Women's invisible labor in peacebuilding

Abstract

The women, peace, and security agenda is well-established globally, with women's participation widely recognized as essential to successful and sustainable peacebuilding. However, women are still commonly excluded from the formal spaces and processes of peacemaking. This dissertation addresses this problem by analyzing and discussing the peacemaking currently happening in Myanmar. Myanmar is in the midst of a complex peace process following nearly 70 years of civil conflict that has left the country severely underdeveloped. This dissertation examines women's activism surrounding peacebuilding and the 'invisible' labor they perform through their activism. This project constitutes an investigation into the ethnic and gender politics of peacebuilding in Myanmar's transitional context. Drawing on qualitative data including 60 interviews and participant observation, this project asks: 1) What invisible work are women doing in peacebuilding? 2) How do women influence the peace process? 3) What does this tell us about the distributions and redistributions of power in peace processes? Throughout this dissertation, I build on interdisciplinary theories of intersectionality and feminist commitments to examining the margins to understand the reproductive and affective labor that women perform around peacebuilding, finding that these forms of "invisible" labor appear to be depoliticized but are, in fact, major contributors to the political process of peacebuilding. This research advances significant theoretical and empirical contributions to sociology, feminist international relations, and peace studies. In particular, it adds to our understanding of and appreciation for women's contributions to building peace, whether they take place in the formal or informal spheres. It also extends our knowledge of Myanmar's ongoing political transition and peacebuilding process by illuminating some of the roles of ethnic women in those processes. By so doing, it reveals the work that women are already doing, even when that work takes place outside of the formal peace process that is commonly placed at the center of inquiries into peacebuilding. In extending the frame of reference for thinking about women's political participation, this thesis brings attention to under-recognized forms of women's labor that contribute in material ways to peacebuilding.