Gender, power, and peace: A preliminary look at women in the northern Ireland assembly
Gender, power, and peace: A preliminary look at women in the northern Ireland assembly
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性别、权力与和平：北爱尔兰议会中妇女的初步观察
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发表时间：
2001
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通讯作者：
Kimberly B. Cowell
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作者：
Kimberly B. Cowell
这项研究的重点是妇女立法者如何能够影响和平建设在过渡社会中的作用，审查立法议会（MLAs）的女性成员在北方爱尔兰。使用12个14名妇女的MLAs和6名男性配对的访谈，本研究评估了妇女的政治态度，他们的看法，他们的角色，以及他们所面临的体制挑战，作为一个强大的传统社会中的妇女代表。根据妇女和男子的看法，向和平过渡的大部分责任似乎取决于政治的女性化和女性工作重点本身。然而，妇女在议会中并没有构成足够的数量，她们因社区、阶级和对妇女组织的可行性的态度而严重分裂，这将影响她们相互合作的能力。[文章副本可从哈沃斯文件传递服务收费：1-800-HAWORTH。电子邮件地址：<getinfo@haworthpressinc.com>网址：<http://www.HaworthPress。© 2001由Haworth Press，Inc.出版。版权所有© 2016在世界许多地方，人们把和平与稳定的希望寄托在妇女的参与、领导和对和平的贡献上。“我们西方人继承了一种传统，这种传统认为妇女与和平、男子与战争之间有着密切关系，这种传统由文化构建和传播的神话和记忆组成”（Elshtain，1987年，第4页）。《妇女与政治》，第23卷（3），2001年至2001年，霍沃思出版社。All rights reserved. [57]在这一范式中，妇女通过她们在私人领域作为家庭和平的培育者和播种者的普通角色，以及通过她们作为和平活动家的公共和偶发角色，将拯救人类（Boulding 1977; Ruddick 1989）。然而，妇女在和平与战争之间是否起作用还不清楚。妇女不是一个单一的实体，不是一个具有基本特征的同质类别。女性和女性气质是社会建构的概念，每一个概念都位于时间，空间，文化，阶级，种族和民族。正如Elshtain（1987）所解释的那样，历史可以追溯到许多妇女扮演暴力角色的例子，如抵抗战士，游击队员，恐怖分子，母亲作为侵略者，妇女作为战士。世界各地的妇女“接受她们在父权社会中的角色，也以许多方式支持战争。. .他们把儿子培养成战士，把女儿培养成荣誉，并教导他们支持发动战争的国家”（Reardon，1993，107）。为了避免将性别与战争/和平的关系过于简单化，我的立场是，政治过渡和建设和平的进程与国家建设的进程一样，为男子和妇女提供了不同的机会。在国家建设中，妇女和男子可能被要求在建设国家、保卫国家和维护国家特性方面发挥不同的作用（Kandiyoti，1991年; Sharoni，1995年; Yuval-Davis，1994年; Yuval-Davis和Anthias，1989年）。在发挥这些作用的过程中，“想象”社区的努力构建了性别身份，而性别身份反过来又塑造了男子和妇女影响国家建设的未来机会。许多关于妇女对民族主义政治、冲突解决与和解政治以及政治过渡的贡献的文献都集中在基层运动中的妇女身上（参见，例如，Cockburn 1998; Reardon 1993）。这篇文章的重点是妇女在正式政治中的作用，妇女作为立法者在建设和平和政治过渡的背景下。当选的妇女能带来什么不同？这些妇女的工作是否有助于和平？北方爱尔兰的新议会提供了一个极好的机会，在议会开始形成时审议妇女、和平与决策进程之间的关系。作为一项突破性的多边协议的产物，108名议员中有14名妇女（12%）。2这是研究北方爱尔兰立法机构的有利时机，因为我们可以观察到界定和重新界定性别角色的过程以及58名妇女与政治
This study focuses on how women legislators can affect peace-building in transitional societies by examining the role of female Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in Northern Ireland. Using interviews with 12 of the 14 women MLAs and 6 male pairmatches, this study assesses the women’s approach to politics, their perceptions of their roles, and the institutional challenges they face as representatives of women in a strongly traditional society. According to the perceptions of the women and men, much of the responsibility for the transition to peace appears to rest on the feminization of politics and on the female MLAs themselves. Yet, women do not constitute a critical mass in the Assembly and they are deeply divided by community, class, and attitudes about the viability of women’s organization that will shape their ability to cooperate with one another. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <getinfo@haworthpressinc.com> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress. com> © 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.] In many parts of the world, people pin their hopes for peace and stability on the participation, leadership, and contributions of women waging peace.1 Women are considered to be the gentler sex; as mothers they are presumed to be more peaceful and more compassionate. “We in the West are heirs to a tradition that assumes an affinity between women and peace, between men and war, a tradition that consists of culturally constructed and transmitted myths and memories” (Elshtain 1987, 4). Women & Politics, Vol. 23(3) 2001 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 57 In this paradigm, it is women, through their ordinary roles in the private sphere as nurturers and sowers of domestic peace and through their public and episodic roles as peace activists, who will rescue humanity (Boulding 1977; Ruddick 1989). Yet, it is not clear that women make the difference between peace and war. Women are not a singular entity, a homogenous category of essential characteristics. Womanhood and femininity are socially constructed notions, and each notion is located in time, space, culture, class, race, and nation. As Elshtain (1987) explains, history can trace many examples of women playing violent roles, as resistance fighters, guerrillas, terrorists, mothers as aggressors, women as warriors. Women “in all parts of the world, accepting their role in patriarchal society, have also given support to war in many ways . . . they have raised their sons to be warriors and their daughters to honor the warriors and taught both to support the states that wage war” (Reardon 1993, 107). To avoid oversimplifying the relations of gender and war/peace, I take the position that the processes of political transition and peace-building present different opportunities to men and women as much as do the processes of nation-building. In nation-building, women and men may be asked to play different roles in the construction of the nation, in the defense of the state, and in the maintenance of the nation’s character (Kandiyoti 1991; Sharoni 1995; Yuval-Davis 1994; Yuval-Davis and Anthias 1989). In the course of performing these roles, the struggle to “imagine” the community constructs gendered identities, which in turn shape future opportunities for men and women to influence nationbuilding. Much of the literature on the contribution of women to the politics of nationalism, the politics of conflict resolution and reconciliation, and to political transitions centers on women in grassroots movements (see, for example, Cockburn 1998; Reardon 1993). This article focuses instead on the role of women in formal politics, on women as legislators in the context of peace-building and political transition. What difference can elected women make? Will the work of these women contribute to peace? The new Assembly in Northern Ireland provides an excellent opportunity to consider the relationship between women, peace, and the policy-making process as the Assembly begins to take shape. Created in 1998 as a product of a ground-breaking multilateral agreement, the 108 member Assembly includes 14 women (12%).2 This is a propitious time to study the Northern Ireland legislature because we can observe the process of defining and redefining gender roles and the 58 WOMEN & POLITICS