WOMEN AT WAR
It is increasingly widely recognized that the rape and killing of women by enemy forces during war is not simply part of the usual pillage and looting – claiming the spoils of war - but may form part of a deliberate military strategy. The phrase ‘rape as an instrument of war’ has entered the public discourse. And after all what better way could there be of conquering & destroying a society than killing or impregnating the women and girls of the enemy.
The situation in the Congo is the most recent case to hit the public eye and the Guardian newspaper has posted on its site an unbearably moving video of the testimonials of violated women and girls – aged between one and ninety years - under the title Rape in a Lawless Land guardian.co.uk/congo
However one student of genocide and gendercide – Adam Jones - who has written extensively about the situation in the Balkans says that in some cases the actual gender-selective killing and rape of young men… with the similar objective of destroying the social continuity of the enemy…is under-estimated and under-reported by the media and other observers who find men less ‘worthy’ as victims then women and children. In his article ‘Effacing the Male: gender, misrepresentation and exclusion in the Kosovo War (antimisandry.com) Jones states that during the Kosovo war of 1999 the Serbs adopted a strategy of ‘gendercide’ or gender-selective killing against ‘battle-age’ men although women, children and the elderly were also killed and tortured. Jones sees the privileging in reporting of the war in Kosovo and in the Balkans more generally of the rape and killing of women, over the slaughter and rape of (non-combatant) males reflects age old biases, as well as the success of feminist activism in drawing attention to this aspect of violence against women. He considers that the assumption that males are natural targets as well as perpetrators of violence assigns the suffering of males to a secondary status in both media coverage and the reporting of such organizations as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
What cannot be overlooked however in any discussion of the gendered effects of war and other kinds of civil unrest is that these conditions also provide opportunities for some people and particularly perhaps for women to change their roles and status and expand their horizons into the public sphere. Whether these gains are sustained when peace returns varies from instance to instance.
The history and progress of feminism is closely tied to other social movements such as Independence and Anti-Slavery. Any kind of challenge to the established social order such as independence movements against a colonial oppressor, or the rebellion of a minority group in the society against the majority not only provide an opportunity for women and women’s organizations to be involved but also provoke reflections amongst women as a ‘minority’ about their own unequal status. In 18th century England the pioneer for women’s rights, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97), was part of a group of Dissenters, radical Presbyterians, Baptists and Independents who were banned from taking civil service posts and entering the universities. Her book which became the corner stone of global feminism linked Enlightenment ideas to the situation of women in her 300-page appeal A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). She demanded an end to the double standards which denied women all rights and condemned them to domestic tyranny of men. Across the Channel French women were taking advantage of the Revolution to move into public spaces….. with some notable reverses in royal circles of course.
In the United States it was the movement against slavery which provided the impetus for women to organize against their own oppression. Black women such as Harriet Tubman who became one of the most famous ‘conductors’ on the Underground Railroad inspired some white women to join the Anti - Slavery Society which lay the foundation for the call for equal rights regardless of ethnicity or gender. Although black and white feminists have often been divided by race rather than joined by gender.
In Egypt, Algeria and elsewhere in the Middle East women’s movements developed as part of the national liberation struggle against the colonial oppressor at the turn of 20th century. More recently the Palestinian intifada (1987-91) has been remarkable for the mass mobilization of women from all walks of life. Although the initial impetus which drove women out of their homes was a desire to protect their children, their effectiveness in this function led them to question their traditional exclusion from public spaces. Several senior women leaders have emerged from this process but in Palestine as elsewhere it remains to be seen to what extent women’s active involvement in the civil struggle will result in lasting societal change.
Islamist movements have also provided a space for women’s greater political involvement though reform-minded women face ideological contradictions and conflicts which they sometimes meet with an attempt to reinterpret the Koran.
At a practical level if all the men are at war women have to move into the spaces they leave to assure society’s continuity and to help the war effort. During World War II England created the Women’s Land Army known as the Land Girls who took over agriculture and kept the nation fed. They almost certainly had a lasting influence on the acceptability of trousers for women, a privilege previously confined to equestriennes. Women also worked in armaments factories, folded parachutes and became drivers of ambulances and Generals. Even HRH Princess Elizabeth drove an ambulance. They became active as journalists and photographers as well as in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (the Wrens), in Women’s Army Corps (WACs), and in the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF).
