Feminist Perspective on War
Fall 2008
A feminist perspective on war is useful because it sheds lights onto the struggles and hardships that both young and older women experience. A feminist perspective is geared more onto shading a light on the experiences of women; not just as victims but as having agency, having domestic roles, and as well as active supportive roles during conflicts. A gendered view on war shows that during times of conflict most of the women take on roles of “male” and “female”; “girl-specific tasks were performed and required in addition to their duties as fighters and spies” (Denov et al. 894). When war is looked at through a feminist perspective we see how war is fought in the home fronts how women and children are affected by the conflicts most often cause by men. You can also see how money affects and advance war. Also well we can see how views of women as victims are used in order for combatants to be able to carry out plans effectively. Women experiences in war afflict countries show to what extend women are willing to go to protect themselves and those who surround them. Always seen as weak but when the moment calls for it women show what they are really capable of. Not just as being able to carry on and raise the children of a new generations but as well women saw how they use their status as a sexual object their advantage. Some women like in the article Negotiating (In) Security: Agency, Resistance, and Resourcefulness among Girls Formerly Associated with Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front had to be willing to get married in order to protect themselves from physical violence and sexual assaulted from other soldiers‘[when] one of the commanders proposed love to you, sometimes you had to accept even if you really were not willing to cooperate. This was preferable to being gang-raped” (Denov et al. 897).
Many women and girls are faced with the situation in which they have to choice a way in which to protect...