The ‘sex war’ and other wars: towards a feminist approach to peacebuilding.

Abstract

For more than a decade, resolutions from the United Nations and European Commission have highlighted women’s suffering during wars, and the unfairness of their treatment on returning to peace. Yet the injustices and hypocrisy continue. Women are reified as the peacemakers whilst being excluded from peace processes. Women’s suffering during war is held up as evidence of inhumanity by the same organisations which accept, if not promote, the marginalisation of women’s needs during peacetime. In this paper I review the processes through which these phenomena are perpetuated and outline some ways forward which could help to break these cycles.