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Women's Agency in Peace Building

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Women's Agency in Peace Building Economic and Political Weekly http://www.jstor.org/stable/4417360 . Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political Weekly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 140.232.1.111 on Tue, 1 Oct 2013 16:05:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Women's Agency in Peace Building Gender Relations in Post-Conflict Reconstruction Although there is a growing body of feminist discourse establishing that war and peace are gendered activities, and consequently women's experiences, responses and needs are different, this is often overlooked by national and 'internationalpolicy-imakers. Studies making visible the centrality of women's agency in peace building and the need to have women participate at the peace table are ignored by the dominant cornflict,peace and security discourses. This paper maps the complex and variegated picture of civilian and militarised women's agency in moments of violent social transformationand the peculiarities of their languages of resistance and empowerment. RITA MANCHANDA Peace building is a process that flows throughthe pre- Humanitariandiscourses continue to configure women as victims conflict or conflict prevention,conflict and post-conflict and end up devaluingthe multiple(empowering) roles women phases. Such an approachdraws attentionto the reality take on duringconflict of managingcommunity survival and of theno war-nopeace hiatus characteristic of so manyintra state peace building.The post-conflictreconstruction is faced with conflicts in the global south and challenges the assumptionof the challengeof socially recognisingthese new roles thathave a "post-conflict"closure, especially with regardto the attention implicationsfor social transformation.An attentionto these areas- Afghanistanand Sri Lanka or Nepal1 thathas been sucked changes could provide a basis for reworkingmore equitable backinto an activeconflict stage. Manypeace builders,particu- genderrelations during the conflict itself. The postponementof larly women, operateat all of these stages. the "women'squestion" to the aftermathis too late [Turshen Althoughthere is a growing body of feminist discoursees- 2001]. The historicalexperience is that the momentopened up tablishingthat war and peace are genderedactivities and con- by the societal upheavalof conflict, slips back to a restoration sequentlywomen's experiences, responses and needs arediffer- of genderstatus quo with women pushedback to theirsewing ent, it is often overlookedby nationaland internationalpolicy- machineand men supervising and marketing their products [Kumar makers.Studies making visible thecentrality of women'sagency 20011. in peacebuilding and the need to have womenparticipate at the Violence is an importantvariable in determiningwhether war peace table are ignored by the dominantconflict, peace and time"gains" can be consolidated as menuse violence and the threat securitydiscourses. of violence to marginalisewomen, especially in restructuring The UN SecurityCouncil Resolution 1325 on Women,Peace "normalcy".Empirical research reveals a co-relationbetween and Securityis a path-breakingendorsement of women's inclu- conflict and increasingdomestic violence, i e, the connection sion in peaceprocesses [Anderlini 2000; Porter 2003]. Butwhere between violence, militarismand the constructionof a macho are the women in decision-makingin conflict resolutionand masculinity. Humanitarianand Relief, Reconstructionand reconstructioneither within the UN systemor in enablingwomen Rehabilitation(RRR) frameworks rarely recognise domestic vio- to translatetheir authority in the informalsphere to the formal lence as systematicin conflict and post-conflict,consequently, sphereof politics in the aftermath2of violent conflict?The UN humanitarianand securityresponses do not addressit during SecretaryGeneral's 2004 reporton 1325, fouryears after it was trainingin emergenciesor in articulatinglegal andpolicy frame- adopted,states "The number of womenwho participatein formal worksfor post-conflict reconstruction [Rehn and Sirleaf: Unifem peace processesremains small... The desire to bring peace at 2002].There is littleattempt to relateit to women'sinferior socio- any cost may resultin a failureto involve women and consider economic status and lack of voice and therefore,to addressit their needs and concerns." througha resource-basedand empowermentapproach [Kelkar There is a broadrecognition among humanitarianand relief and Nathan2004]. agenciesthat women bear the bruntof armedconflict. Empirical Thereis a lack of attentionto the post-conflictexperience of evidence shows that women will not receive their fair share "peace" that produces greater impoverishmentof women. withoutdeliberate planning of gender-sensitiverelief, rehabili- Dominantreconstruction models involve downsizing govern- tation and reconstruction.However, multi donor frameworks ment and privilegingprivate sector as the engine of growth. for buildingpeace in war-tornsocieties, at best, insertgender- Womenare the first to be laid off in wage employmentin the sensitive languageand ignore it at the field level. There is the public sector. The feminisation of the informal sector is a visibilityof settingup genderfocal points, but usually without phenomenonof post-conflict societies. Moreover, structural resources and authorityto effectively leverage the system. adjustmentprogrammes reduce the availabilityof public re- Consequently, they are set up to fail [Rehn and Sirleaf: sources for food security, health and education.In the post- Unifem2002]. conflict situationsthere is a trend towards a feminisationof Economicand Political Weekly October29, 20054737 This content downloaded from 140.232.1.111 on Tue, 1 Oct 2013 16:05:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions poverty. Arguably, it is linked with failure to address gender and its mirror image in contesting groups and communities inequalities, especially at a time when conflict conditions have (Essays in Cultural Dynamics: 2004). produced shifts in gender relations. Conflict conditions compel women to take on new independent War and Peace Are Gendered Activities roles and demonstrate capacities for decision-making with implications for at least, the equal involvement of women in In today's "civil wars" civilians are not just collateral victims, community management, peace process and reconstruction ac- but the direct targets of armed conflicts. As more men than women tivities. The norms of women's dependence have changed and join the soldiery, it is women and children who make up the social taboos challenged as non-traditional roles are assumed as majority of the civilians and become the major casualties of intra- women manage family/community survival and peace-building state conflicts. (and war-making). Women in conflict areas disproportionatelyshoulder the burden "Post-conflict" structures of development require policies, of survival coping with "family strategies in the absence of food, planning and design that build on the base of these changes for shelter, basic services, education and means of livelihood for more effective development. Areas of armed conflict may present sustenance" [ADB 2004]. Women's care giving role impacts on the most ideal opportunities of addressing gender concretely, their capacity to protect themselves and makes mobility difficult, since programmessuch as relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation producing the phenomenon of the "internally stuck" as observed could represent a new beginning. in Nepal [Martinez 2002]. It is the women who grow food and The post-conflict situations highlighted here - Afghanistan, produce "taxes" for the guerrillas in Nepal's Maoist-controlled Sri Lanka and Nepal - are located in a region marked by severe areas. gender inequalities or as in the case of Sri Lanka, gender The social impact of conflict is most visible in the emergence disempowerment. At first glance, Sri Lanka appearsan exception. of woman-headed households, widows or half widows abruptly Its social policy package of free education, primary health thrustinto a position of responsibility for the welfare of the family centres and food subsidy has produced GDI indicators that are in a context of deprivation and instability, in societies where the above the developing country average at 0.73 but its gender widow is culturally regarded with prejudice and a woman alone empowerment measure (GEM) trails behind the average at 0.27 invites predatory behaviour. The Taliban's decrees excluding (average 39). Also there is a difficulty of factoring in data from women from working outside the home forced widows to beg the conflict-affected north and east. The war has left in the for family survival or go into prostitution. In Jaffna in Sri Lanka, north and east 30,000 women-headed families and 40,000 there were 19,000 registered widows and 2,100 children living widows and a trend towards "feminisation" of poverty, migration in the government welfare centres. In the
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