Women as agents of ethnic reconciliation? women's ngos and international intervention in postwar bosnia–herzegovina

Gender Politics and Security Discourse

“…62 While in Serbia, I was never "out" of the research zone and as such, my "findings" are mediated through the social context in which I experienced in a particular temporal-spatial moment. 63 Forming a text from which the personal-political imaginations of activists could be interpreted relies upon different layers and conjunctions of comprehension.…”

“…Elissa Helms suggests that the desperate need of many NGOs in the region for international financial assistance mean that, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the donor-orientated language of women's NGOs is infused with essentialist assumptions about female caring roles in society: multiethnicity, tolerance, reconciliation and refugee return. 62 The political climate of postwar Bosnia means that deploying these essentialisms then becomes a valid strategy allowing 'women to gain moral authority and real, though indirect, power with which to achieve their often very political goals'.63 Aida Bagic examines how feminist activists across former Yugoslavia view impacts of international assistance: highlighting the perception that international donor organisations occasionally have preconceived assumptions about female experiences and needs in the region, affecting the agenda which donors wish to achieve. 64 'Resolution 1325 is one of our subjects, one in many.…”

What About the Women? Transitional Justice and Gender in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Northern Ireland

“…Notions of women as "peacemakers" outside the formal political setting risk falling into essentialist stereotypes of male and female roles in the post-con fl ict society, but it has also been observed that politics is regarded as male and corrupt and women's activism in informal settings serves to maintain moral authority (Helms 2003 ) .…”

Enrolling ordinary people: governmental strategies and the avoidance of politics?

“…The gendering of politics, however, produced possibilities of representing women as more closely identified with the social, moral and humanitarian dimensions of social life and need (by comparison with the more abstracted or distant world of politics). Women, too, were seen as more likely to promote common interest and build alliances (including across ethnic boundaries) than male politicians (see also Helms 2003). Women, then, sometimes hold a contingently privileged position when the 'ordinariness' of ordinary people becomes an issue.…”