contemporary europe and asia presentation
TRANSCRIPT
Women in Wars – A cross-border comparison between Europe,
Asia and Middle East
Law Po Yee, Sunny 10019510Tong Wai Kit, Wilson
10012214Lui Sin Ting, Annie 10011242
Europe
Women’s Role and Responsibilities
A new source of labour force
New roles and responsibilities in 3 aspects:
1. family 2. factory work 3. Support for war
homefront
Family become the
breadwinners of the family
Take care of child and elderly
Evacuation Food rationing
Factory Work Encouraged and
later conscripted by the government
Engaged in both domestic and war production
Take part in jobs which used to be done by male only
Unequally paid
Support for war1. The Women's
Land Army2. The Auxiliary
Territorial Service3. Women's Royal
Naval Service 4. Women's Auxiliary
Air Force
Influence Financially
independent Sense of
accomplishment and satisfaction
war ended were encouraged to give up their job
emergence of 1950s-60s feminism
Advocating women rights
Comparison to Middle East/Asia Unequally treated basic human rights As replacement of
males in several aspects
Voluntarily work to support the war , willing to utilized by the government
Asia
Asia
Rare cases of women combatants Possible reason: societal hierachy of men & women (e.g. Little Chinese women
received education) Interesting musculine characteristic as feminist influence was not
prominent in Asiae.g. Vietnamese women could be judges, soldiers or even rulers
The Trung Sisters (Hai Ba Trung) of Vietnam & 80,000 fighters
Successful rebellion against Chinese in 39CE
Japanese Women Samurai (Tomoe Gozen)
Martial Arts, Self-defense training
Combat Duties
Asia Victims of sexual assault – forced
to work as prostitutes in Japanese military brothels, gathered within civilians or combatants
War rape used as an psychological warfare to humiliate the enemy – significant even though not a voluntary duty
e.g. Comfort Women in WWII: ~Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese and Philippino women
US Army: after the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 : official broadcast that rapes, torture or murder might take place
Non- Combat Duties
Difference between Asia and Europe/Middle East:
Little non-combat/combat duties assigned (More passive roles during wartime)
Statuses of women vary greatly across Asian countries (e.g. Asia & Vietnam) – rich cultural diversity
Divergence derived from traditional Asian ideologies, almost a total opposite to Europe
Middle East
Women as Soldiers To expand the army, women are recruited as soldiers
In the Iran-Iraq conflict, Iranian trained female combatants for war
Israel Defense Forces(IDF) set up in 1948 Arab–Israeli War (women comprising 33% of all IDF soldiers)
Women as Suicide Bombers
female suicide bombers are often portrayed as the chaste wives and mothers of the revolution
• Women make up around •7% of Palestinian suicide bombers, •1% of suicide bombers in Iraq
Political Participation As a large proportion of the male population was
concentrated at the war front
Women found opportunities for employment in the government sector
Iran: the number of women in the civil service and higher education has risen during Iran-Iraq War(1980-1990)
Palestine: women’s political activity and participation in resistance groups expanded during Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Lebanon: certain parties specifically sought women’s participation during the civil war (1975-1190)
Reproductive role Governments desire for a expanding
population during wartime
Iran:prohibited abortion
discouraged contraception
• lowered the age of marriage for girls to puberty
Difference between Middle East and Asia/Europe
Political participation increased slightly during wartime
Status of women is the lowest: suicide bombers
Muslim: women are inferior in legal status and rights
Human rights are ignored: reproductive tools