Gender and Terrorism

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor

Women have often been overlooked and understudied within violent extremist movements. From Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers to Chechnya's Black Widows to the Al Khansaa Brigade of ISIS, women have played critical roles in terrorist organizations across the globe for decades. As men often take on more prominent and violent roles within terrorist groups, women’s contributions to violent extremism can often be underplayed, underexplored, and misunderstood. Despite the constant repetition of narratives surrounding women’s inherent peacefulness, research has shown that women involved in violent extremism provide logistical support, lend reputation to a cause, facilitate recruitment, and increase group stability. Moreover, gendered approaches to recruitment, processes of radicalization, and the roles that women can play in preventing violent extremism (PVE) and countering violent extremism (CVE) processes are less understood. From theoretical foundations to policy implications, this course will address pressing terrorism threats to national and international security with an often overlooked gender lens. This course will explore gender dynamics in radicalization, conflict (as victims and perpetrators), and disengagement. Gender is a social construct that defines relationships between and among the sexes, and gendered beliefs (overt and implicit) lay at the heart of many terrorist groups that seek to determine appropriate behavior for both men and women. This course will explore how groups use gender dynamics to recruit, mobilize, and utilize men and women for their own strategic advantages. By better understanding women's participation and gender dynamics in violent extremism, academics and practitioners are better able to leverage this knowledge into well-informed policy and actionable strategies to counter and combat it.