About the Book

Why do so many women organize against militarism and war? And why, very often, do they choose to do so in women-only groups? This original study, the product of 80,000 miles of travel by the author over a two-year period, examines women‘s activism against wars as far apart as Sierra Leone, Colombia and India. It shows women on different sides of conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Israel refusing enmity, and co-operating for peace. It describes trans-national networks of women opposing US and Western European militarism and the so-called ‘war on terror‘.

Women are often motivated by adverse experiences in the male-led anti-war movements, preferring to choose different methods of protest and remain in control of their own actions. But like the mainstream movements, women‘s groups differ. They debate pacifism - must justice come before peace? They differ on nationalism, some condemning it as a cause of war, others seeing it as a legitimate source of identity. Yet despite women‘s many different perspectives on war a coherent feminism emerges from the movement, and it suggests a radical shift in our understanding of war, linking the violence of patriarchal power to that of class oppression and ethnic ‘othering‘.

Commendations

'Cynthia Cockburn is one of the most valuable and innovative thinkers/activists/writers helping us all to make sense of women's myriad forms of resistance to war and militarism. She shows how it is they who are crafting fresh thinking about how nationalism, masculinity, imperialism, racism, classicism and misogyny each and together fuel militarism and its deadly outcomes. This is a book to open our eyes and move us to action.' - Cynthia Enloe

'Cynthia Cockburn is one of the best gender researchers in the world. In this very important book she opens global perspectives on women's politics and the struggle for peace, linking activist experience with up-to-date gender analysis.' - Raewyn Connell, University of Sydney

"Vivid, comprehensive, and compelling… leaves the reader enlightened and enriched… a delight for the general reader… intimately detailed" - Gender and Development

Contents

Introduction 1. Different Wars, Different Responses: Colombia, Gujarat and Sierra Leone 2. Against Imperialist Wars: Three Transnational Networks 3. Refusing Enmity: In the Space Formerly Known as Yugoslavia 4. Refusing Enmity: In the Space Formerly Known as Palestine 5. Achievements and Contradictions: WILPF and the United Nations 6. Methodology of Women’s Protest 7. Diversity and Divergence: Pacifism, Nationalism, Racism 8.Choosing to be Women: What War Says to Feminism 9. Gender, Violence and War: What Feminism Says to War Studies

About the Author

Cynthia Cockburn, a feminist researcher and writer, is Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology at City University, London, and active in the international anti-militarist network Women in Black. Read Cynthia's weblog NOTOWAR www.cynthiacockburn.org

Academic Adoption Information

This book is used for teaching at the following institutions:

Queens University Belfast