Examples of Coding Narratives from WARD
For each case included in WARD, we produced a short coding narrative that describes the ways in which women participated in the armed group and includes a summary of relevant bibliographic information. The following represent examples of such narratives from cases in Latin America and Africa. The full collection of such narratives is available at: https://
Contras/Democratic Forces of Nicaragua (FDN)
Female formal participants: Yes
Female combatants: Yes
Female combatant prevalence: 2/3
Female suicide bombers: No
Women occupied both combat and noncombat roles in the Contra forces. Surprisingly specific statistics were recorded regarding the involvement of women in the Contras. By one estimate, 39 percent of rebels demobilized at war’s end were women, but this included relatives and other persons residing at rebel camps in Nicaragua and Honduras. Women were involved in combat, but their participation in front-line combat was limited. Overall, roughly 6 percent of all “commandos” killed were women, and there is evidence that several hundred female Contra fighters were killed in combat. Based on available estimates, female combatants appear to have composed between 7 and 15 percent of the Contra combat forces, though some figures (that likely included noncombat roles) place that figure as high as 20 percent. Numeric estimates place the total number of female combatants as high as three thousand. Although female combatants were common, they were not encouraged to attain a rank higher than or equal to that of a comandante; nonetheless, some women appear to have served in decision-making positions and attained field-level leadership positions (Brown 2001).
Sources
Brown, Timothy. 2000. When the AK-47s Fall Silent: Revolutionaries, Guerrillas, and the Dangers of Peace. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
______. 2001. The Real Contra War: Highlander Peasant Resistance in Nicaragua. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Gonzalez-Perez, Margaret. 2006. “Guerrilleras in Latin America: Domestic and International Roles.” Journal of Peace Research 43 (3): 313–329.
______. 2008. Women and Terrorism: Female Activity in Domestic and International Terror Groups. New York: Routledge.
Kampwirth, Karen. 2001. “Women in the Armed Struggle in Nicaragua: Sandinistas and Contras Compared.” In Radical Women in Latin America: Left and Right, ed. Victoria Gonzalez and Karen Kampwirth, 79–101. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
19th of April Movement (M-19) (Colombia)
Female formal participants: Yes
Female combatants: Yes
Female combatant prevalence: 3/3
Female suicide bombers: No
The 19th of April Movement (M-19) began as an armed wing of the leftist National Popular Alliance (ANAPO), and it was mostly made up of young, middle-class students. The M-19 differed from other armed rebel groups in Colombia because it was born as an urban organization, seeking to connect with people in big cities to carry out their leftist vision rather than rural communities (Holmgren 2009).
Exact figures for women’s participation in M-19 are unavailable. However, numerous sources suggest that women constituted as much as 30 percent of the M-19’s forces. Female members received military training and held a variety of roles in the organization, including noncombat roles (intelligence, safe-house operation, logistics), combat positions (assassinations, terror attacks, hostage taking, sabotage, and so on), and leadership positions. Although the M-19 was more open to female leadership than other rebel organizations, its internal system was still highly patriarchal and viewed women as less capable than men. Women were generally not forcibly recruited into the M-19; rather, they were drawn to the group through political conviction and leftist ideology. Male leaders in the M-19 often relied on gender norms and used the femininity of their female fighters to the group’s advantage.
Sources
Gjelsvik, Ingvild Magnæs. 2010. Women, War, and Empowerment: A Case study of Female Ex-combatants in Colombia. Tromsø, Norway: University of Tromsø.
Holmgren, Linda Eitrem. 2009. The Woman Warrior: A Post-Structural Gender Analysis of Guerillas in Colombia. New York: Lund University.
Zasquez Perdomo, Maria Eugenia. 2005. My Life as a Colombian Revolutionary: Reflections of a Former Guerrillera. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) (Ethiopia)
Female formal participants: Yes
Female combatants: Yes
Female combatant prevalence: 3/3
Female suicide bombers: No
Consistent with the pattern observed in many other Marxist-Leninist rebellions, women occupied many roles in the TPLF. These included both noncombat and combat duties. Numerous sources place the proportion of female fighters in the TPLF at around 30 percent, though it should be noted that the term “fighter” may apply to women in noncombat roles as well. Nonetheless, the available evidence points to a high level of women’s involvement in the armed wing of the TPLF and to a large number of trained, armed female combatants in the group’s combat forces.
As in most groups, the proportion of women in the group and the roles they played varied over time. The TPLF was founded in 1975, and women were initially not welcomed into the movement. However, by 1982 approximately one-third of the fighters were women. In the mid-1980s, however, the TPLF leadership decided to restrict the number of female fighters. The reason given was that too many women were volunteering to the join the movement, and it was beginning to disrupt domestic life in the countryside. The leadership raised the educational requirement to five years of schooling, and many women were unable to meet this requirement.
Interestingly, unlike many rebel groups where women are more prevalent in local militia or auxiliary units compared to the national force, the opposite appears to be true in the TPLF. In many places women constituted less than 5 percent of these units or were nonexistent. The (partial) explanation provided for this pattern is that it was more difficult for young women to transgress gender norms and escape social expectations when they were close to home compared to when they served as fighters in the formal TPLF force and were more likely to be sent far from home.
Sources
Hammond, Jenny. 1990. “‘My Revolution Is Like Honey’: Women in Revolutionary Tigray.” Women: A Cultural Review 1 (1): 56–59.
Negeow-Oda, Beza, and Aaronette M. White. 2011. “Identity Transformation and Reintegration Among Ethiopian Women War Veterans: A Feminist Analysis.” Journal of Feminist Family Therapy 23: 161–187.
Tadesse, Medhane, and John Young. 2003. “TPLF: Reform or Decline?” Review of African Political Economy 97: 389–403.
Tareke, Gebru. 2009. The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Veale, A. 2003. From Child Soldier to Ex-Fighter: Female Fighters, Demobilisation and Reintegration in Ethiopia. Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies.
Young, John. 1997. Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) (Senegal)
Female formal participants: No
Female combatants: No
Female combatant prevalence: 0/0
Female suicide bombers: No
The available evidence suggests that while numerous women supported the MFDC and many served as civilian activists and collaborators, there was no formal role for women in the armed wing of the organization. Despite references to women’s participation in political protests in movements allied with the MFDC and to women providing food and other goods to the rebels, there is no evidence that women ever received military training or participated in combat operations. One source explicitly asserts that “there have been no reports of female combatants” (Stam 2009).
Sources
Stam, Valerie. 2009. “Women’s Agency and Collective Action: Peace Politics in the Casamance.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 43(2): 337–366.
Tolivera-Diallo, Wilmetta. 2005. “The Woman Who Was More Than a Man: Making Aline Sitoe Diatta into a National Heroine in Senegal.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 39 (2): 338–360.
USAID. 2001. West Africa: Civil Society Strengthening for Conflict Prevention Study. Conflict Prevention and Peace Building Case Study: The Casamance Conflict and Peace Process (1982–2001). https://