Towards a Gendered Understanding of Conflict

This article discusses how gender is an issue in both conflict and development and how recognizing and dealing with the effects of gender in either arena can make the situation in developing countries better. I found this article very interesting because I am really interested in issues with development and foreign aid by NGOs. Since I will be focusing on war for my literature review, I was also interested in the differences between fighting in conflict for men and women. I thought a really important point the authors made was how it is not necessarily that men want to fight in wars, but that they feel obligated to do so and know they will be punished if they do not “prove” their masculinity. They are also made to feel guilty if they do not protect their community and their family. Women, on the other hand, are usually defeminized when they take part in battle, and often have to worry about being raped or taunted. It turns out that going through all of this in the name of serving alongside men and making equal sacrifices for one’s society does not pan out with the benefits women may hope for. In other words, women are not “rewarded” for taking part in armed conflict. Once the battle is over, there is often no change in day-to-day gender norms. I thought this was really interesting and just shows how constrained we are in our gender roles and how set in stone our societies and ideals really are.