Description
As academic debates on conflict-related sexual violence, female fighters and women’s roles in peacebuilding processes have shown, gender matters for dynamics of war and peace. To which extent wars themselves represent a critical juncture for the re-construction of gender hierarchies, however, remains contested. Women who joined armed groups during war may experience ‘de-securitisation’ and loss of freedoms in the post-conflict period, due to the re-assertion of everyday essentialist stereotypes which question women’s military and political skills. However, recently growing body of literature indicates that wars may be critical junctures for women’s ‘empowerment’, and that there might be a correlation between the number of women in armed groups during war and women’s political rights after war.
In this conference paper, we present preliminary findings about women’s roles in state and non-state armed groups, their expectations of women’s ‘empowerment’ after war and realities of persistent gender hierarchies. Drawing on evidence from secondary sources and discussions in a series of multi-disciplinary workshops in 2024, we highlight common experiences for women in armed groups in Colombia, Northern Ireland and Ukraine, and what lessons can be drawn about the possible links between gender dynamics during and after war. We will pay particular attention to the complex relationship between feminism and patriotism, and why women’s representation in armed groups may matter for women’s representation in formal political institutions and strength their voices in society.
