Gendered Roles and Behaviors

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Gendered roles and behaviours in peacetime bare greater flexibility, however, through times of war more traditionalist conventions such as men serving as the protector and women as the caretakers are further reinforced. This essay will firstly discuss the difference between sex and gender. Secondly, it will explore these roles and behaviours during peacetime, as under more relaxed and peaceful circumstances, defined barriers of social norms and conventions apparent in wartime, are not as clear. It will then contrast feminine and masculine roles during wartime with a focus on the Bosnian War. Using the Bosnian War, this essay will exemplify that when a state is threatened by another state, a government will seek to take control of its citizens, influencing and reinforcing these wartime gender roles and behaviours (Mostov 1995). Consequently, this essay will discuss how a males perceived role in war is transformed, for example, how they feel the pressure to appear overtly masculine through supressing the opposition. This is in contrast to a woman’s role in battle, for example, the Bosnian government encouraging women to being the caretakers, having children to serve for the nation. Through the example of the Bosnian War, this essay will examine how a gender crisis emerges as the men feel emasculated as they don’t fulfil their gender roles (Bracewell 2000 pg 577). The men feel threatened by the women, as they are not full filling their duty of protecting not only the nation, but their wives from the enemy. Gender crisis will be explored through the example of the Bosnian war and how the men moved to reassert their power through rape. Rape was an attempt by the men to strengthen their masculinity and power and to humiliate the enemy t...

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...tistical Overview of Women in the Workplace. New York: Catalyst, March 3, 2014. http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/statistical-overview-women-workplace#footnote6_1l423ku War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa Author: Joshua S. Goldstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, New York, 2003. [Paperback] Published in 2003
Reviewed by: Gazala Paul, Managing Trustee, Samerth Trust (Working for Peace and Reconciliation), Gujarat, India

1. William Broyles Jr., "Why Men Love War," (1-10) Esquire, November 1984
2. Barbara Ehrenreich, “Men Hate War Too,” (118-122)

Special Topic:Gender Roles in Wartime and Peacetime
1840:485/585:802
Spring Semester 2008
Paula Maggio
Assistant Lecturer
Women’s Studies Program
The University of Akron
Akron, Ohio

Source: K. Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1977

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