Gender in Conflict and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: An Ethnographic Study of Northern Uganda

Introduction

In 1995, the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action formally established the undertaking of the integration of gender perspectives in matters of international peace and security. The indispensable role of fostering gender equality was broadly recognised by governments and international organisations and further integrated in several national and international declarations and humanitarian responses.

Specifically, the UNSCR 1820 and 1325 recognised the importance of women’s participation in conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding, and enhanced the understanding of gender roles in conflict and post-conflict peacebuilding. However, the involvement and contribution of women in war and peace have been predominantly downplayed.

While men participate in war and suffer casualties, disappear or take refuge, it is the women who take the onus of safeguarding family and livelihood. Such circumstances challenge their pragmatic ability to cope with adversities to ensure the well-being and safety of their families and communities. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that women are a driving force for peacebuilding and reconciliation as their gender roles and social norms are varied and profoundly impacted by the experience of war.

Understanding Gendered War

Men and women presume different roles and responsibilities wherein war is masculinised and peace is feminised. These perspectives confront the binary perception about what is interpreted as ‘feminine values’ versus ‘masculine values’. Conversely, such misconceptions stigmatise women by portraying them as ‘powerless victims’.

Women are essentially categorised as vulnerable and passive victims in both war and post-war context. This depiction of women reinforces traditional gender roles and stereotypes that normalise and perpetuate the cycle of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) . Further, the representation of vulnerability ‘systematically sidelines’ women in peacebuilding processes and transitional justice. Simultaneously, it also neglects women’s agency and disregards the continuum of violence inflicted on them.

For instance, in Haiti, WFP implemented a ‘women only’ food distribution and excluded men from the process whilst stationing peacekeepers around the perimeters. Consequently, women were looted and forced to engage in sexual activities in return for food. Moreover, in UN reports, women are usually ‘associated’ with fighting forces as non-combatant status instead of being actively involved in armed conflicts as combatants. The UN reports also explicitly label women as vulnerable groups and associate them with children, thus reducing their roles to caregivers. The inability to understand gender inequalities reinforces stereotypes and biases, allowing gender hierarchy to prevail during post-conflict reconstruction.

Gender Roles in Conflict-Affected Northern Uganda

The article examines the ethnographic research findings from the Gender Roles, Equality and Transformation (GREAT) Project initiated in two formerly conflict-affected districts of Northern Uganda. The study attempts to understand gender norms, experiences and attitudes from a social constructionist perspective, where sex is viewed as a biological construct and gender is viewed as a cultural manifestation. The study shows how these shared gender norms and expectations about appropriate behaviour, roles and characteristics are internalised within a community.

Interviews revealed that boys and girls are raised differently according to their expected roles. On one hand, girls are expected to stay at home to do household chores and not play games. On the other hand, boys received greater freedom to enjoy their leisure time by playing outside or attending school. Even after marriage, young women are expected to maintain a certain level of domestic household responsibility and observe obedience and submissiveness towards their husbands, and also produce a child within the first year of marriage.

The post-conflict reconstruction had a significant impact on gender roles and division of labour within the community, where women took up non-traditional roles to generate income for the household by joining their husbands in the field. As social institutions are restored and men return home, the opportunities for women diminish and patriarchy begins to fundamentally resurface. The violence stemming from confusion in gender roles, post cessation of hostilities, exacerbates domestic violence and discriminates against women  seeking job opportunities.

In times of war, women are subjected to SGBV by soldiers and rebel groups, and are left unprotected by their fathers, husbands and sons. The destabilisation of gender relations due to war prevents men from fulfilling their expected role as the protector. Transactional and survival sex between women and girls by the soldiers and rebels put a strain on marital and familial relationships, encouraging men to resort to alcohol to suppress the frustration of their inability to protect their families. Most importantly, women survivors of SGBV face social stigma and rejection in their families and communities.

Furthermore, reproductive health deteriorates and access to sanitary supplies for menstruation is scarce or non-existent. This forces women to stay confined at homes and prevents young girls from attending school. Pregnant women are denied access to basic medical care and have to deliver under dire circumstances. Subsequently, the lack of contraception results in haphazard family planning at the time when it is needed the most; this also increases the risk of contracting STDs through forced or voluntary sexual intercourse.

Integrating a Gender-Sensitive Approach 

Post-conflict reconstruction ignores the need for gender transformation. Despite several studies proving women’s varied and distinct experiences during conflict, reconstruction processes and policy formation persistently view women as victims of violence and focus on gender-neutral policies. Myopic views of abuse and gendered occurrences tend to blur other kinds of violence that are perpetrated during and after war, therefore undermining the value of silence and the impact of stigma and social ostracisation.

Women narratives are valuable as they highlight the failure of inclusion of their role with respect to resilience, silence, bravery and their right to forget. Women should be active participants while working in peacebuilding efforts. To sustain peace in a post-conflict setting, international, national and local policy, law and regional actors should play an essential role in effectively addressing both structural and physical kinds of violence, taking into account culturally-sensitive and community-grounded ways.

It is also important to appropriately identify gender-based needs of men and women during humanitarian operations, so aid workers understand how the local population is coping with post-conflict effects. This helps in prioritising needs on the basis of most vulnerable and not women over men. It is common for humanitarian workers to confuse ‘gender’ with ‘women’. This is due to the assumption that women and men experience war the same way and that aid delivery should not make any difference between genders.

Employing gender-sensitive approaches to post-conflict reconstruction and transformative justice helps in eliminating gender differences and establishing micro-level reconstruction needs. The deconstruction of gender typically rejects the stereotypical perceptions of war and peace by exposing misconceptions regarding masculinised war and feminised peace. It also fosters a nuanced understanding of women’s role in conflict and post-conflict reconstruction, and men coping with the same. Therefore, it is imperative to be aware of the intricacies of gender inequality during post-conflict reconstruction and make an effort to adopt gender-sensitive frameworks to overcome structural and social obstacles that inhibit women from asserting their rights and agency.