CfP: 'Gender, Power and Armed Conflict'

Around 40 countries worldwide are affected by civil wars or intense internal violent conflicts. Both women and men experience these violent conflicts as heavy human tragedies. But the gender specific roles, capacities and needs are different. Men and women are involved in military operations but still the majority of soldiers are men. During wars, while men are fighting, women often take over former male-dominated duties in addition to their traditional female roles. In violent conflict men tend to be injured and killed mostly by firearms. Women are often victims of rape, domestic violence and displacement. And further, more often the roles and capacities of men and women in conflict transformation processes and peace negotiations are different. Both women and men can act as change agents and promoter of peace, but mostly they act on different levels. While men are operating mostly on the macro level and get involved in official peace talks, women are stronger participating in local or regional peace-building activities. So women often play a powerful and very important, but frequently neglected role on the micro level, as the initiative “1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize” has demonstrated. There are indications that an increased female participation in peace processes can lead to more sustainlable peace related results.
But all these aspects are often ignored by conflict-related analyses. In order to learn more about the gender specific aspects and dynamics of violent conflicts, it is important to include men and women from all levels in a democratic and participatory way in the analyses and monitoring of war and peace processes.
Therefore papers in the session should deal with the following aspects:
Gender specific needs, roles and capacities in conflict affected countries
Gender specific roles in escalating and triggering conflicts
Gender specific roles in deescalating and transforming conflicts
The relation between gender, power, leadership and conflict transformation
The interlinkage between gender and sustainable peace agreements
Instruments to analyze these gender and conflict specific aspects and dynamics
Gender and conflict sensitive minimum standards for actors in the field
If you are interested to contribute to this session on the conference „Equality, Growth and Sustainability – Do they Mix?” (Linköping University, Sweden, 25-26 November 2010), please contact the responsible chair Dr. Norbert Frieters-Reermann, RWTH Aachen University, Institute for Sociology/Gender Studies, Theaterplatz 14, D- 52062 Aachen – Germany, Phone: +49 241 80 93968, Email: nfrieters@soziologie.rwth-aachen.de