[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