Determinants of Women's Support for Political Conflict in Latin America

University Of Kansas Center For Research Inc, Lawrence KS

Investigators

Abstract

SES-0242269 Lorraine Bayard de Volo University of Kansas This project examines the role of gendered discourse in the mobilization of women in Latin American wars of the last half-century. Historically and across many cultures men have been the most likely participants in wars of all kinds (e.g., civil, guerrilla, international) and other large-scale civil and international conflicts. Research findings document a fairly consistent "gender gap" in support for war, with men much more likely to support and participate in war than women. Researchers note that official and informal appeals for male participants in wars tend to focus on masculinist values such as honor, patriotism, virility, and defense of home and territory. This project examines the other side of the gender coin: what are the conditions under which women will support and participate in wars? This study examines variations in women's support of state-sponsored and/or guerrilla wars in four Latin American countries (Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Nicaragua) chosen for variations in the engagement and support of women in conflicts and focuses on the kinds of appeals and arguments made by governments, guerrilla organizations, and mobilized women's groups to garner women's support and participation in war as well as several other national-level factors: feminism (national and transnational); regime type (mobilizing, exclusionary, or repressive regime); and war type (internal vs. external war; "manpower" needs of the military). Archival, interview, and field data will be used to address the following questions. How are women mobilized for and against war? What explains changes over time in the methods and mobilization frames? Why do gender imagery and attempts to mobilize women figure more prominently in some wars than others? How might we explain discursive changes such as that of the shift in guerrilla rhetoric from Che Guevara's "New Man" to the Zapatistas' feminist-friendly rhetoric?