GENDER IDENTITY - IS FEMININITY INHERENTL Y PEACEFUL

The scholarly literature on women and war is characterised by a disput e between an essentialist and a constructionist approach. The essentia list claim is that femininity is inherently peaceful and that women, a cross all cultures, are more peace-prone than men. Essentialism is bas ed on the assumption that biology determines men's and women's identit y, thinking and behaviour. By contrast, the social constructionist app roach is based on a fundamental skepticism to what is considered ''nat ural'' or ''given''. Despite their deep conceptual differences and dif ferent basic assumptions, the essentialist and constructionist approac hes to women and war unite in agreeing on the need to include gender d imensions in peace studies. The article presents a qualitative analysi s of three groups of women's experiences in the conflicts in Croatia/B osnia, El Salvador and Vietnam. The many differences that characterise these conflicts - such as the time of conflict, the image of the enem y and the general participation of women - permit a social-psychologic al study of the construction of femininity in the context of war in ge neral. The conclusion which emerges is that femininity per se is not i nherently peaceful. Women can be equally war-prone as men; likewise, m en can be equally peace-loving as women. A more constructive approach to the war-prone/peacefulness distinction might be to focus instead on differences in values and discourses.