Securitization and Desecuritization: Female Soldiers and the Reconstruction of Women in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone

Abstract This article focuses on the construction of “soldier” and “victim” by post-conflict programs in Sierra Leone. Focusing on the absence of individual testimonies and interviews that inform representations of women and girls post-conflict, this article demonstrates that the ideal of the female war victim has limited the ways in which female combatants are addressed by disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs in Sierra Leone. It is argued that titles given to female soldiers such as “females associated with the war,” “dependents,” or “camp followers” reveal the reluctance of reintegration agencies to identify females who participated in war as soldiers. In addition, I argue that men and masculinity are securitized post-conflict while women—even when they act in highly securitized roles such as soldiers—are desecuritized and, in effect, de-emphasized in post-conflict policy making. The impact of this categorization has been that the reintegration process for men has been securitized, or emphasized as an essential element of the transition from war to peace. In contrast, the reintegration process for females has been deemed a social concern and has been moralized as a return to normal. Megan MacKenzie is a Postdoctoral Residential Fellow in Gender and Security through the Women and Public Policy Program and the International Security Program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She will be joining the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand as a lecturer. MacKenzie has produced research in the areas of sexual violence and war, gender and security, and development policy. Recent publications include “Silent Identities: Children Born of War in Sierra Leone,” in Born of War: Protecting Children of Sexual Violence Survivors, ed. R. Charli Carpenter (Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2007). The author would like to thank Laura Sjoberg for her dedication to this project and for the unconditional support she lent to this and other feminist projects. In addition, a special thanks is extended to Father Joseph Turay in Makeni, Sierra Leone for his leadership and the anonymous reviewers at Security Studies for their thoughtful comments.