Introduction

The end of formal hostilities in any given conflict provides an opportunity to transform society in order to secure a stable peace. Such post-conflict transformation processes include negotiating the formal peace agreement as well as instituting legal and political reforms; security sector reforms; transitional justice mechanisms; reconciliation measures; and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR)1 programs. Unpacking what actually happens in the post-conflict transformation processes that emerge after the formal hostilities end demonstrates that war and peace impact, and are impacted by, women and men differently. Decisions to go to war are, historically, mostly made by men. And traditionally men are the warriors, the ones who fight wars. Yet women are not immune from war’s effects. On the whole, women are expected to remain in the private sphere of the home (although women are also combatants and supporters of wars), often experiencing war in the form of increased domestic violence, as refugees, as new heads of households, and as victims of gender-based sexual violence. In essence, there is an expectation that men are the protectors and women are the protected. Importantly, feminist international relations (IR) provides us with the tools to examine and assess how and in what ways war and peace are gendered. Feminist gender analysis considers gender relations and gender hierarchies, in which men and masculinity are dominant and women and femininity are subordinate.2 Such a gender analysis informs our understanding of how the post-conflict transformation process is highly gendered.