Women and War: Feminist Approaches to War and Violence

The philosophical discourse around questions of war has tended to approach war from the perspective of states, political leaders, and soldiers. While these perspectives are often treated as objective, universal, or neutral points of view, the reality of gender inequality in the social, political, and legal spheres is such that these “objective” perspectives have narrowly focused our attention on the experiences and concerns of those in power. What this means is that when thinking about the morality of war and defensive violence, we have tended to ignore questions about how women experience war and violence. This conference seeks to challenge the dominant framework of war by bringing to the fore feminist and other alternative approaches to questions of war.

Questions of interest may include:

-       Is it possible for war to promote gender equality, or to defend women’s rights?

-       What is the relationship, if any, between capitalism, the disvaluation of women’s labor, and war?

-       Can we justify military budgets, when societies are facing multiple crises of homelessness, violence against women, child hunger, and precarious labor?

-       What is the relationship between war, masculinity, and martial virtue?

-       How should we think about violence against the natural world/Mother Nature?

-       How can we understand violence perpetrated by the Global North against the Global South?

-       Can a feminist ethics of care effectively respond to violence and aggression? How does feminism affect our understanding of non-violent resistance?