Discourses in Transition: Re-Imagining Women's Security

Abstract

This article employs data gathered in Lebanon, Northern Ireland and South Africa as part of a project entitled 'Re-Imagining Women's Security and Participation in Post-Confl ict Societies'. It refl ects on three different 'imaginings' of security -the state security discourse, the human security discourse and a gendered security approach -with the aim of showing that security discourses are currently undergoing a process of transition which parallels that taking place in post-confl ict societies around the world. The article is particularly concerned to explore how a gendered security approach might empower women to re-imagine security in contextualised, bottom-up ways, and advocate social transformation within the broader processes of post-confl ict transition. In order to consider women's demands for security policies and approaches in the twenty-fi rst century, the article explores the direct testimony of women in three post-confl ict societies, with specifi c reference to three key areas of security central to women's re-imaginings of the concept.

Crossing Boundaries During Peace and Conflict

“…Men with a remaining traditional image of manhood are confronted with a "new women's world" when returning to their families after imprisonment. This often leads to contentious male-female relationships, in many cases to domestic violence and marriage breakdown; these contentions in the private realm can further be a contributing factor to an increase in self-harm, evident in suicides, alcoholism, and drug abuse Hamber et al, 2006). The focus on the regulation of ethnic distinctions in the public peace process does not provide sufficient space to address post-agreement issues like the crisis partnerships, which occurs in the private realm.…”

“…This results in different outcomes of the mobilization and demobilization process at the micro level; first, contention in intimate partnerships, visible in reports about an increase in domestic violence (PSNI, 2012), often connected to an increase in alcoholism in Northern Ireland linked to the lack of reconciling "violent conflict masculinities" Hamber et al, 2006). Second, we can observe in both cases a tendency toward an increasing distance between men and women, evident in many reported martial breakdowns in Northern Ireland and in Chiapas and the decisions of some women not to get married.…”

Misogyny and Marginalization in Criminal Justice Systems: Women’s Experiences in Two Post-Conflict Societies

“…Literature in Northern Ireland and South Africa indicates that men in both countries feel that new protections toward women allow women to benefit unfairly (Geisler, 2004;Ginwala, 1998Ginwala, /2005Northern Ireland Office of Statistics and Research Branch, 2006;OFMDFM, 2012). Despite evidence to the contrary (Antonopolous, 2007;ISS, 1999;Unterhalter, 2005;Vetten, 2002;Vogelman, 2000;Women's Aid, 2011;Women's Net, 2012), men tend to feel that women surpass them educationally and in employment (Bairner, 1999;Hamber, 2010;Shirlow, 1997;Xaba, 2000;Vetton 2000;Hamber et al, 2006;Harland 2011).…”

Deepening the Human Security Debate: Beyond the Politics of Conceptual Clarification

“…Moreover, by privileging elite constructions of security (Buzan et al., 1998, p. 29; Wæver, 1995, pp. 56–57), this approach neglects the potential for the ‘bottom‐up’ and ‘people‐centred’ perspectives emphasised by human security to ‘re‐imagine security’ in counter‐hegemonic ways (Hamber et al., 2006; Hoogensen and Stuvøy, 2006; more broadly, see Booth, 2005, p. 266). In the context of post‐conflict peace‐building, for example, ethnographic studies have indicated the ways in which ‘listening’ to the security concerns of women and other politically marginalised groups reveals ‘the inadequacies of institutionalised security approaches to meet [people's] holistic security needs’ and thus strengthens political demands for social transformation (Hamber et al., 2006, p. 495; see also Krause and Jütersonke, 2005, p. 460).…”