Gender Conflict

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In the late 1990s and the beginning of the millennium, women have become more visible in politics and started to get important roles in international organizations. Various countries have elected women politicians and leaders at key positions of domestic and international politics. From Condoleezza Rice to Hillary Clinton, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Nancy Pelosi and many more in the United States; from Theresa May in the UK to Angela Merkel in Germany, Christina Lagarde at the head of the International Monetary Fund to Navanehtem Pillay as the High Commissioner for Human Rights within the UN, women have taken an unprecedented role in world affairs. Yet, this was not the only domain where women began to have a word. Alongside these visible gains for women in the realm of high-powered leadership, women also continue to fill the ranks of conflict victims and targets of sexual violence. They take roles in the international, regional or domestic conflicts, mostly joining rebel groups or even terrorist organizations in insurgencies or civil wars; areas which were once seen as the preserve of male fighters. For this obvious reason, the relation and interaction between gender and conflict requires attention and understanding. This course will analyze this interaction within the framework of various comparative cases: From Nicaragua to Kurdistan, from Syria to Northern Ireland, from Columbia to Sri Lanka, from Africa to Latin America; the reasons which lie behind the emancipation of women and women’s movements, as well as their participation in conflicts will be the topic of this course.