Gendered Approaches to Organizing Insurgency: Why Rebels Conform to or Subvert Patriarchal Gender Norms

About

Speaker: Apekshya Prasai, Gender & Security Predoctoral Fellow, International Security Program

When organizing insurgency, all rebels face gendered choices. Insurgents operate in, recruit from, and depend on communities where half the population is female. As they build the social infrastructure needed to produce and sustain violence, all insurgents must decide whether to recruit women, how to integrate them in violence, how to distribute organizational roles and resources between male and female recruits, and what kind of relations to institutionalize between them. When choosing, sometimes insurgents conform to patriarchal gender norms that regard politics and war as a male endeavor. Other times they deviate from such norms to varying extents, giving rise to distinct systems of gender roles and relations. This seminar seeks to describe and explain the differentially gendered approaches insurgents adopt to organizing violence.

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Please register in advance for this seminar:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwqcemrpjsvG9GQejHVwaRw0GWln_pX8n0g

Contact

For more information, email the International Security Program Assistant at susan_lynch@harvard.edu.