Re-Imagining Women's Security in Societies in Transition: a comparative study of South Africa, Northern Ireland, and Lebanon
This project funded under the UK Economic and Social Research Council New Security Challenges Programme will launch its findings at an International Research Briefing and Round Table at the United Nations University in New York on 12-13 October 2006. The project aims to contribute to an understanding of the role and experiences of women in contemporary post-conflict societies by means of an examination of the gendered meanings of security. Through a unique research partnership with INCORE, Queen's University, the University of Ulster, Democratic Dialogue, and with research associates at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa and the American University in Beirut, the study considered the meanings of women's security in political, economic and social terms, examined the differing levels of women's participation in decision-making in the three case studies, and explored the different strategies used by women to effect change. As gender based violence is a significant factor of concern, it explored men and women's views of the nature and extent of it on women's lives and examined the discourses surrounding masculinity, and particularly, warrior type masculinity and its continuity from conflict into transition.
