Presentation: Gender and War

During the Gender and War presentation we split into groups and discussed certain topics relating to the articles we read for class. In my group, we discussed female suicide bombers. We tried to decide whether the fact that women were partaking in suicide bombing was or was not a gain for women in the particular culture being examined. Since women are taking on this job that was previously only performed by men, it would seem that women are becoming more equal to men; however, we felt that because women are still seen as victims in the situation of suicide bombing that it really is not a gain for them and does not make them more equal to men. Because this occurrence is still a phenomena, when it happens we do not attribute the wrong doing to the women but instead to others that somehow caused these women to do such a thing. If this were to become more common of women we believe that it would be more of an equalizer than it is currently.

Another topic that was explored in the presentation was rape as a weapon of war. Rape is such a terrible tactic that tears apart communities and leaves victims scarred with anxiety, stress, depression, and other detrimental effects. I was extremely appalled to learn that US female soldiers are frequently sexually assaulted and raped. What is even worse is that these women refrain from reporting these instances because they are afraid of losing their career. I would think that other women who want to join the military and know about this would be deterred from joining and I certainly don't blame them. It really is a shame that women have to fear their fellow soldiers possibly more than they fear the enemies.

The behavior of US soldiers committing rape and the women not reporting it is a bigger version of what occurs in every day life. Examples of this same behavior can be found all over the United States, even on the Juniata College campus. Women are too afraid to report what has happened to them because they feel like they are to fault. This is probably a result of women constantly being seen as inferior to men. When someone is superior to you, it is extremely difficult to tell them they did something wrong even when it is something small. In this case where the wrong doing is extreme, it would have to be even more difficult to admit.