War Women and Power: From Violence to Mobilization in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina

Rwanda and Bosnia both experienced mass violence in the early 1990s. Less than ten years later Rwandans surprisingly elected the worlds highest level of women to parliament. In Bosnia women launched thousands of community organizations that became spaces for informal political participation. The political mobilization of women in both countries complicates the popular image of women as merely the victims and spoils of war. Through a close examination of these cases Marie E. Berry unpacks the puzzling relationship between war and womens political mobilization. Drawing from over 260 interviews with women in both countries she argues that war can reconfigure gendered power relations by precipitating demographic economic and cultural shifts. In the aftermath however many of the gains women made were set back. This book offers an entirely new view of women and war and includes concrete suggestions for policy makers development organizations and activists supporting womens rights.