Media:

Reviewed in American Journal of Sociology, Perspectives on Politics, Mobilization, International Affairs, Africa: A Journal of the International African Institute, and the Wiener Library Blog.

The International Affairs Blog said nice things about the book here and here

Featured in the Democracy in Africa Book Club

Listen to the New Books Sociology podcast interview with Sarah E. Patterson 

Read an interview at Our Secure Future: Women Make the Difference  

Read a summary of the book at Political Violence @ A Glance

*Winner of 2019 ASA Peace, War, and Social Conflict Best Book Award*

*Winner of 2019 ASA Sociology of Development Best Book Award (honorable mention)*

*Winner of 2019 ESS Mirra Komarovsky Book Award (honorable mention)*

From www.cambridge.org/9781108416184: 

Rwanda and Bosnia both experienced mass violence in the early 1990s. Less than ten years later, Rwandans surprisingly elected the world's highest level of women to parliament. In Bosnia, women launched thousands of community organizations that became spaces for informal political participation. The political mobilization of women in both countries complicates the popular image of women as merely the victims and spoils of war. Through a close examination of these cases, Marie E. Berry unpacks the puzzling relationship between war and women's political mobilization. Drawing from over 260 interviews with women in both countries, she argues that war can reconfigure gendered power relations by precipitating demographic, economic, and cultural shifts. In the aftermath, however, many of the gains women made were set back. This book offers an entirely new view of women and war and includes concrete suggestions for policy makers, development organizations, and activists supporting women's rights.

Reviews

‘Berry's War, Women and Power is a true tour de force. We know that periods of war are often followed by increases in women's political participation, but prior to this book, we didn't understand why. Combining careful historical analyses, with more than 260 interviews with political actors in Rwanda and Bosnia, Berry traces the process by which the destruction of war pushed women to develop new network ties, new community organizations, and new collective humanitarian projects, which in turn institutionalized new forms of women's political participation. Sadly, however, she also finds that these gains are relatively short lived. More than just a patriarchal backlash, Berry demonstrates how well-meaning international humanitarian assistance had the surprising and unanticipated consequence of flattening out women's nascent political gains. Engaging, heart wrenching, and original, War, Women and Power is a must read for everyone interested in gender, war, and the necessity of building equitable post-war societies.'

Jocelyn Viterna - Harvard University, Massachusetts

‘This fascinating and important book examines the processes through which war facilitates women's grassroots mobilization through demographic, economic, and cultural transformations. It makes an original contribution to the study of gender and conflict. Moreover, it is well-written and nuanced, backed by strong evidence, drawing on a rich body of fieldwork in Rwanda and Bosnia.'

Aili Mari Tripp - Wangari Maathai Professor of Political Science and Gender and Women's Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison

‘In this exceptional and often surprising book, Marie E. Berry shows how in disrupting power and gender relations, wars in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina created political and cultural openings that allowed women to mobilize in significant and surprising ways. An altogether extraordinary contribution to the literatures on war, contentious politics, and women's political participation.'

Doug McAdam - Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Sociology, Stanford University

‘Can something good come of war? Looking deeply into the processes involved in the 1990s civil wars of Rwanda and Bosnia- Herzegovina, Marie E. Berry faces up to an uncomfortable contradiction. A period of death and destruction may be transformative for women, bringing them increased opportunities and political mobilization, both in the community and in the postwar power structures. Stopping to explore, rather than brush aside, such contradiction when you meet it, as the wisest social analysts know, is highly productive. Berry's unflinching investigation teaches us a lot about patriarchal gender power-relations – which turn out to have as much resilience as do women when it comes to surviving war.'

Cynthia Cockburn - Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick, and City University London

‘Marie E. Berry's book is a passionately engaged, yet scientifically embedded account of how women came to be politically empowered – yet ultimately remained vulnerable – activists and political actors in two post-violence countries. Her paired comparison shows how political opportunities often arose in the midst of social disorganization, as women turned the search for survival into the creation of new roles and responsibilities. Her well-crafted narratives shine a new light on the relationships among gender, war, and political mobilization.'

Sidney Tarrow - Author of Power in Movement

Book 2

Women’s rights are under attack across the globe. As right-wing populist leaders have emerged in Brazil, Hungary, the Philippines, the US, and elsewhere, there has been an alarming rise in sexist political discourse and an attempted roll back of women’s social and legal gains. Buoyed by political rhetoric that has celebrated women in traditional roles and glorified sexual assault, these leaders have catalyzed a backlash to the progress women have made towards equality in recent years. The erosion of women’s rights is alarming: Poland is threatening to roll back abortion protections; India has weakened protections for domestic violence; Libya overturned a law banning polygamy; and in the US, funding and support for reproductive rights has been drastically slashed since the beginning of the Trump administration. Sexual harassment and gender based violence is also more visible and widespread than ever.

Of course, there are signs of hope amidst this backsliding, much of which can be found on the frontlines of social movements demanding social change. From the global success of the #MeToo movement and the Women’s March, to the spread of the Ni Una Menos campaign against femicide throughout Latin America, to the 3.5+ million woman strong chain demanding women’s rights in India, women are taking to the streets to demand change in numbers never seen before. Through the voices of the individual women at the helm of these movements, this book captures the commitment, bravery, and organizing discipline of the women who may offer our best chance to defend democracy, human rights, and women’s equality around the world.

The book draws from interviews with women activists from campaigns spanning the globe—including #NiUnaMenos in Argentina, the campaign for abortion rights in Ireland, the FEMEN movement against authoritarianism and patriarchy in the Ukraine, and the Women Wage Peace movement in Israel-Palestine. These women took to the streets to challenge gender oppression, economic dislocation, and inequality; their struggles are both focused on the particular campaign at hand but not limited to it. Despite the profound differences between the countries these women hail from and the causes they are fighting for, their stories reveal a shared struggle of a fight for women’s rights in the face of great personal and political difficulty.