Women, War, and Peace

The following discussion of readings for a course or unit concerned
with women, war, and peace took place on WMST-L shortly after the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on
September 11, 2001.  The discussion may have been prompted by a
discussion of how to deal with the events of Sept. 11 in a Women's
Studies class.  One title from a later discussion has been added at
the end.  See also an earlier WMST-L discussion entitled
Women and War: Suggested Readings. For additional files available on the
Web, see the WMST-L File Collection.

I want to add a section to my Introduction to Women's Studies on women, war
and peace.  I have many cites for violence and human rights violations
against women and know the rather scant UN literature on women and war. I
would like recommendations on readings.  Also, does anyone know of a good
video on the subject (not Rosie the Riveter).

Diana Scully, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology/Director of Women's Studies
Virginia Commonwealth University
Box 843060
Richmond, VA 23284
dhscully    AT    vcu.edu  804-828-4041

Diana and anyone else-
Here are a few suggestions for an intro or lower division course in WS or
Political Science:

J. Ann Tickner's _Gendering World Politics_ 2001 Columbia U Press, but
chapter 2, "Gendered Dimensions of War, Peace, and Security"

And, I'd leaf through Joshua Goldstein's new book _War and Gender: How
Gender Shapes the War System_ 2001 Cambridge U Press to see if you find a
chapter useful. I just bought it but haven't had time to read it...

In _Approaches to Peace_ edited by David P. Barash 2000 Oxford U P, Betty
Reardon's chapter, "Sexism and the War System" is good too.

Anything by Cynthia Enloe.

Best-
Janni

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Janni Aragon
Department of Political Science
University of California Riverside
www.janniaragon.com

Gioseffi, Daniela, ed. *Women on War: Essential Voices for the Nuclear Age*.
New York: Touchstone, 1988. Essays and poetry. Mostly not academic (i.e., few
citations).

Griffin, Susan, *A Chorus of Stones: The Private Life of War*.  Not academic,
but marvelous prose, extremely powerful.

--Georgia NeSmith
Rochester, NY
gnesmith    AT    aol.com

I suggest "What women do during war time" edited by Meredeth Turshen.

Hello,

I teach a course on Women, War and the Military and there is a growing
literature to use. I think anything by Cynthia Enloe is great, especially
Bananas, Beaches and Bases. Ronit Lentin's edited book Gender and Catastrophe
has some excellent essays. Joni Seager's book of maps in Women in the World
Atlas has some entries relevant to militarism. They make excellent discussion
material.

Kathy Ferguson

there is also a a wonderful anthology called _Women and War_ edited by Turpin
and Lorentsen  dated from 1998 or 9 from NYU Press, this text combines voices
of women soldiers and women peace activists and includes both academic and
non-academic work.

peace,
Ilene

Ilene Feinman
Assist Professor Democratic Participation and US Cultures
California State University, Monterey Bay
Seaside, CA  93955

--On Monday, September 17, 2001 5:46 PM -0400 Diana Scully
<dscully    AT    mail1.vcu.edu> wrote:

> I want to add a section to my Introduction to Women's Studies on
> women, war and peace.  I have many cites for violence and human
> rights violations against women and know the rather scant UN
> literature on women and war. I would like recommendations on
> readings.  Also, does anyone know of a good video on the subject
> (not Rosie the Riveter).

In addition to the suggestions already made, there's a two-part file
in the WMST-L File Collection. entitled "Women and War: Suggested
Readings."  It offers LOTS of suggestions to similar queries that
appeared on the list in 1993 and 1994.  The URL:
http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/war_women1.html .  The entire File
Collection can be found at http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/wmsttoc.html .

(I guess I'll also use this message to signal that my earlier message
about my being away this week was written before my flight was
cancelled.  I'm staying put for the moment.)

    Joan

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Joan Korenman                  korenman    AT    GL.umbc.edu
U. of Md. Baltimore County     http://www.umbc.edu/cwit/
Baltimore, MD 21250  USA       http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/

The only person to have everything done by Friday is Robinson Crusoe
--------------------------------------------------------------------

hi

anything by cynthia enloe of course - also Jean Elstain's 'Women
and War' - but maybe better (if some of it a little hard going)
'Gendering War Talk' edited by M. Cooke and A. Wollacott
(Princeton, 1994) - I especially like the chapter by Carol Cohn
(Wars, wimps and women).

