Twelve Feminist Lessons of War, Cynthia Enloe's newest book (2023), draws on sharp insights of women as survivors, activists and scholars from Ukraine to Sudan and Myanmar to show how diverse women’s experiences of war must be taken seriously if we are to prevent and shorten wars and make gender justice central to recovering from wars.

Women’s wars are not men’s wars. Wartime shapes the gendered politics of marriage, prostitution, journalism, economics, childcare, domestic violence and rape. Enloe’s analysis highlights how understanding this can prevent wars and even end them. She shows that by paying more attention to the wounded and the women who care for them, we will be more realistic about the long ‘post-war’; and that by listening to feminists on the ground, in Ukraine and elsewhere, we will better understand what is happening to our world.

Cynthia Enloe is Research Professor in the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment, with affiliations with Women’s and Gender Studies and Political Science, all at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Professor Enloe’s fifteen books include Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (2000), The Curious Feminist (2004) and Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War (2010), The Real State of America: Mapping the Myths and Truths about the United States (co-authored with Joni Seager; 2011, revised 2014); Seriously! Investigating Crashes and Crises as if Women Mattered (2013). Enloe’s thoroughly updated edition of Bananas, Beaches and Bases was published by University of California Press, 2014. Her updated edition of Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link was published in English and French in 2016, and Spanish in 2022. Enloe’s The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging Persistent Patriarchy, is published in English, Japanese and Spanish.

The presentation will be followed by a discussion with Madeleine Rees (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom).

Twelve Feminist Lessons of War will be on sale for 20 CHF after the event. Only payments in cash will be accepted.

This event is organised jointly by the Gender Centre and the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding.