Women in War

While reading Cynthia Enloe’s article, ‘Gender’ is not enough: The need for a feminist Consciousness, many valid notions of the role of women in war were brought to my attention. It is a common thought to believe that war is masculine and women have very little involvement in it. When thinking or war, often the thought of guns and violence is recalled which then is associated with masculinity, the man. The men are supposed to be the protectors of the women in times of war and this idea is common.  After reading this article, many of the above notions are false and gender and war is overlooked, in my belief. Though women may not be on the battlefield of a war, though some are, they certainly play a role in it. As stated in Enloe’s article, women and girls can be sent or taken to participate in war by being cooks or forced wives as well as nurses to the injured. Women also play a large role after a war, or when a solider comes home from a war. For instance, in the United States and Canada, when a man comes home from a war and he has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the spouse takes care of the solider, even if she is faced with abuse and sometimes is murdered.

After a war, women are often not seen as political actors in resolving the disputes in the aftermath. This could be because in many people’s eyes, diplomacy can be aligned with masculinity and in past history, it is men making post war policies and women are not involved. This can now be seen as a mistake because women do participate in war, more than most people know, and having a women’s input on international relations after a war can be largely beneficial. To bring a current example in, the rebuilding of the nation Libya,  could largely benefit from having a women’s opinion, to avoid having the state built solidly on masculine properties.

            Though in many people’s eyes war is completely masculine but there are many feminist features to it, though masculine features are  dominate in war. Does the masculine dominance in war have the ability to change to a gender-neutral view of war? At this point, I believe that war will continue to be masculine dominated and people will still not see the large role that women play in wars. 


 Enloe, Cynthia. “‘Gender’ is not Enough: The Need for a Feminist Consciousness”.International Affairs Volume 80. Issue 1 (January 2004): 95-97.

The Strive for Equality

In reading Joni Seager’s, The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World, numerous truths about women came to my attention that I never new about before, and I found it to be shocking. In Seager’s section about murder, the term honor killing was used, which before this reading, I was uninformed about. I could not believe that so many women are killed each year because they apparently brought shame onto their family. In many cases these women brought shame on their family for something that they had no control over, such as being raped. I find it hard to comprehend that in this present day, honor killing, which mainly happens to women and girls, is still acceptable in countries, such as Egypt. I cannot help but spectacle that if honor killings were being done to men at the same rate that it is being done to women, would measures to stop it by human rights activists and international organizations, be occurring faster?

Growing up in Canada, I believe can make you naïve to what is happening to other people around the world and the difficulties that people who are minorities; women, gay and lesbian, have to deal with on a daily bases and can put them in life or death situations. In addition to honor killings, I find it hard to understand why in some countries, like Sudan and Iran, that people who are homosexuals are subjected to the death penalty or criminalized. To me, it is unfathomable to comprehend how people can be so hateful and hold such rage towards someone they do not know, but know only their sexual orientation. In my opinion, a human being is a human being and all should be treated equally, no matter sexual orientation. How is it that our world has the capability to send a man into outer space and cure diseases but all humans cannot be treated equal and given that same rights?

 Whether it is women getting married at a young are to a man with multiple wives to being discriminated against because of your sexual orientation to a women being abused by her spouse or being murdered because of something she could not control and having to have more children than she want to, women are susceptible to many, if not all, of the above on a daily basis. It is alarming to read all the statics about the hardship that women have to go through but could there possibly be more measures that can take place so the above occurrences decrease? If international law stepped in and made laws and punishments to the countries allowing some of the listed problems above, then possibly many, if not all, of the statistics would decrease. Of course, this is easier said then done.   

Seager, Joni. 2009. The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World. NY: Penguin. Seager.