Gender Dimension and Analysis of Peace and Conflict

Gender Analysis is essential to assess and understand the structure of context, relationships, and factors of a certain topic of interest. It describes what is observed in power relations.

Sex and gender are two different things. Sex refers to the differences in biological attributes of men and women. Gender is a social and cultural construct which is learned and changeable. This construct is identified as masculinity and femininity. Arising from this construct are the gender roles expected to masculine and feminine. These gender roles are shaped by ethnicity, generation, class, and religion.

The development of gender as a field of study could be traced from its political struggle. The first wave began in the French Revolution with its declaration of the rights of man (excluding woman). Then in the 20th century, the first feminist movement in England clamored for the right of women to vote. The second wave commenced in the establishment of United Nations in 1945. The civil rights movement in the US in the 60s was also part of this. The third wave took its root in the UN international conferences on women in Mexico (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), Vienna (1993), Beijing (1995) and other conferences and documents.

There are two differing positions in the interpretation of gender. The first one is the essentialist position. It basically views gender based on the stable and immutable qualities and underlying factors. For the essentialists, gender identity remains unchangeable. The second position is the constructionism. It views gender identity as a result of perceptions of gender rather than innate qualities.

Women are oftentimes projected as victims of conflict and violence, such as rape, domestic violence, and abduction. This may not always be so. Women can also be perpetrators and peace leaders.

Although there is now an opening up of spaces for women to participate in the public sphere, this remains limited. Representation in the public arena such as political and public domains does not guarantee an improvement in the plight of women.

If peace can not be achieved without the equal participation of men and women, then peace remains an elusive and utopian dream – almost unattainable. I think we should be careful in attaching peace to a very difficult endeavor because it will make peace a victim of our doing.

Conflict Analysis Model and Concepts

As a conflict analysis and assessment model, Dr. Amr Abdalla's C.R. SIPABIO highlights the importance of certain factors in understanding and formulating suitable interventions on conflict. These factors which include context, relationship, sources, issues, parties, attitudes/feelings, behaviors, intervention, and outcomes operate generally in conflict situations.

The contextual factors could be class, geography, history, ethnicity, media, gender, religion, and culture. The relationship factor is the level of conflict; for example, inter-personal, inter-group, and international. The sources of conflict could be relationship, value, structural, interest, and data conflicts. The issues pertain to the incompatibilities of goals. The parties are the participants of a conflict. The attitudes are the feelings, emotions, and perceptions of the participants. The behavior is the action of the parties to further their goals. The intervention is also an action of the parties or even a third party to find and reach resolution to the conflict. The outcome is the effect of the behavior or intervention.

Click here for an example of application of CR SIPABIO as a conflict analysis and assessment model.

The significance of these factors in conflict resolution is of utmost consideration. How noble and good the intentions and efforts might be of the parties attempting to resolve the conflict, they would not hold ground and water without taking into account these factors mentioned above. It clearly shows how crucial conflict analysis and assessment is to the desired conflict resolution.

There are some models presented in the other reading like the Galtung’s model which defines negative peace (absence of direct violence) and positive peace (addressing structural and cultural violence), and the hourglass model which uses Galtung’s ideas and the escalation and de-escalation phases of conflict . The different yet parallel stages of conflict (management, resolution and transformations) and peace (peacekeeping, peacemaking and peacebuilding) are mentioned in these two models.

These models as in other models of various disciplines are useful and helpful in the approach and making sense of a phenomenon. In this case, it is conflict. However, the models should not be treated as “be-all, end-all” tools. There is no blueprint for conflict resolution. This is shown in the vicious cycle of conflicts that seems to have ended through a peace agreement, but then with a trigger of provocation and unfortunate circumstances, the conflict goes on and on.

Needless to say, each conflict is as unique as fingerprints of a person. Caution, research and reflection are necessary as there are other necessary things to work towards conflict resolution. It takes more than models, skills, timing, resources, charisma, positive attitudes towards peace, but these are significant elements for conflict resolution.