Universalized categories, dissonant realities: gendering postconflict reconstruction in Nepal

Abstract

International agencies, nongovernmental organizations, governmental agencies, and development policy-makers have sought to incorporate ‘gender mainstreaming’ into postconflict policies and programs in an effort to ameliorate the unequal gender impacts of war. This article uses narratives of widow heads of household collected through field research in Nepal in 2008 and 2011 to illustrate how postconflict development discourses purporting to engage with gender not only take a narrow view of gender (i.e., by equating it to women-focused activities), but also neglect the complex and dynamic realities of women's lives. Postconflict interventions employ simplistic assumptions that neglect gender-specific postconflict insecurities and oppressions (such as systematic violence against women). By neglecting the crucial significance of social networks for widows' survival, postconflict reconstruction assumes women to be individualized receptacles for development/empowerment. The crucial role of social networks in constraining women's agency is obscured. At the same time, assumptions of homogeneity ingrained in universalized categories such as ‘widow’ and ‘conflict-affected’ obfuscate women's multiple identities, roles, and agency in their struggles for survival. The insights emerging from field research suggest a greater attunement of postconflict development interventions to women's lived experiences and social settings.

Categorías universalizadas, realidades disonantes: generizar la reconstrucción post conflicto en Nepal

Agencias internacionales, organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG), agencias gubernamentales y diseñadores de políticas de desarrollo han buscado incorporar “la transversalización de la perspectiva de género” a las políticas y programas post conflicto en un esfuerzo por mitigar los impactos desiguales de la guerra sobre el género. Este artículo utiliza narrativas colectadas a través de una investigación de campo en Nepal en 2008 y 2011 de viudas jefas de hogar, para ilustrar cómo los discursos de desarrollo post conflicto que pretenden involucrarse en temas de género no sólo tienen una mirada limitada del mismo (esto es, igualándolo a las actividades centradas en las mujeres), sino que también desatienden las complejas y dinámicas realidades de las vidas de las mujeres. Las intervenciones post conflicto emplean supuestos simplistas que no prestan suficiente atención a las inseguridades y opresiones género-específicas post conflicto (como la violencia sistemática contra las mujeres). Descuidando la significancia crucial de las redes sociales para la supervivencia de las viudas, la reconstrucción post conflicto asume que las mujeres son receptáculos individualizados para el desarrollo/empoderamiento. El rol crucial de las redes sociales en limitar la agencia de las mujeres está eclipsado. Al mismo tiempo, los supuestos de la homogeneidad arraigados en las categorías universalizadas tales como “viuda” y “afectada por conflicto” confunden las múltiples identidades, roles y la agencia de las mujeres en sus luchas por la supervivencia. La comprensión que surge de la investigación de campo sugiere una mayor sintonía de las intervenciones de desarrollo post conflicto con las experiencias vividas y los ambientes sociales de las mujeres.

普遍化的范畴、不一致的现实：性别化尼泊尔的后冲突重建

国际组织、非政府组织（NGOs）、政府组织与发展政策制定者，致力于将“性别主流化”整合进后冲突的政策与计画，以减轻战争对于性别的不均冲击。本文运用2008年与2011年在尼泊尔进行田野研究所搜集的寡妇家户长的叙事，说明号称涉入性别的后冲突发展论述，不仅採取了狭义的性别观点（例如将之等同于聚焦女性的活动），更同时忽略了女性生活的复杂与流动现实。后冲突的介入，使用简单的假设，忽略了特定性别的后冲突不安全性与压迫（例如针对女性的系统性暴力）。后冲突的重建，忽略寡妇生存的社会网络的关键显着性， 预设女性作为追求发展／培力的个体化容器。社会网络之于限制女性能动性的关键角色，则受到掩盖。于此同时，对于诸如“寡妇、“受冲突影响者”等普遍化范畴的同质性预设，则遮蔽了女性力图争取生存中的多重身份认同、角色与能动性。田野研究中产生的洞见，主张后冲突的发展介入，需更广泛地协调女性的生活经验与社会环境。

Keywords::

