Gender as Category of Analysis in Conflict and Peace Mediation

Gender, Politics and Intersectionality in Europe

Literature review for research paper “Gender and Conflict: Genocide in Rwanda”

Karina Oborune

Gender as Category of Analysis in Conflict and Peace Mediation

Introduction

The purpose of this literature review is to look at gender as a category of analysis in conflict and peace mediation. The analysis will provide the material basis for a research paper on “Gender and Conflict: Genocide in Rwanda” in the course “Gender, Politics and Intersectionality in Europe”. I put forward the thesis statement that genocide in Rwanda should be analysed in gender-specific terms and on different levels (individual, community) andat different phases (open-conflict, post-conflict).

I have focused on papers by Cordula Reimann, who has a particular interest in largely hidden gender-specific sub-context of violent conflicts and their resolution. The literature review is divided into three parts. I begin with defining ‘gender’. The second part is the analysis of women’s and men’s different roles at various levels and phases of conflict. The third part deals with the question of what kind of checklist and indicators we need to take into account while analysing conflict in gender specific dimensions.

I Defining gender and intersectionality

I have analysed the papers by Reimann “All You Need is Love… and What About Gender?” (2002) and “Gender in Problem-solving Workshops: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?” (2004). She defines gender as a social construction of social relations between “women” and “men”. Further Reimann stresses that gender should be understood in terms of 1) individual gender identity, 2) as symbolism of gender and 3) the structure of gender (Reimann, 2002). She also provides the triangle of gender (see Figure 1 “Gender Triangle”).

I find Reimann’s conclusion about the interconnection between identity, symbolism and structure (and at the same time interdependence) crucial. Moreover, the understanding of gender varies from culture to culture and even in one culture we can speak about historical changeability. Finally, I would like to emphasize that using gender as an analytical category is one of the ways of avoiding the gender-blind research. However, also intersectionality is important to understand and define for research paper because there are limitations of gender as a single analytical category. Intersectionality – the interaction of multiple identities and experiences of exclusion and subordination in individual lives, social practices, institutional arrangements, and cultural ideologies and the outcome of these interactions in terms of power (Davis, 2008). Intersectionality addresses disadvantages and discriminations from the multiple perspectives. Unfortunately, this concept sometimes is uncertain or misunderstood by scholars (perhaps of lack of universally applicable definition), however scholars understand the essentiality of it. Moreover, there are few works on how, where and when to study intersectionality (McCall, 2005).

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