29. Gender perspective in war

[Assignment- First Two Year Batch-MEd. 2015-17

- Govt. College of Teacher Education, Thiruvananthapuram]

Women and Peace

"Is there a difference between men and women when it comes to war and peace? Are women more peaceful?"

The United Nations's fourth women's conference in Beijing addressed the integration of gender equality issues in all aspects of politics and planning. Twelve areas in need of measures were described, one of them being "Women and armed conflict". Women should participate in peace negotiations, was one of the conclusions. Women living in conflict situations are to be protected.

http://phys.org/news/2016-11-gender-perspectives-world-male.html#jCp

On the global agenda, war and peace was primarily something that pertained to men, at least up until 1995, when the United Nation’s fourth women's conference in Beijing addressed the integration of gender equality issues in all aspects of politics and planning. Twelve areas in need of measures were described, one of them being "Women and armed conflict". Women should participate in peace negotiations, was one of the conclusions. Women living in conflict situations are to be protected.

In 2000, The United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. It was established that women should participate in peace processes, that sexual violence should be stopped, assailants should be prosecuted, and that the UN's peacekeeping work should include gender perspectives.

There are a lot of threats and violence against women who are actively involved in politics. There is a need to integrate women in the armed forces because they can contribute their own part. The military should consider implementing training that directly addresses the cultural understandings of gender."

In almost all cultures and societies, the stereotypical vision of war has been persistent; women are supposed to be the outsiders of war. War is men’s business. They go to the front, do the fighting, take the risks and make the decisions. Women stay at home doing house hold works.

The dichotomous construction of sex/biology (nature) vs. gender/culture (nurture), arguing that the two are “highly interdependent’ and that biology “provides diverse potentials”, while cultures “limit, select, and channel them. Biology is diversity and demonstrates this variability across societies.

Goldstein defines war as lethal inter-group violence and feminism as an ideology opposing male domination and promoting gender equality. He then reviews the historical record of men and women in war in simple and complex societies. He concludes that the cross-cultural consistency of gendered war roles is pervasive. Women have fought in wars but these women are exceptions to the gender rule that men are warriors.

However, gender does not determine whether or not a person is an outsider of war. In different respects, women have always been part of war. We can distinguish different roles such as camp followers, nurses in combat, soldiers, and finally as housewives. Some of these roles, in particular, have serves as a support to war and militarism.

Gender exclusion from combat is by policy choice, not by physical capability; the evidence shows that women can and do fight. For the indepence of India many women freedom fighters such as Jhansi Rani, Sarojini Naidu, Kasturba Gandhi, Arun Asaf Ali, Indira Gandhi, Kamla Nehru, Vijayalaxmi Pandit and Madam Cama take part and they contribute in their own way.

War is constructed as a test or signifier of manhood/masculinity; victory is confirmation of male identity, defeat is emasculation. Femininity is constructed to reinforce the “man as warrior” construction, both in support roles as nurse, mother, or wife and in opposition as peace activists; all confirm militarized masculinity. Cultural views of femininity characterize women as naturally peaceful and non-violent.

Cultural views of masculinity assign men to the public sphere and positions of power. Hence men are responsible for all public affairs-in war and in peace, according to cultural gender constructions. Being mostly excluded from high-level politic, women have searched other forms of political action. One such example is the women’s peace camp outside the US Air Force base at Green ham Common in Great Britain that existed from the 1980s until the beginning of the year 2000.

For more than 30years, women have been intensely re-envisioning femininity, and what it means to be a woman. Same scrutiny should be applied to men. The feminist movement came into being because women were fundamentally in pain and unable to develop to their full potential. But, men are similarly, hampered by this masculine ideal, in which they are expected to repress their emotions. One of the major reasons, for many of the conflicts at present is that we have, to greater or lesser extent ‘deconstructed’ femininity but we have done almost nothing to deconstruct masculinity.

Suggestion

*Gender does not determine whether or not a person is an outsider of war.

*Cultural views of femininity characterize women as naturally peaceful and non-violent but they can contribute in their own way.

*There is a need to integrate women in the armed forces because they do their best.

* The military should consider implementing training that directly addresses the cultural understandings of gender.

*Women living in conflict situations are to be protected by giving them proper education and training

Reference

www.colorado.edu/geography/.../Goldstein%20-%20Gender%20and%20war.pdf

www.warandgender.com

http://phys.org/news/2016-11-gender-perspectives-world-male.html#jCp

Submitted by Ms. Mayoori M.Nair