Women, peace and security: gender norms and militarisation in Kashmir and Southern Thailand

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to uncover how gender norms affect women’s everyday lives and their agency in civil society organisations in militarized and conflict-struck societies. The thesis is designed as a qualitative multiple case study and explores gender norms in the conflicts of Kashmir and Southern Thailand. A thematic analysis was conducted from stakeholder interviews and secondary literature. The thesis found that women’s everyday lives and their work in civil society organisations are shaped by traditional gender norms and a strict gendered division of labour in both case studies. The militarised, non-democratic, conservative, and patriarchal structures limit women’s political and economic agency. At the same time, the conflicts in Kashmir and Southern Thailand also pushed women into the public economic and political sphere. Women actively opposed traditional norms and used their own individual agency to resist these structures. Although this led to a relaxation of certain gender norms and roles, these changes were not yet accompanied by a structural transformation of these gendered structures and beliefs.