Responding to sexual violence: Women’s mobilization in war
| Author | Anne-Kathrin Kreft |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022343318800361 |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Research Articles |
Responding to sexual violence: Women’s
mobilization in war
Anne-Kathrin Kreft
University of Gothenburg
Abstract
Gender scholars show that women in situations of civil war have an impressive record of agency in the social and
political spheres. Civilian women’s political mobilization during conflict includes active involvement in civil society
organizations, such as nongovernmental organizations or social movements, and public articulation of grievances – in
political protest, for example. Existing explanations of women’s political mobilization during conflict emphasize the
role of demographic imbalances opening up spaces for women. This article proposes a complementary driving factor:
women mobilize politically in response to the collective threat that conflict-related sexual violence constitutes to
women as a group. Coming to understand sexual violence as a violent manifestation of a patriarchal culture and
gender inequalities, women mobilize in response to this violence and around a broader range of women’s issues with
the goal of transforming sociopolitical conditions. A case study of Colombia drawing on qualitative interviews
illustrates the causal mechanism of collective threat framing in women’s collective mobilization around conflict-
related sexual violence. Cross-national statistical analyses lend support to the macro-level implications of the theo-
retical framework and reveal a positive association between high prevalence of conflict-related rape on the one hand
and women’s protest activity and linkages to international women’s nongovernmental organizations on the other.
Keywords
civil war, gender, political mobilization, sexual violence
Introduction
Inherent in civil wars is the potential for social and polit-
ical change, including the transformation of gender roles
(Wood, 2008). In diverse settings, women have
expanded their social, economic, and political participa-
tion, and actively engaged for peace (Meintjes, Turshen
& Pillay, 2001; Mazurana, Raven-Roberts & Parpart,
2005; Buvinic et al., 2013; Berry, 2015; Tripp,
2015).
1
Women’s mobilization in civil society organiza-
tions – often transcending conflict lines and eventually
extending to formal politics – has occurred on massive
scales in different wars (Berry, 2015; Tripp, 2015;
Anderson, 2016). What are the drivers of women’s polit-
ical mobilization during civil conflict? Previous research
has persuasively shown how demographic imbalances
caused by male-dominated fighting create demand and
opportunities for women to assume new roles in society
(Berry, 2015; Tripp, 2015). By contrast, women’s mobi-
lization in response to conflict-related violence that tar-
gets them specifically is under-researched.
As sexual violence is an attack on the bodies and
sexuality of women and is commonly infused with gen-
dered power relations, it is arguably the most gendered
type of violence. As such, sexual violence not only poses a
threat to women’s security and rights, but also evokes a
sense of collective identity and threat against women as
a group. Guided by theories emphasizing the mobilizing
potential of threat (Tilly, 1978; Berry, 2015), I theorize
that women mobilize in response to the collective threat
that sexual violence poses to them as women. Coming to
Corresponding author:
anne-kathrin.kreft@gu.se
1
This article examines civilian women’s political mobilization during
conflict. Women’s part icipation in combat (e.g. H enshaw, 2015;
Shekhawat, 2015) is beyond its scope.
Journal of Peace Research
2019, Vol. 56(2) 220–233
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343318800361
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