Reconstructing Womanhood in Post-Conflict Rwanda

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

After reviewing women’s different roles in Rwanda during the genocide, this chapter provides a short history of their involvement in the post-conflict reconstruction process and their representation in government. A third section lays out some concerns about women’s situation in Rwanda, despite their exponential integration into the former structures of governance. It concludes by arguing that the only way to make sense of women’s increased representation in the social context of post-conflict Rwanda is to understand it as embedded in a discursive symbolic politics of gender, influenced not only by women’s roles as victims and as perpetrators in the genocide but also by traditional notions of gender. It presents a case that women’s increased presence in the Rwandan political arena can be seen not only as women reconstructing Rwanda, but also as Rwanda’s reconstructing its images of women and femininity.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWomen, War, and Violence
Subtitle of host publicationPersonal Perspectives and Global Activism
EditorsRobin M. Chandler, Linda K. Fuller, Lihua Wang
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherPalgrave
Chapter10
Pages171-186
Number of pages16
ISBN (Electronic)978-0-230-11197-4
ISBN (Print)978-0-230-10371-9, 978-1-349-28806-9
Publication statusPublished - 2010

Keywords

  • women
  • gender
  • post-conflict
  • war
  • genocide
  • reconstruction
  • feminist IR
  • Rwanda
  • feminist security studies

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