ekgade
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| | Gender and Humanitarian Evacuation: Who is evacuat (22nd Jun 09 at 8:38am UTC) | | Western conceptions of gender and gender norms have an under-recognized but significant impact on policies targeting complex emergencies, particularly humanitarian evacuation. These norms are implicit in discussions of which groups are considered 'vulnerable,' 'innocent', or 'worthy of saving.'
Gender affects the types of policies negotiated at the UN or within NGOs, as well as affecting the context in which such policies are discussed. Western gender norms are ubiquitous, and yet few policy makers care to examine or acknowledge the drastic impacts that the gendered cultural lens has on humanitarian evacuation policy in conflict zones. When these issues are examined, it is typically with a feminine slant: i.e., women are uniquely vulnerable and need greater protection.
Men are viewed as more likely to be combatants; thus civilian men are often unprotected by regimens designed to evacuate those who are 'most vulnerable'. Women, on the other hand, are inherently tied viewed as necessary to protect children (Carpenter 2006, Tickner 2001). This places women, perpetually, in a limiting framework in which they need to be saved, with extensive social impacts following the conclusion of the conflict.
Gender constructions inherent in evacuation policy have repercussions for those 'saved' as well as for those left behind.
Not only does this belief in inherent vulnerability disempower women but it also ignores the vulnerability of adult civilian men. R. Charli Carpenter states that the obfuscation of adult civilian male vulnerability in conflict and evacuation polices (resulting from gender constructions) has allowed the massacre of civilian men in conflicts around the world. This has occurred because men are a) viewed as potentially dangerous by combatants, and b) they are not considered vulnerable by international organizations and are thus not protected or evacuated (2006).
Acknowledgment and deconstruction of gender norms is required to achieving equitable and effective evacuation policy in future conflicts - but is it enough? What do you think our evacuation policy should be based on?
Works Cited:
Carpenter, R. Charli. 2006. Innocent women and children: gender, norms, and the protection of civilians. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Tickner, J. Ann. 2001. Gendering world politics. New York: Columbia University Press. | |
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