Shifting gender roles: an analysis of violence against women in post-conflict Uganda
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Muriel Calo; Anasuya Sengupta
- Source
- Development in Practice. 26:285-297
- Subject
- Extreme poverty
050204 development studies
media_common.quotation_subject
05 social sciences
Geography, Planning and Development
Vulnerability
Identity (social science)
Context (language use)
Gender studies
Development
Social constructionism
Post conflict
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Masculinity
0502 economics and business
030212 general & internal medicine
Sociology
Qualitative research
media_common
- Language
- ISSN
- 1364-9213
0961-4524
Based on findings from a qualitative study in northern Uganda, this article explores factors leading to gender-based violence (GBV) in the post-conflict African context. The crisis of masculinity becomes crucial to understanding women's vulnerability to GBV. This crisis stems from the trauma of losing one's internal resources – socially constructed identity role and purpose, and one's external resources – wealth and productive assets. We find that armed conflict replaces the positive male identity as household head with a destructive model of masculinity. It is the interaction between negative masculinities and extreme poverty that characterises the prevalence of GBV in such conditions.