Gender and ethnic conflict in ex‐Yugoslavia

Abstract The influence of gender on patterns of ethnic violence in ex‐Yugoslavia has commanded considerable international attention. This article acknowledges the groundbreaking role of feminist scholarship in bringing the gender variable to the forefront in analyses of political and interpersonal violence. However, feminist applications of gender frameworks are to some extent constrained by feminism's normative commitments. The present article argues for a more balanced and inclusive understanding of the role gender plays in conditioning the actions and experiences of men and women alike, in the Balkans war and other conflicts. Towards this end, a detailed evaluation of gender‐specific and gender‐selective violence in ex‐Yugoslavia is presented, with particular attention to the group that appears to constitute the majority of victims ‐ males between the ages of eighteen and sixty‐five. The article concludes by stressing the importance of the gender variable in analysing ethnic and political violence, and suggests that a more nuanced approach to this variable's operations would shed important light on ethnic violence in ex‐Yugoslavia and worldwide.