Gender Biases and Armed Conflict: Assessing the Reintegration Experience of Women from the LRA

Women are actively involved as combatants in many irregular armed forces. This runs counter to a common belief that when involved with an armed group, women are limited to traditional gender roles such as cooking, cleaning, and being a wife. By opposing traditional gender assumptions during conflict, these women are often rejected or stigmatized by their community following their return from the force – indicating that they have failed in their reintegration post conflict. This represents the case for women who have returned from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda. In seeking to explain this outcome for ex-LRA women in comparison to women who did not serve in the LRA, and to men who returned from the force as well, this thesis raises the question: why are women who are returning from the LRA unsuccessful in their reintegration?

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Strategic Studies (MSS)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Military and Strategic Studies

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Pavelich, Kimberly

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Policzer, Pablo
• Gregorian, Hrach

• African
• Military Studies
• Women's Studies

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/26261

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:11023/426