Gendered Experiences of Subsistence Harms

AuthorDiana Sankey
DOI10.1177/0964663914547719
Date01 March 2015
Published date01 March 2015
Subject MatterArticles
Article
Gendered Experiences
of Subsistence Harms:
A Possible Contribution
to Feminist Discourse
on Gendered Harm?
Diana Sankey
Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Abstract
The article aims to contribute to feminist critiques of the treatment of gendered harm in
international law, specifically in relation to socio-economic forms of violence. It focuses
on deprivations of subsistence needs, in the form of forced displacement and attacks on
homes, livelihoods and basic resources, as one particular type of gendered harm that has
remained marginalized in international law. Whilst existing feminist research provides
some significant insights into the gendered nature of socio-economic forms of violence,
there has yet to be systematic analysis and conceptualizations of such harm. The article
argues that the concept of subsistence harms, in foregrounding the interrelated physical,
mental and social harms of deprivations of subsistence needs, provides a way both of
contesting current concepts and framings of violence and of exploring gendered experi-
ences of forced displacement and attacks on homes, livelihoods and basic resources.
Whilst the concept only focuses on one particular type of harm, it could contribute
to feminist discourse on gendered harm in providing a framework and language with
which to analyse gendered experiences of these harms and therefore providing one way
of taking the current debate forward.
Keywords
Gendered harm, socio-economic violence, transitional justice
Corresponding author:
Diana Sankey, School of Law, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 5UG, UK.
Email: d.s.sankey@ljmu.ac.uk
Social & Legal Studies
2015, Vol. 24(1) 25–45
ªThe Author(s) 2014
Reprints and permission:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0964663914547719
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Introduction
Recent developments in international law have resulted in significantly greater attention
to issues of gendered harm. Not only have certain forms of gendered harm, such as sex-
ual violence, been recognized in international law, but there has also been UN Security
Council recognition of the particular impact of conflict on women.
1
In reflecting on these
developments, there has been considerable feminist debate regarding the extent and
impact of the recognition of gendered harms and the value of international legal pro-
cesses to women themselves (see Bell and O’Rourke, 2007; Henry, 2013). Feminist
scholarship has critiqued transitional justice processes for failing to capture the range
and plurality of harms experienced by women (Franke, 2006; Nı´ Aola´in and Turner,
2007; Nı´ Aola´in et al., 2011). In addition to a range of ‘private’ harms that have often
been silenced, feminist discourse has highlighted the impact of socio-economic violence
on women and the continued marginalization of such harms in transitional justice
(Franke, 2006; Nı´ Aola´in et al., 2011; Nı´ Aola´in and Turner, 2007). This article aims
to contribute to feminist research on gendered harm in international law, by providing
a conceptual framework for understanding and further exploring gendered experiences
of severe socio-economic forms of violence.
The article focuses on deprivations of subsistence needs, in the form of forced displa-
cement and attacks on homes, livelihoods and basic resources, as one particular type of
violence often marginalized in international law. Elsewhere, I have advocated the term
subsistence harms to name deprivations of subsistence needs as a discrete form of vio-
lence (Sankey, 2014). This article further explores the gendered nature of subsistence
harms and highlights the implications of the concept for feminist research. It responds
to Nı´ Aola´in’s (2012) call to feminist scholars to ‘address with more precision and imag-
ination the experiences of harms done to women, finding new ways to acknowledge fully
the complexity of harm for women in transitional contexts’, by providing the conceptual
framework of subsistence harms through which to further develop analyses of gendered
experiences of severe socio-economic harm.
Subsistence harms are defined as ‘deprivations of the physical, mental and social
needs of human subsistence, perpetrated against individuals or populations in armed con-
flict or as an act of political repression, where the perpetrator acts with intent or with
knowledge of the inevitable consequences of such deprivations’ (Sankey, 2014: 122).
Subsistence harms are often inherently gendered, both in the sense that women may
be disproportionately targeted and affected by such violence and in the different ways
men and women experience the harms, as a result of underlying gender inequalities and
roles.
The argument of this article is not that all women in situations of conflict or political
repression experience subsistence harms or that women (or men) who suffer from these
harms experience them in the same way. Rather, the argument is that subsistence harms
constitute a pervasive form of violence, which has particular gendered implications and
interrelates with other gendered harms. Subsistence harms are mediated through com-
plex gender roles and inequalities, which mean that women may, in certain contexts,
be disproportionately targeted and/or affected by such violence and that women and men
often experience such harms differently. Some studies have suggested that women and
26 Social & Legal Studies 24(1)

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