Women as War Criminals: Gender, Agency, and Justice

by Izabela Steflja, Jessica Trisko Darden

Women war criminals are far more common than we think. From the Holocaust to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans to the Rwandan genocide, women have perpetrated heinous crimes. Few have been punished. These women go unnoticed because their very existence challenges our assumptions about war and about women. Biases about women as peaceful and innocent prevent us from "seeing" women as war criminals—and prevent postconflict justice systems from assigning women blame. Women as War Criminals argues that women are just as capable as men of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. In addition to unsettling assumptions about women as agents of peace and reconciliation, the book highlights the gendered dynamics of law, and demonstrates that women are adept at using gender instrumentally to fight for better conditions and reduced sentences when war ends. The book presents the legal cases of four the President (Biljana Plavšic), the Minister (Pauline Nyiramasuhuko), the Soldier (Lynndie England), and the Student (Hoda Muthana). Each woman's complex identity influenced her treatment by legal systems and her ability to mount a gendered defense before the court. Justice, as Steflja and Trisko Darden show, is not blind to gender.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Gender, Politics, War, Feminism

168 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 8, 2020

Reviews

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting quick read about how we as a society and the legal system respond to women perpetrators of war crimes. The authors critique the gendered frames through which women war criminals are looked at in the media, scholarship and legal trials, which tend to deny the agency of women and judge them against gendered norms of feminity. The book also shows how women who are accused or convicted of war crimes (four case studies are looked at) and their legal defense teams can instrumentalise these gendered stereotypes in order to downplay their responsibility for crimes. Some reference is also made to how race intersects with this gendered framing, however due to the shortness of the book this discussion unfortunately remains superficial. Overall, the book offers some really useful reflections on the intersections between gender, perpetratorhood and the sociology of international criminal justice.

[Haley · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The gender "violence gap"... is not as wide as often thought, in part because women's historical participation in wartime violence has been willfully ignored. Women war criminals have gone unnamed or been underestimated in the attempt to preserve archetypal images of women as victims and men as perpetrators. " pg. 122

This book was insightful and surprisingly easy to read. It discussed the socio-political motivations of the verdicts for the four cases discussed. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this book. I talked with my husband about each case and how they base women's defenses on three big categories - Mother, Monster, and Whore.

I still find myself thinking about this book in the sense that women can be just as violent and brutal as men but in the court of law, they are tried differently. I read lots of fantasy where the main female character is incredibly violent and unhinged and it's one of my favorite things in a book (because women have been shown as gentle, unassuming, and demur in far too many stories) ...but reading this brings it into a very real context and I think I might be thinking about what their defense may be in the court of law...

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, interesting topic, easy read. I finished it all in one sitting, but it left me hungry for more. In the case of Hoda Muthana, I hope the authors publish an update if/when her case reaches any kind of resolution.

[Solomon J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Readable, informative, and authoritative? Good book on an interesting topic.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly detailed and well researched book which gives an insight into how these war criminals who happen to be women are presented within wider society and how perceived biases (in both society and legal systems) that women are peaceful and innocent prevent us from “seeing” them as these people who are capable of orchestrating such crimes against humanity.

[Luke]

Pub 2020

[Christina Helms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative and interesting but the writing was difficult to get into.