In The War Zone: How Does Gender Matter?
AP, German invasion of Belgium, May 1940

Throughout human history, war has been seen as a gendered activity, one that separates men and women into more sharply defined roles than almost any other undertaking.

 On November 3 and 4, 2005, twenty renowned experts from a variety of disciplines traveled from around the world to converge at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and participate in the conference “In the War Zone: How Does Gender Matter?” This group of historians, medical professionals, legal experts, journalists, soldiers, and nongovernmental organization representatives explored the core human activity of war making, drawing on their diverse personal and professional experiences and injecting a perspective on gender roles into the discussion.

This public event was the Radcliffe Institute’s fourth annual conference on women, gender, and society.

Welcome

Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Lincoln Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, opens the conference by asking the speakers and the audience to think about “men’s and women’s changing roles, about both the transformations and continuities in our gendered expectations, about the paradoxical way war reinforces gender categories and then undermines them, confronting men with their vulnerability and women with their strength.”

 
Military Socialization: Why Soldiers Fight
In the crimson heat of battle, how does a soldier continue to fight? What causes that individual who has acted with valor in one battle to falter in another? Is reason—or instinct, or camaraderie, or something else entirely—at the root of our inclination to war? Panelists debate these and other questions.

Home Front/Battle Front: The Gendered Geography of War
Throughout human history, the roles of women and men in wartime have been sharply delineated along gender lines. What happens when women become soldiers? What happens when war ceases to make distinctions between combatants and civilians, between the home front and the battle front? Panelists offer historical perspective, review new data, and debate contemporary issues.


Rape and the Gendered Weapons of War
Rape and sexual violence against both women and men have been a consistent feature of war across time and cultures. This panel evaluates the persistence and impact of these behaviors in different war settings, disciplinary regimes, and in the design and use of weapons.

Remembering and Mourning: The Work of Women and Men
This panel considers what is done in the aftermath of conflict and casualties, and how countries and individuals recover, reconstruct, and refocus after violence and loss.