You might want to look at some of the chapters in a book I
co-edited with Jane Parpart  "The 'Man' Question in
International Relations" (1998, Westview).

on a video - I like to show them  G.I. Jane! - a bit 'Hollywood'
but great for showing confusions and contadictions surrounding
gender and war..

cheers

Marysia Zalewski

YES to the books mentioned in the past few days.  Cynthia Enloe and Jean
Bethke Elshtain are MUST READS on the topic!  

I am providing a few excellent titles on women and peace which emphasize
research about the peace aspect, which I haven't seen specifically
mentioned yet.  

Linda Tietjen
Auraria Library
Denver, Colorado


*******************
Some titles providing excellent scholarship on Women and Peace:

Harris, Adrienne, and Ynestra King, editors.  Rocking the Ship of State:
Toward a Feminist Peace Politics. Boulder, CO:  Westview Press, 1989.
301p.  bibliog. ref.  (Feminist Theory and Politics series).    ISBN:
0813307104.  
    This book's fourteen chapters provide a well-rounded overview of
issues involved in shaping a peace politics.  


Reardon, Betty.  Women and Peace: Feminist Visions of Global Security.
Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1993. 209 p. index. bibliog. (SUNY Series in
Global Conflict & Peace Education). ISBN: 0791413993; 0791414000pa.
    This book grew out of a study kit published by the United
Nations in 1989.    


Ruddick, Sara.  Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace.  Boston:
Beacon Press, 1989. 291 p. index. bibliog. notes.  ISBN: op;
0807014095pa.
    Sara Ruddick provides a thorough reexamination of the concept of
peace in this important work.  In her early chapters she creates a
philosophical framework for a theory and methodology of "peace
politics."  


Swerdlow, Amy. Women Strike for Peace:  Traditional Motherhood and
Radical Politics in the 1960s (Chicago:  University of Chicago Press,
1993).  


And one timely title which is decidedly not emphasizing peace but seems
relevant and timely:    

MacDonald, Eileen.  Shoot the Women First: Inside the Secret World of
Female Terrorists.  New York: Random House, 1991. 241 p. ISBN: op.

    One of the women terrorists profiled is Leila Khaled, a
Palestinian refugee, who almost single-handedly hijacked a commercial
airliner, evacuated the passengers, then blew up the plane (1970).

    Cynthia Enloe's prolific & thoughtful writings are extremely useful.
Her most recent book, _Maneuvers_, looks at the militarization of
women's lives in some astounding ways.  Because she has continuously
written on this topic, each successive book is more
sophisticated/comprehensive in its analysis.  I've taught successfully,
_Maneuvers_, and previously _Bananas, Beaches, and Bases_ and _The
Morning After_.  These were all upper division/master's level classes.
Depends on sophistication of students at your institution.  (I'm a
historian & there are a zillion history possibilities as well.)

    Lois Helmbold
    Coordinator, Women's Studies
    San Jose State U

For all interested in this subject there is a new book out from University
of Michigan Press called, WOMEN AND WAR by British photo-journalist, Jenny
Matthews.

Jenny gives voice to the silent majority of casualties through a series of
deeply moving--sometimes disturbing--photographs of human subjects in the
midst of war and conflict wherever they are found.

Twenty plus years of visual and written diaries tell of human struggle
around the world--in Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Burma, Chechyna,
Haiti, Guatemala, Sudan, and other such hotspots. Matthews documents women
and the roles they play--avoiding, coping, confronting, participating--as
well as the emotions they experience: anger, fear, despair, joy, hope,
terror.

She records the stories of the people she photographs, both visually and
with written diaries that underscore the immediacy of the images, drawing
connections between the different countries. Above all her book is a
celebration of the lives of women, and how their role as actual or
potential mothers changes their relationship to war.

More information on this can be found on the University of Michigan Press
website, www.press.umich.com

Also, you should know that ActionAID of Washington, DC is circulating an
exhibition of photographs from the book that is available.

Mary Bisbee-Beek
bisbeeb  AT  umich.edu