Gender and Genocide

Gender and genocide

Genocides, like all mass atrocities, have strong gender dimensions. Which perpetrators commit genocide and against which victims, as well as how the crimes are addressed by outside actors, are influenced by gendered dynamics and socio-cultural norms. 

Some genocides have been carried out in explicitly gendered ways, weaponizing sexual- and gender-based violence as a purposeful violent tactic. This has been the case for the Rwandan genocide directed against the Tutsi and the systemic sexual violence in the Bosnia in the 1990s. 

Among all atrocity crimes, genocide can have a particular gender dimension due to perpetrators’ goal of destroying groups. For instance, genocidal violence can target the victim groups’ ability to reproduce – destroying group survival in the long run. The importance of reproduction as part of group survival is even recognized by the Genocide Convention, which identifies “measures intended to prevent births within the group” and “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” as acts of genocide. 

Gender can manifest at all levels of a genocide. For example, gender can influence the language used to rally and mobilize perpetrators, any sexual violence committed (be it gender-specific or gender-blind), which group is chosen as victims, and even who is granted agency as a perpetrator or peacemaker. Similarly, gender norms are created and reinforced to normalize violence and justify the need to commit certain crimes. 

A common narrative used to mobilize male perpetrators is the protection of their group’s women from an existential threat, while women’s mobilization typically relies on their role as community heads and mother figures. Sexual violence is similarly used to hurt groups and individuals: due to cultural norms victims are often shamed and rejected by their community, and by impregnating opposing groups’ women perpetrators can forcefully affect the ethnic composition of a group. Consequently, these atrocities also affect the next generation of children born of this violence. 

Naturally, there are many examples of people defying these strict roles and narratives, challenging basic and binary understandings of gender and genocidal intent. Which groups are deemed vulnerable or violent is often determined by essentialist gender norms, so having a nuanced outlook on how mass violence is committed and who can commit it is crucial. 

“Gendercide”

The prevalent and repeated presence of gendered acts and rhetoric in mass violence led to a term being coined: gendercide. According to Mary Anne Warren, “gendercide is the systematic killing of members of a specific gender”, and “is often a component of a wider genocide”. This term has been met with both criticism and praise: although it may obscure deeper intersecting dynamics in favor of a reductive understanding of mass violence, it adds a more nuanced outlook on perpetration and victimhood than a gender-blind analysis of mass violence.