Gender and statebuilding: implications of state responsiveness to violence against women in post-conflict Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya

Thesis

Statebuilding ‘success’ in providing security for women has varied significantly across postconflict countries. This thesis asks what explains this variation. To address this question it contrasts expectations provided by literature on post-conflict statebuilding with those offered by relevant feminist scholarship, including feminist institutionalism and policy formation. It then assesses their explanatory power in accounting for differing state responses to violence against women in post-conflict Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. The thesis finds that Rwanda became more successful in providing security for women than Uganda and Kenya because legacies of ‘intense’ conflict, low post-conflict capacity and a combination of informal institutions provided greater opportunities to re-define the public-private divide and thereby establish violence against women as a public priority. The effects of these factors were different - and often inverse - from what literature on post-conflict statebuilding would lead us to anticipate. This is due to one fundamental oversight in this area of scholarship: Its failure to recognize women’s distinct relationships with the state.

Authors: Koester, D

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-ga2nje0a9
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: peacebuilding; gender; post-conflict; violence against women; conflict; statebuilding
• Subjects: Postwar reconstruction; Peace-building; Women and human security; Gender