Women Confronting War

[sparrow1963]

      Jennifer Turpin's "Women Confronting War," provides the readers with insight on the effect of war on women and the various ways they confront it. When thinking of war, the mind generally thinks of all the men who have left their friends and families to risk their lives. However, what we fail to realize, is all the women who participate or are civilians in the war. Turpin introduces the readers on how women are direct casualties, war refugees, victims of sexual violence, and victims of domestic violence.
      Turpin informs us that during the second World War, civilians were fifty percent of the casualties and by the year of 1990 that percentage was raised to ninety percent. She states that "Women and their children continue to be the vast majority of these civilian casualties (Hauchler and Kennedy 1994; Vickers 1993)" (Pg. 325), and provides evidence for her statement.  Women may have been effected by war given the factors that they had home society, economic status, and racial and ethnic identity. They were forced to leave their homelands, most likely resulting in experiencing war in developing countries.
      Unfortunately, women and young girls were four-fifths of the war refugees. Many of the refugee women were either widow's or separated from any other relations, leaving them to be the sole guardians for their children. In the midst of the wars, women would have to find food and shelter, get access to healthcare for their children and themselves, along with getting their children some sort of education.
      A major issue for women and young girls was the sexual violence they had to suffer. Turpin gives the readers an insight on how females were raped and forced into prostitution. It is quite disturbing knowing that "rape has been used as a weapon for ethnic cleansing, using attacks on women to humiliate and attempt to exterminate another ethnic group." (Pg. 326) Rape has been identified "as symptomatic of war's gendered nature." (Pg. 327) As if rape was not enough, women were also forced into prostitution. Women who had no man to support themselves and their families, had no other choice than to sell themselves. If they were not doing it for their families, they were forced into doing by the soldiers. Women and young girls had the unfortunate life of sexual violence through the wars.
     Another unpleasant issue for women was the domestic violence they endured. Turpin provides the audience with research stating "an increase in the number of sons who commit violence against their mothers in wartime;an increase in the number of assaults involving weapons, including pistols, grenades, and other weapons from war; an increase in violence in marriages where the husband and wife's ethnicity differ; an increase in alcohol consumption among men returning from combat; and a link between economic decline, especially refugee status, and wife battering and rape (Nikolic-Ristanovic, 1998)." Domestic violence has increase in the war times.
      Overall, Turpin has done a great job on giving her audience an insight on the effects of war on women. Although, she may have given more of feminist view on this, she has succeeded in spreading this knowledge. She has give us information on how the women were direct casualties, war refugees, victims of sexual violence, and victims of domestic violence.