Malika, Mirja, Tianxue and Bari
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Warfare isn’t just about men on the front lines. Women have always played important roles in conflicts, but the way they are impacted sometimes get overlooked.We explore some examples of how women’s experience of war is different from men’s.
The story of the innocent victim
Images and narratives from the ongoing war in Palestine and Ukraine often depict women as the helpless casualties of war, their suffering evoking sympathy and compassion. These portrayals often emphasize the vulnerability of women in conflict zones, highlighting the tragic consequences of violence.
While the story is true, it often has a focus on victimization that can sometimes overshadow and even neglect the agency and resilience of women. Further, the narrative as civilian victims of foreign aggressors fails to include other ways in which women suffer from conflicts.
Location: Gaza, Palestine
Feminist scholars, such as Nancy Huston, contend that the realms of war and politics have historically excluded feminine values. To justify wars, a hero figure is needed, and traditionally, women have been portrayed as victims – fragile and innocent beings in need of protection. When women challenge this narrative, as the famous French commander Joan of Arc did, it often results in misogyny and violence. Joan of Arc, who led French troops to victories in the 15th century. Despite her military success, she was condemned for witchcraft and burned at the stake. Her alleged crime? Wearing men’s clothing during battle.
The concept of women participating in war on equal footing with men has been met with resistance, as it undermines the traditional narrative used to justify conflicts. Feminist thinker Jean Elshtain highlighted this narrative, which glorifies warriors sacrificing everything to safeguard innocent women and children from enemy threats.
Women are equated with the cause men fight for the life back home than men fight for and are mistakenly seen as pacifists due to their innocence. Additionally, war stories emphasize women’s role in motherhood, as nurturers who bear and rear children on the home front. To some extent, these structures are still in place today.
Sexual violence during the war
If women are not depicted as the innocent mother, they often appear as mistresses and exotic love interests for the soldiers in battle. Or as conquests belonging to aggressors on their way through invasion.
From 1932 to 1945, military brothels, or “comfort stations” operated in Japanese-occupied areas of East and Southeast Asia. The girls who were there were called “comfort women.” They were forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers and, due to mistreatment, only a quarter of the “comfort women” survived to the end of the war.
“Comfort stations” became a common practice — there were 400 such establishments in 1942. Historians estimate that between 50 and 200 thousand women suffered from sexual exploitation in such military brothels. According to research by professors at Vassar College and Shanghai Normal University, “comfort women” were raped by 5 to 60 soldiers a day.
Of all the “comfort women,” about a quarter remained alive by the end of the war. Women died due to abuse and committed suicide. Korean Kim Bokdong was taken to the station when she was 14. She was promised a job in a factory, but instead was sent to a military brothel. Kim and two other girls wanted to kill themselves by drinking a lot of alcohol.
In January 2021, a South Korean court after a long process ordered the Japanese government to pay twelve living “comfort women” 100 million won. In Japan, this decision was called unacceptable. The issue of compensation for “comfort women” is still not closed.
The hard way out of war
During the war, many refugee women were widowed or separated from their spouses and other family members. In their displacement, they become the sole janitors of their children, seeking not only food, security and shelter for themselves and their children, but also health care and education for their children.
Even when fleeing with male family members, women risk their lives by going out to collect water and firewood. For example, as men are often targeted as potential combatants, women’s needs and concerns are seldom taken into account in the layout and processes of refugee camps. Refugee women are unaware of their rights and struggle to make ends meet, putting themselves at risk.
Since February 24, 2022, when Russia launched an all-out war against Ukraine, the United Nations has confirmed that more than 2,000 Ukrainian women have lost their lives in attacks, and that women account for nearly 40% of adult civilian casualties whose gender is known. Of the 7.9 million people still displaced by the war in Ukraine, at least 90% are women, while women and children also make up about 90 percent of the more than 8 million refugees who have been uprooted from their homes.（Source: United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission to Ukraine）
According to German media on March 12, 2022, a 55-year-old man in Germany specifically targeted young women from Ukraine, promising to drive them to the city of Hamburg, where he has a police record for sexual assault. Two other men, aged 29 and 21, were interested in picking up women who were alone or with children, and two men, aged 50 and 53, offered money to female refugees if the latter would go home with them. This means that women who have just fled the war and are displaced are again at risk of being targeted by traffickers. They can’t even live normal lives.
Revealing gender structures
War profoundly impacts women beyond the victimhood displayed in the news. Throughout history, women have played significant yet often overlooked roles, and suffered in a plethora of different ways, in conflicts worldwide.
Gendered structures are revealed in war times in many different ways. Narratives often depict women solely as helpless casualties, neglecting their agency and resilience in navigating war’s challenges.
Women also face gender violence and sexual exploitation, seen in atrocities like those endured by “comfort women” during World War II.
Looking closer at women’s diverse roles in warfare deepens our understanding of war’s complexities and can tell other stories than the binary one we so often hear.
