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ESRC Doctoral Research Fellow Jennifer Philippa Eggert will be giving a talk at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon on 24 October. Jennifer will present findings of my research on female fighters during the Lebanese Civil War.

Abstract: What role do women have in times of war and violent conflict? In much of the literature on political violence, the role of women is either completely omitted or women are seen as victims or actors for peaceful change only. The fact that in most conflicts worldwide, women, too, perpetrate and facilitate violence is often overlooked. This is no different in the majority of the literature on the Lebanese Civil War, despite the fact that women played an active role in practically all militias that were operating in Lebanon during the war. Taking into account individual motivations, organizational characteristics, societal factors as well as the security context, this talk explains the phenomenon of female fighters during the Lebanese Civil War. Based on interviews with former militia members, it undertakes a comparison of women’s inclusion in the different politico-military groups that were active during the war and highlights why women were employed as combatants in some of the militias, whereas they assumed supportive roles only in others.