Gender, War, and Conflict

by Laura Sjoberg

From Pakistan to Chechnya, Sri Lanka to Canada, pioneering women are taking their places in formal and informal military structures previously reserved for, and assumed appropriate only for men. Women have fought in wars, either as women or covertly dressed as men, throughout the history of warfare, but only recently have they been allowed to join state militaries, insurgent groups, and terrorist organizations in unprecedented numbers.

This begs the question - how useful are traditional gendered categories in understanding the dynamics of war and conflict? And why are our stories of gender roles in war typically so narrow? Who benefits from them? In this illuminating book, Laura Sjoberg explores how gender matters in war-making and war-fighting today. Drawing on a rich range of examples from conflicts around the world, she shows that both women and men play many more diverse roles in wars than either media or scholarly accounts convey. Gender, she argues, can be found at every turn in the practice of war; it is crucial to understanding not only ‘what war is’, but equally how it is caused, fought and experienced.

With end of chapter questions for discussion and guides to further reading, this book provides the perfect introduction for students keen to understand the multi-faceted role of gender in warfare. Gender, War and Conflict will challenge and change the way we think about war and conflict in the modern world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, School, War

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2014

About the author

Laura Sjoberg is Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Her first book Gender, Justice and the Wars in Iraq was published in 2006. She has published articles on just war theory in the International Journal of Feminist Politics, International Politics and International Studies Quarterly. Her research focuses on gender, just war theory, international security and international ethics.

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Os dois capítulos finais, em que a autora expõe a sua teorização são bem mais confusos que os primeiros capítulos (que são bastante claros e bem escritos). Ainda assim, funciona bem para quem quer iniciar estudos em relações internacionais, gênero e guerra.

[Diana Kanecki · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important book in understanding those who serve are not just the 1950s stereotypes many still think. It is lgbtq+ and intersection and intersex. Even before DADT.

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My feminist literature books!

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found Sjoberg's writing delightful clear. I am not deeply familiar with international relations or war theorizing, but I still found the text accessible. I thought the gender analysis was pretty sophisticated, and I was impressed with how she kept nuance in a book with such an ambitious scope--she really did talk about gender and war, broadly. While this is probably hard to avoid in a short book about war generally, I felt a bit uncomfortable with the way she lumped together examples drawn from very different conflicts--it seemed like she must be glossing over important differences, and I wished she had incorporated some analysis of colonialism or postcolonialism in her gender analysis of war. Also, I thought she did much better than most cis feminist authors I have read at acknowledging trans and gender nonconforming existence and making gender (dis)order a part of her analysis, but I was still disappointed that her discussion of trans experience of war was so limited. She described the experiences of cis women and cis men with a fair amount of breadth, but only acknowledged trans experience of war through examples of trans people navigating TSA checkpoints. One could read her analysis and imagine that no trans people fight wars, end up as civilian casualties, or navigate food scarcity and other aspects of war--something that is certainly not true. Still, I thought much of the analysis was smart and helpful.

[Rachel]

Reviewing this for Feminist Collections, so no details here.

[Ayşenur Kurşun · Rating 4 out of 5]

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