Status Updates From Beyond Mothers, Monsters, W...

..We were concerned
that the coverage of women’s violence in global politics revealed
the entrenchment of exactly the gender inequality that it appears to
signify an end to.

..We found that approach to be important,
especially given the tendency of a number of public intellectuals to claim that women’s commission of political
violence proves women’s equality to men and the end of any need for
feminist or other advocacy for gender equality. (Contd..)

That is why, when we looked to address the narratives of (increasingly
visible) violent women in war, conflict and terrorism, we looked
to combat many feminists’ (including our own) initial shock that ‘a
woman did that?’ and use the tools of feminist theory to think about
the complexities of women’s violence, especially in terms of how it
is seen and represented. (Contd.)

Gender equality is more than women having the same jobs as men or even doing the same things for the same money and recognition. Women who have 'men's jobs' do not enter them on a gender-equal or a gender-neutral playing field. A woman in a man's job is a 'woman who can make it as a man', not because the masculine values required to do the job have been questioned or changed, but because she adopts these values.

"Gender equality is more than women having the same jobs as men or even doing the same things for the same money and recognition. Women who have 'men's jobs' do not enter them on a gender-equal or a gender-neutral playing field. A woman in a man's job is a 'woman who can make it as a man', not because the masculine values required to do the job have been questioned or changed, but because she adopts these values."