Women and Genocide
Gendered Experiences of Violence, Survival, and Resistance
Edited by JoAnn DiGeorgio-Lutz, Donna Gosbee
April 2016
Print ISBN: 9780889615823
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Overview
Illuminating the unique experiences of women both during and after genocide, JoAnn DiGeorgio-Lutz and Donna Gosbee’s edited collection is a vital addition to genocide scholarship. The contributors revisit genocides of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from Armenia in 1915 to Gujarat in 2002, examining the roles of women as victims, witnesses, survivors, and rescuers. The text underscores women’s experiences as a central yet often overlooked component to the understanding of genocide.
Drawing from narratives, memoirs, testimonies, and literature, this ground-breaking volume brings together women’s stories of victimization, trauma, and survival. Each chapter is framed by a consistent methodology to allow for a comparative analysis, revealing the ways in which women’s experiences across genocides are similar and yet profoundly different.
By looking at genocide from a gendered perspective, Women and Genocide constitutes an important contribution to feminist research on war and political violence. Featuring critical thinking questions and concise histories of each genocidal period discussed, this highly accessible text is an ideal resource for both students and instructors in this field and for anyone interested in the study of women’s lives in times of violence and conflict.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
JoAnn DiGeorgio-Lutz and Donna Gosbee
Chapter 1: Women of the Armenian Genocide: From Eyewitness Accounts to Literary Echoes
Sona Haroutyunian
Chapter 2: Romani Women and the Holocaust: Testimonies of Sexual Violence in Romanian-Controlled Transnistria
Michelle Kelso
Chapter 3: The Gender Dimension of the Holocaust in France
Carol Mann
Chapter 4: Silencing the Women: Violence through Rape in the 1971 War of Liberation
Farah Ishtiyaque
Chapter 5: What Is Remembered? Gendered Silence, Sexual Violence, and the Khmer Rouge Atrocity
Theresa de Langis
Chapter 6: Genocide in Central America: Testimonies of Survivors in Guatemala
Martha C. Galvan-Mandujano
Chapter 7: Survival and Rescue: Women during the Rwandan Genocide
Sara E. Brown
Chapter 8: Breaking the Protracted Silence about Genocidal Rape in Kosova
Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi
Chapter 9: “We Want Justice!” Women and the Gujarat Genocide
Dolores Chew
Conclusion
JoAnn DiGeorgio-Lutz and Donna Gosbee
About the Contributors
Index
Reviews
"Covering an unusually broad range of genocides around the world, this volume assembles highly original, empirically rich, and methodologically thoughtful research on the suffering and the agency of women during and after events of mass violence in France, Romania, Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Guatemala, Kosovo, India, and Bangladesh in the 20th century. This book is a must-read for students of women’s history and genocides, and it may serve as a model for further explorations into the gendered experience of violence, terror, and war."— Thomas Kühne, Strassler Professor of Holocaust History, Clark University
"This powerful compendium makes the never-told and forgotten stories of women who survived or perished in twentieth century and twenty-first century genocides unforgettable. It makes a strong contribution to understanding how genocides are gendered and why women’s voices and lives matter in the study of and resistance to genocides."— Anne Sisson Runyan, Professor, Departments of Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Cincinnati
