Invisible Women: Understanding Female Involvement in Contemporary Political and Revolutionary Conflict
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Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Kebbell, Mark
Other Supervisors
Porter, Louise
Year published
2015
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The dominant narrative of female involvement in political and revolutionary conflict is that of victimhood. This script has framed both the research and policy paradigms of female involvement in conflict. Hence, women’s participation has typically been perceived as minor or unimportant with highly visible instances (e.g. suicide bombers or belligerents) viewed as isolated and abnormal deviations. Furthermore, female involvement is typically attributed to personal and emotional factors – political/ideological commitment or factors beyond the individual are seldom considered. In this way, female agency, responsibility, and ...
View more >The dominant narrative of female involvement in political and revolutionary conflict is that of victimhood. This script has framed both the research and policy paradigms of female involvement in conflict. Hence, women’s participation has typically been perceived as minor or unimportant with highly visible instances (e.g. suicide bombers or belligerents) viewed as isolated and abnormal deviations. Furthermore, female involvement is typically attributed to personal and emotional factors – political/ideological commitment or factors beyond the individual are seldom considered. In this way, female agency, responsibility, and credibility as a belligerent or terrorist are consistently undermined. In practice this has meant that women are often prevented from engaging in post-conflict processes, particularly disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programs. In the research context, the predominant focus has been on the personal reasons for women’s violent operations, rather than on developing and refining theory. As such, no overarching theory of female involvement in political and revolutionary conflict existed. Methodologically, speculative and anecdotal approaches dominate in the absence of empirical research examining population level trends. Therefore, the purpose of this doctoral research was to empirically develop a theoretical framework of female involvement in contemporary political and revolutionary conflict that adequately accounted for the spectrum of female participation and the macro-level, meso-level, and micro-level factors that may influence their involvement. This project consisted of, first, developing the theoretical framework and, second, testing the framework. Three empirical quantitative studies utilising secondary data comprised the theory development stage.
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View more >The dominant narrative of female involvement in political and revolutionary conflict is that of victimhood. This script has framed both the research and policy paradigms of female involvement in conflict. Hence, women’s participation has typically been perceived as minor or unimportant with highly visible instances (e.g. suicide bombers or belligerents) viewed as isolated and abnormal deviations. Furthermore, female involvement is typically attributed to personal and emotional factors – political/ideological commitment or factors beyond the individual are seldom considered. In this way, female agency, responsibility, and credibility as a belligerent or terrorist are consistently undermined. In practice this has meant that women are often prevented from engaging in post-conflict processes, particularly disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programs. In the research context, the predominant focus has been on the personal reasons for women’s violent operations, rather than on developing and refining theory. As such, no overarching theory of female involvement in political and revolutionary conflict existed. Methodologically, speculative and anecdotal approaches dominate in the absence of empirical research examining population level trends. Therefore, the purpose of this doctoral research was to empirically develop a theoretical framework of female involvement in contemporary political and revolutionary conflict that adequately accounted for the spectrum of female participation and the macro-level, meso-level, and micro-level factors that may influence their involvement. This project consisted of, first, developing the theoretical framework and, second, testing the framework. Three empirical quantitative studies utilising secondary data comprised the theory development stage.
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Thesis Type
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Degree Program
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School
School of Applied Psychology
Copyright Statement
The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise.
Item Access Status
Public
Subject
Female agency
Female roles in post-conflict processes
Female roles in politics and revolution
Theoretical framework