This chapter explores the multiplicity of roles that women and men occupy in both conflict and post-conflict settings. Section one starts by illustrating the tendency to essentialize women’s roles in conflict situations. This sets the stage for the limitations that follow for women individually and has follow-on implications for society as a whole. Section two explores the interplay between violence and gender in the context of war and postwar situations. Section three examines the complexity of masculinities in the post-conflict arena. It assesses the forms and impact of masculinities both...

This chapter explores the multiplicity of roles that women and men occupy in both conflict and post-conflict settings. Section one starts by illustrating the tendency to essentialize women’s roles in conflict situations. This sets the stage for the limitations that follow for women individually and has follow-on implications for society as a whole. Section two explores the interplay between violence and gender in the context of war and postwar situations. Section three examines the complexity of masculinities in the post-conflict arena. It assesses the forms and impact of masculinities both during and after hostilities. The broad interest in gender dynamics seeks a deeper engagement with the differing images of and realities for men in the conflict and post-conflict processes, with a keen eye to how such positionality affects women sharing the same physical, legal, and social space.