinities, have used women's bodies to re-map India-Pakistan's borders and national (in)securities. This article particularly draws attention to a new form of gendered manipulation in South Asian politics in the late 1990s, whereby both states, embedded in colonial notions of religious/cultural masculinities, have relied on discourses of Hindu/Indian and Muslim/Pakistani women's violence and protection from the ‘other’ to pursue aggressive policies of nuclearization. It is at this conjectural moment of a Hinduicized and Islamicized nationalism (flamed by the contestations of a Hindu versus an Islamic masculinity) that one needs to provide a feminist re-interpretation of India-Pakistan's nationalist identities, gendered imaginaries, and their re-articulation of national (in)securities – that represents a religious/gendered ‘otherness’ in South Asia's nuclear policies.

Keywords: nationalism, communalism, Gender, representations, nuclear insecurity, South Asian politics

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Gender Analysis, Femininity/ies, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India, Pakistan

Year: 2010

Just Add Women and Stir?

Citation:

Dharmapuri, Sahana. 2011. “Just Add Women and Stir?” Parameters 41(1): 56-70.

Author: Sahana Dharmapuri

Annotation:

Summary:
"Recent efforts made by UN peacekeeping missions and NATO to implement UN Resolution 1325, show that security actors are more successful when they take into account the different needs, status, and experience of men and women in the local population, and when peace and security missions include women in executing operations and decisionmaking. A growing body of evidence from the field reveals that the inclusion of women enhances operational effectiveness in three key ways: improved information gathering, enhanced credibility, and better force protection. Empirical evidence underscores the fact that attention to the different needs, interests, and experiences of men and women can enhance the success of a variety of security tasks, to the benefit of both civilians and soldiers" (Dharmapuri 2011, 56).

Topics: Gender, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Gender Hierarchies, Gender Equality/Inequality, Political Participation, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2011

Enemies or Allies? Feminism and Cultural Relativism as Dissident Voices in Human Rights Discourse

Citation:

Brems, Eva. 1997. “Enemies or Allies? Feminism and Cultural Relativism as Dissident Voices in Human Rights Discourse.” Human Rights Quarterly 19 (1): 136–64.

 

Author: Eva Brems

Topics: Feminisms, Gendered Discourses, Rights, Human Rights

Year: 1997

Adversarial Discourses, Analogous Objectives Afghan: Women’s Control

Citation:

Khattak, Saba Gul. 2004. “Adversarial Discourses, Analogous Objectives Afghan Women’s Control.” Cultural Dynamics 16 (2-3): 213–36. doi:10.1177/0921374004047749.

 

Author: Saba Gul Khattak

Abstract:

Afghan women have been the symbolic target of competing discourses and political strategies. The US-led bombing of Afghanistan used the rhetoric of women’s emancipation as a major reason for the attack without pursuing real ‘liberation’. The misogynist Taliban discourse, as it was promulgated in the Pakistan-based refugee camps and heavily funded by the western world, marked a severe deterioration in Afghan women’s rights. After the US-led military intervention of 2001, the Karzai government’s unfounded claims vis-‡-vis women’s betterment have not been realized. Afghan women, a clear majority of the Afghan population, are not at the centre of the government’s concerns or those of the international community. Engaging these problematics, this article claims that conventional politics, informed by statist and masculinist ideologies and practices, are incapable of ensuring Afghan women’s emancipation.

Keywords: Afghanistan, military, masculinity, violence, United States, women

Topics: Armed Conflict, "New Wars", Combatants, Male Combatants, Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gender Analysis, Gendered Discourses Regions: Asia, Central Asia Countries: Afghanistan, United States of America

Year: 2004

The ‘Woman-in-Conflict’ at the UN Security Council: a Subject of Practice

Citation:

Cook, Sam. 2016. “The ‘Woman-in-Conflict’ at the UN Security Council: A Subject of Practice.” International Affairs 92 (2): 353–72. 

 

Author: Sam Cook

Abstract:

Since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the woman-in- conflict has emerged as a central figure in the discourse of the UNSC Women, Peace and Security policy community. She is an ever-present referent in discussions, the person in whose name critique is launched or action demanded. This figure is a representation of the needs and interests of the uncountable, faceless and nameless women affected by and living through war; a representation that takes place through imbuing her with particular meaning or characteristics. These meanings shape how the figure is understood in Women, Peace and Security discourse, which, in turn, constructs the horizons of possibility for both current and future policy and its implementation. This article explores how this figure is produced as a subject through layers of representation and is deeply embedded in the practices and relationships of power in the policy community. It suggests that accounting for these will offer an opportunity for feminist advocates to engage in this institutional space in more considered and effective ways. 

 

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Discourses, Gender-Based Violence, Gender Mainstreaming, International Organizations, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2016

The ‘War on Terror’ and Extremism: Assessing the Relevance of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda

Citation:

Ní Aoláin, Fionnuala. 2016. “The ‘War on Terror’ and Extremism: Assessing the Relevance of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.” International Affairs 92 (2): 275–91. doi:10.1111/1468-2346.12552.

 

Author: Fionnuala Ní Aoláin

Abstract:

Recognizing the critique of sexual essentialism in the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, this article moves beyond this familiar narrative to address the narrowness of conflict frames that have to date been engaged by the WPS agenda. The events of 11 September 2001 brought new urgency and vibrancy to state action in the realm of counterterrorism. This momentum was illustrated both by the response of national legal systems and by more concerted efforts to achieve multilateral and multilevel counterterrorism cooperation on the international level. Notably, terrorism and counterterrorism have long been of only marginal interest to mainstream feminist legal theorists. Until recently concerted analytical feminist scrutiny has been missing in the assessment of terrorism, radicalism and counterterrorism discourses. This article addresses the lack of attention to terrorism, counterterrorism and countering violent extremism (CVE) initiatives in the WPS mandate and its consequences for mainstreaming gender interests in foundational aspects of peace and security practice. Recent normative augmentations including UNSCR 2242 and the amplified mandate of the Counter-Terrorism Committee to include gender considerations are assessed. The article argues that these moves to include gender come late, and on the terms set by security-minded states. The late attention to gender in counterterrorism leaves little capacity to produce an inclusive and reimagined feminist agenda addressing the causes conducive to the production of terrorism and the costs to women of counterterrorism strategies. This pessimistic assessment warns of the pitfalls of exclusion and inclusion in the new security regimes that have been fashioned post 9/11 by states. 

 

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gender Analysis, Gendered Discourses, International Organizations, Terrorism, Security, Security Sector Reform, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS

Year: 2016

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