Gender and war:

a reflection based on the work of Joan Scott

Abstract

The relationship between gender and war constitutes a little deepened theme even by those who identify with political and epistemological positions that focus on the need to use a gender perspective to problematize the existing inequalities at all levels of social life. In this context, Joan Scott's thought provides a fundamental theoretical and methodological framework to understand the relevance of gender on the study of armed conflicts.

This paper will take some of Scott's main conceptual elements to reflect on four issues. First, the importance of thinking about armed conflicts from a gender perspective; second, the need to deconstruct traditional notions of masculinity and femininity; thirdly, the assessment of the increasing presence of women within the Armed Forces; and finally, the way in which the resource of violence can be seen as part of women's capacity for agency.