Ebook: Victims, perpetrators or actors? : gender, armed conflict and political violence

This work explores the links between political, economic and social violence and illustrates how local community organizations run and managed by women play a key role throughout conflict situations, not only for meeting basic needs, but also as advocates, fostering trust and collaboration. Increasing levels of global conflict and political violence, as well as the higher profile of many 'simmering' confrontations, provide critical challenges for development theorists and practitioners. While numerous countries have endured decades of armed conflict, others live under the permanent menace of political violence. When peace accords are signed, economic and social violence often increase, particularly during the fragile transition to 'permanent' peace. Throughout, the gendered impacts of armed conflict and political violence are key issues. Currently, armed conflict and political violence are predominantly viewed as 'male domains', perpetrated by men, whether as armed forces, guerrilla groups, paramilitaries or peacemakers. The unavoidable, or deliberate, involvement of women has received far less attention with a tendency to portray a simplistic division of roles between men as aggressors, and women as victims. Through empirical case studies from different regions of the world written by authors from both North and South, the book aims to provide a holistic analysis of the gendered nature of armed conflict and political violence, and a broader understanding of the complex, changing roles and power relations between women and men during such circumstances.--Publisher website.