Underenforcement and Intersectionality: Gendered Aspects of Transition for Women

Abstract

The transitional justice field has generally been preoccupied by ‘dealing with the past.’ Increasingly, it is also understood as enabling conflicted or politically unstable societies to integrate liberal democratic norms into processes of state-building or regime reform. Building on previous work, this article asserts that transitional justice encompasses far more in conceptual and policy terms. Two substantive arenas have generally been overlooked: underenforcement of change processes with transformational effects for women and the application of intersectionality theory to the experiences of women in post-conflict societies. This article addresses those lacunae.