Gender Aspects of Violent Conflicts
Work Package Leader:
Dr. Colette Harris – Overseas Development Group
| Projects |
|---|
| Project 8: Gender identities and violent conflicts |
| Project 9: Sexual violence during and in the shadows of war |
| Project 10: Conflict and well-being of women and children |
Overview
UN Security Council resolution no. 1325, October 2000, has called for the inclusion of women’s voices in peace negotiations and the development of targeted policies to protect women from the abuses of war. Yet, progress in this area has been remarkably slow and what exists is usually quite descriptive and lacks a rigorous analytical approach. Gender is still not included as an integral part of social analysis in conflict contexts.
Missing, is an analysis of ways in which gender identities are constructed to facilitate violence and ways in which they are manipulated before and during violent conflict to support the overall aims of leaders. Understanding these issues and bringing them into political and legal processes of conflict mediation and resolution can facilitate work with communities to resist involvement in violence.
This Work Package examines the gender impact of violent conflicts. In particular it examines the differentiation between male and female needs in conflict contexts, and between male and female perceptions of conflict. It brings together insights from anthropological analysis, econometric models, ethnographic methods and psychology into a rigorous analysis of gender aspects of violent mass conflicts.
Publications:
MICROCON's Gender Framework - Colette Harris
RWP41: What Can Applying a Gender Lens Contribute to Conflict Studies? A review of selected MICROCON working papers - Colette Harris
Project 8: Gender identities and violent conflicts
Project leader:
Dr. Colette Harris – Overseas Development Group
Project researchers:
Dr. Deborah Mulumba, Fredrick Immanuel Kindi and Eria Olowo Onyango – Makerere University
Publications:
RWP26: Challenges and Opportunities for Women’s Land Rights in Post- Conflict Northern Uganda - Fredrick Immanuel Kindi
This project looks at changes in the construction of masculinity and femininity in conflict-zones that facilitate the continuation of conflict. The project is based on the case study of Northern Uganda and uses specially designed survey instruments derived from individual interviews and participatory methods such as focus group discussions.
Project 9: Sexual violence during and in the shadows of war
Project leader:
Kathleen Jennings – Fafo Institute of Applied International Studies
Project researcher:
Prof. Vesna Nikolic- Ristanovic – Institute for Criminology and Sociological Research, Serbia
Publications:
RWP17: UN Peacekeeping Economies and Local Sex Industries: Connections and Implications - Kathleen Jennings and Vesna Nikolić-Ristanović
PB8: Peacekeeping Economies and the Sex Industry: Implications for UN Gender Policy - Kathleen Jennings
This project will explore the nature of violence against women in situations of conflict, including the realities of trafficking women in post-conflict areas and sexual violence. It will make use of valuable surveys conducted by Fafo AIS on trafficked women in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. It will also draw on the methods and concepts detailed in the Work Package ‘Group Formation, Identities and Mobilisation’ to construct an analysis of women’s participation in conflict due to coercion, ideals of liberation and personal reasons such as having a son killed in combat.
Project 10: Conflict and well-being of women and children
Project leader:
Dr. Adeline Delavande - Faculdade de Economia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Publications:
RWP36: Marrying Up: The Role of Sex Ratio in Assortative Matching - Ran Abramitzky, Adeline Delavande and Luís Vasconcelos
RWP60: Violent Conflicts and Risky Sexual Behavior in Uganda - Adeline Delavande and Ricardo Menezes Cordeiro
This project will use longitudinal household data to evaluate the effect of conflicts on children and women’s economic well being resulting from changes in intra-household bargaining in Indonesia. The Indonesia Family Life Survey, which contains unique information on individuals’ perception of control over economic resources in the family, will be used. Empirical analysis will be done in two steps. First, the project will evaluate to what extent a woman’s relative power depends on whether she lives in an area of conflict. Second, using a structural household utility framework, the project will conduct simulations to assess how much more economic resources children and women in those households would receive if they were not living in areas of conflicts.
Funded by EC under FP6
