WOMEN IN ERITREA: WAR, POLITICS AND SOCIETY

Narratives depicting women in war prominently represent women as vulnerable victims and rarely is female empowerment during war and post-war period brought to the fore. This thesis sheds light on how female empowerment is created in wartime and advocated in the post-war period. A common consensus among scholars is that women gain empowerment during times of war. According to scholars, the empowerment gained during war is lost in its aftermath. This thesis discusses female empowerment in Eritrea during the Eritrean War of Independence (1961-1991), and its effects on post-war Eritrean society. To answer the research question “How has female participation in the Eritrean War of Independence influenced the role of women in post-conflict Eritrean society?” this paper examines both quantitative and qualitative data to further the understanding of how concepts of patriarchy, social convention and empowerment paint a picture of Eritrean women’s lived reality. This paper argues that the...Show moreNarratives depicting women in war prominently represent women as vulnerable victims and rarely is female empowerment during war and post-war period brought to the fore. This thesis sheds light on how female empowerment is created in wartime and advocated in the post-war period. A common consensus among scholars is that women gain empowerment during times of war. According to scholars, the empowerment gained during war is lost in its aftermath. This thesis discusses female empowerment in Eritrea during the Eritrean War of Independence (1961-1991), and its effects on post-war Eritrean society. To answer the research question “How has female participation in the Eritrean War of Independence influenced the role of women in post-conflict Eritrean society?” this paper examines both quantitative and qualitative data to further the understanding of how concepts of patriarchy, social convention and empowerment paint a picture of Eritrean women’s lived reality. This paper argues that the ideology of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) failed to address women’s needs by erasing the feminine and repressing the domestic. The main struggle recognized in the research is the suppression of progressive self-confident former female fighters by the patriarchal beliefs of their families. While gender equality in the EPLF progressed over the course of the war, civil society was in a “frozen” state of emergency. Hence, when the war ended, civil society proceeded to revert to the traditional gender roles from the pre-war period.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

WOMEN IN ERITREA: WAR, POLITICS AND SOCIETY