The Experience Of Women In The IRA And UVF

The Broken Elbow hosts a chapter on the experience of activists in the IRA and UVF.

Thanks to Maria Vivod for sending me this academic study of women and political conflict, ‘Sexed Pistols – The gendered impacts of small arms and pistols’, which includes a fascinating chapter on women in the IRA and UVF/RHC. Although published in 2009 this account by Miranda Alison is still timely and relevant.

Enjoy:
Female-IRA-fighter-1970s-small



‘‘That’s equality for you, dear’’: Gender, small arms and the Northern Ireland conflict – Miranda Alison



The academic fields studying women, gender, armed conflict, small arms and light weapons are still relatively new. Thus far, research has tended to focus on women as victims of armed conflict, which is of course extremely important. There has been a corresponding emphasis on constructing women as somehow inherently or ‘‘naturally’’ more peaceful and peace loving and less violent than men, which has meant that the issue of women as the perpetrators of violence has been very much neglected.


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1 comment:

  1. this is a very good chapter, and i also recommend her other writings, in particular her book comparing sri lanka and the 6 counties: Alison, Miranda. Women and political violence: Female combatants in ethno-national conflict. Routledge, 2009.

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