Women and Genocide: Survivors, Victims, Perpetrators Elissa Bemporad and Joyce W Warren

Abstract

Elissa Bemporad and Joyce W. Warren present a new anthology on the different roles women have and can play across a variety of genocide cases. Through fourteen chapters, many of the leading scholars on women, gender, and genocide highlight new avenues of research. While none of the case studies presented are unfamiliar in the field, the key to each of these chapters is the unique lens that guides this work. More than a gendered analysis of various genocidal events, these chapters delve into how women experienced these events uniquely as women, both structurally and by design. Additionally, the editors ask not only how gender intersects with the event in question, but also why women’s experiences and ways of experiencing have not been included in the dominant historical and scholarly narrative. Bemporad notes in the introduction, “Gender mattered and continues to matter: whether women are victims, perpetrators, or agents in the ‘gray zone,’ their gender identity determines their experience” (p. 7). Despite this, and the triad of survivors, victims, and perpetrators noted in the title, the book is not delineated into distinct roles, but rather organized chronologically by case study. The common thread that runs through each of these chapters, from colonial genocides of indigenous people across the United States and Canada through the final chapter on current methods of grassroots genocide prevention, is the concept of power. In addition to gender, these women’s identities intersected with race, nationality, religion, class, and myriad other layers. Each of these layers gave them access to or restricted their power and agency within a given society. Bemporad notes this as well, pointing out, “Women are not merely helpless victims: they can take advantage of the new power structures generated by genocidal regimes and engage in rituals of violence” (p. 5).