Building feminist peace: gender, legal reforms and social reproduction after the United Nations Mission in Liberia

Author:
Maria Martin de Almagro University of Ghent, Belgium

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Article Category:
Research Article
Copyright:
© European Conference on Politics and Gender and Bristol University Press 2022
Online Publication Date:
01 Feb 2022
Pages:
45–62
Publisher:
Bristol University Press
Volume/Issue:
Volume 5: Issue 1
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1332/251510821X16363617184856
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This article explores efforts to attain feminist peace in Liberia by critically examining the implementation of gender-sensitive provisions in two national reforms that seek to transform the country after war: the Land Rights Act 2018 and the Local Government Act 2018. Drawing from extensive fieldwork, it argues that these reforms are sites of struggle between the goal of national transformation towards feminist peace and the reproduction of existing socio-political cleavages, with a particular focus on (certain) women’s political, socio-economic and gender oppression. The article also demonstrates how despite implementation failures and lack of consultation, these legal reforms open new (in)formal spaces for building feminist peace. Attending to the ways in which women resist and mobilise in these newly (in)formal spaces, the article brings to light the peace work these women are doing for transforming post-war gender regimes that prevent women’s representation and a more equitable redistribution of power and resources.

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Maria Martin de Almagro University of Ghent, Belgium

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Maria.MartinDeAlmagroIniesta@ugent.be

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