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5 Seton Hall J. Dipl. & Int'l Rel. 5 (2004)
Women and Children: Deconstructing a Paradigm

handle is hein.journals/whith5 and id is 5 raw text is: Women and Children: Deconstructing a Paradigm by Nadine Puechguirbal When do women gain from being treated as 'mother,' 'dependents,'or 'vulnerable,' and when from being seen as autonomous individuals? Cynthia Cockburn' INTRODUCTION Women and children are the main victims of modern warfare, and they account for an estimated 80 percent of refugees and displaced persons worldwide.2 Women and children bear the brunt of armed conflicts when they lose protection, shelter, access to food, and medical care. Wars also upset gender roles and increase the responsibilities and exposure of women when they have to strive to feed their children and extended families in the absence of the male breadwinner. In the existing literature on the subject of conflict and post-conflict situations, women are often associated with children. In international instruments, UN resolutions or documentations, women are always part of the vulnerable groups together with old people, children and the handicapped; they are always dependent on a family unit or a male individual, either father, brother or husband. It is as if women did not have an identity of their own. It is as if they could not play an accepted and recognized role in society when they are not associated with children. A new category of human beings is produced, called women-and-children, with children just being an extension of women's own body and soul. This way of thinking perpetuates the stereotypes of women as caring and nurturing mothers, locked in the private realm, unable to cross boundaries and move to the public arena, where men are designing policies, taking decisions and running the world. In the framework of changes brought about by armed conflicts, this article will challenge the paradigm that associates women with children; it will demonstrate that it prevents women from being seen as active agents of change for peace, or actors of their own lives, thus limiting their participation in the reconstruction or rehabilitation of societies. Because women are caught in productive, reproductive and community works, they have less time available for participating in development programmes or capacity- building training that can lead to their empowerment. And all over the world, women Nadine Puechguirbal is a Humanitarian Affairs Officer at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs at the United Nations. 5 Seton HallJournal ofDiplo macyand Interntional Relations

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