• gender
• violent conflict
• reconstruction
• widow heads
• Nepal
• qualitative research

Palabras claves::

• género
• conflicto violento
• reconstrucción
• viudas jefas de hogar
• Nepal
• investigación cualitativa

关键词::

• 性别
• 暴力冲突
• 重建
• 寡妇家长
• 尼泊尔
• 质性研究

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the comments from two anonymous reviewers, Jennifer Olmsted, Kanchana Ruwanpura, and Priya Sangameswaran at different stages of manuscript preparation. In addition, members of the graduate feminist certificate writing group at UMass Amherst, especially Banu Subramanian, provided valuable feedback. I also thank the widows interviewed in Nepal for sharing their stories with me and welcoming me into their homes and lives. All errors remain my own.

Notes

^1. The Economic and Social Council (1997, 1) defines mainstreaming as a ‘process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.’

^2. Women constituted, on average, around 30% of the cadre in the Maoist People's Liberation Army (Ogura 2009).

^3. See, for instance, Zuckerman and Greenberg (2004) who propose several guidelines for a gender-integrated approach in postconflict interventions, including ensuring access to rights, education, resources, and power to enable women's full participation in reconstruction, recognizing how gender-related impediments can diminish the effectiveness of economic and governance programs, and creating transformative policies that tackle insidious inequalities in postconflict societies.

^4. Since this development, however, success in ensuring women's representation in postconflict statebuilding has been mixed. One reason is that the constitution-building process is itself at a stalemate, as of late 2013. Commentators have also observed that women's concerns remain ghettoized and that their voices have been suppressed by the male-dominated political culture (Manchanda 2004; Sharma and Prasain 2004). Also see: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/may/27/nepal-women-in-politics

^5. See, for instance, http://www.peacewomen.org/assets/file/nepal_-_nap.pdf (accessed September 5, 2014).

^6. The World Bank estimates at least 14,800 conflict-affected families and 4,700 widows (http://www.epsp.gov.np/content.php?id = 210, accessed May 31, 2013).

^7. Since the legal system governing women's rights and the family follows a ‘Hindu template’ in Nepal – i.e., it takes the Brahman-Chhetri family form as the model for dealings on marriage, joint-family property management, or property transmission (Tamang 2000) – the impacts of this hegemonic model are also felt by widowed janjati women, especially in terms of their legal access to economic resources such as property.

^8. Some nongovernmental organizations working with widows, such as Women for Human Rights, preferred to use the term ‘single women’ to ‘widow’ to dispel the stigma associated with the latter word, and to be more inclusive to women whose husbands or family members are missing. Some other NGOs focused on women's issues include Rural Women's Network (RUWON), Didi Bahini, Nagrik Awaaz, and Jagaran Nepal. The websites of these organizations contain information on their postconflict programs.

^9. This assistance was provided through a women's NGO in Kathmandu in the form of schooling of her children.

^10. See, for instance, http://www.irinnews.org/report/91475/nepal-relatives-of-the-missing-struggle-with-legal-void-social-taboos (accessed July 2013).

^11. Women in the Maoist fighting forces were usually in the 14–18 age group; older women between the ages of 18–30 were not actively recruited (Pettigrew and Schneiderman 2004). Many women in rural areas of Rolpa, Rukum, and other midwestern districts supported the activities of the Maoist cadre indirectly (through providing food to ‘underground’ combatants, delivering news, etc.).

^12. Krishnakala's statements regarding remarriage and stigmatization also reveal ruptures in the prevalent conceptualization of widows. Remarriage is common among the Magars and Tharus, and widows do not occupy a socially marginal position as Hindu widows are likely to do, although they may still face economic hardship and unequal access to legal rights due to the hegemonic Hindu model.

^13. Hyndman (2008, 105) reports similar measures in Sri Lanka where women are taught sewing and weaving according to stereotypical conceptions of ‘feminine skills.’ This is one example of a continuum with development as usual, where women are pigeonholed into feminine tasks rather than acknowledging their transformed roles and consciousness due to conflict.

^14. NRs 50, 000 is roughly equal to $518 or 317 pound sterling.