It should come as no surprise that women have a particular aptitude for Intelligence.
An internal MI5 (British Intelligence Service) History released in 2004 states that women, if not ‘oversexed’, made much more effective secret agents than their male counterparts.
‘It is frequently alleged that women are less discrete than men; that they are ruled by their emotions and not by their brains and that Sex will play an unsettling and dangerous role in their work’. The writer goes on to state however that out of the hundreds of cases of ‘loose talk’ investigated during WWII by far the greater proportion of offenders was men. The ideal secret agent would be an intelligent woman who knew how to use her personal attractions wisely which would involve avoiding ’sinking too willingly’ into the arms of the targeted informant. The most effective intelligence-gathering method was to secure a woman agent a job as secretary in a targeted organization as ‘no official or other single individual ever has the same opportunity for obtaining information covering a wide area as does a clerk or secretary.
Societal attitudes to women’s role in the military and in combat are riddled with ambiguity. On the one hand women’s femininity and reproductive role seems to unfit them for combat, and on the other they will distract the troops with their sexual wiles and provide a career challenge if they decide to take it all seriously.
Traditionally conscription has been limited to the male population. Women and non-able-bodied males have been exempted from conscription. Many societies have traditionally considered conscription as a test of manhood and a rite of passage from boyhood into manhood .Countries that currently draft women into military service are China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Israel, Libya, Malaysia, North Korea, Peru, and Taiwan. During World War II, women were drafted into the armed forces of the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. The United States came close to drafting women into the Nurse Corps in preparation for a planned invasion of Japan
The website of the Centre for Military Readiness (http://cmrlink.org/printfriendly.asp?docID=164) under the headline ‘Senate Rushing to Ratify Global UN Treaty on Women’ discussed the predictable and devastating effects on the American military of the possible ratification of ‘an obscure treaty’ known as CEDAW which would eliminate ‘any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex’.
The material on this site runs the gamut of the catalogue of horrors from ‘these women won’t let us protect them’ through ‘they are going to take our jobs’ to ‘they (and other men) will sleep with our men’. It is worthwhile noting that the ‘Trojan Horse’ of CEDAW has not yet been let into the US Senate though some 186 other countries in the world have signed and ratified.
The postings on this site insist that if ratified and implemented CEDAW would ‘fulfill the fondest dreams of Clinton- ERA
Pentagon feminists who advocated an Ungendered Military to advance women’s careers….. CEDAW would invalidate all Defense Department regulations that treat women differently, including women’s exemptions from direct combat on land, sea and in the air…… and since the treaty eliminates all legal and social distinctions related to sex and marital status it would open the door to homosexuality and challenge military regulations governing personal misconduct such as adultery’.
What happens when conflict ends? Do men and women return to their old roles and functions as though nothing had happened?
Betty Friedan in the Feminine Mystique presented an analysis which though it may seem fanciful when summarized is largely convincing when you read the whole text. She argues that the over- elaboration and mystification of housework and domesticity in the States after the return of the men from the war to reclaim their jobs had the function of convincing women that they had a fulfilling role back in the domestic nest…. The Feminine Mystique was the opiate of the women.
In Rwanda on the other hand so many men were killed that women found and find themselves thrust into positions of power. When the killing ended there were twice as many men as women and the September 2008 parliamentary election saw women take 45 out of 80 parliamentary seats; the heads of the Supreme Court and the police are also women, as are the majority of prison governors. Women make up 55% of the work force and own about 40% of businesses. Although half of the parliamentary seats won by women were reserved for women the other half won in open ballots.
A concern of many feminists has long been that whilst women and women’s organizations participate in the conflict they are marginalized in conflict resolution and peace-building and therefore have no say in the re-construction of their society. In Afghanistan for example women are not present at the jirga discussions. The UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security www.iwtc.org
Focuses especially on this issue and is acquiring increasing importance and momentum as documentation from the world’s conflicts presents a uniform picture of women’s later marginalization.
A number of organizations such as the International Women’s Commission for a Just and Sustainable Palestinian and Israeli Peace established in 2005 is amongst the most effective organizations working towards the implementation of UNSCR 1325.
http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/OPT/IWC2005.html
It is high time that women’s role in making peace as well as war received proper recognition.