Hello everyone, my name is Sanne Weber. I'm a research fellow in IDD and I will tell you
a little bit about my research.
I'm interested in understanding how conflicts affect gender relations and how post-conflict
mechanisms can transform gender inequality.
A lot of my research has been taking place in Colombia over the last couple of years,
especially in two small-scale communities of cattle farmers in the Caribbean coast.
These communities were displaced by paramilitary groups for ten years and since their return
in 2007 these communities have been trying to get back to their land, or trying to receive
their land titles back, including through a land restitution and reparation process
sponsored by the Colombian State, and I have been studying that programme.
Now, gender played quite an important role in this, and in displacement.
So before displacement, gender relations were very traditional in these communities.
Men were really seen as the heads of household, the breadwinners, and women were really limited
to household tasks.
This changed quite a lot during displacement, because men's agricultural skills were quite
useless in the cities where people displaced to.
And so women took up new roles to generate the income that guaranteed the survival for
their families.
So this was quite an emancipatory experience for many women, although it was also hard
because it produced a double burden for them, because they had to take care of their families
and also generate income.
So when they returned ten years later, and as has happened in many other conflict situations
around the world, return also meant a return to pre-conflict gender roles, in which men
were the breadwinners and the heads of household and women were basically limited again to
the household tasks, that are much less valued.
Now, development plays quite a big role in this as well, because these communities basically
lack all basic social and infrastructural services: there is no running water, there
is no drinking water, there is also no electricity, and women cook on woodfire for example.
So all the household tasks that women have to perform, become very time and labour intensive,
and also very physically demanding.
Women in these communities really described their situation as being slaves of the household.
So this really shows how post-conflict mechanisms, like land restitution and reparations in Colombia,
should also make sure that there are the minimum basic social and infrastructural services
necessary, so that both men and women can be involved in different spheres of life,
and not just the household as is women's case.
And instead, what you see in Colombia is that the programme in fact reinforces gender relations.
So the projects, the land restitution and reparation programme, really only addresses
men, because they are seen as those mainly responsible for cattle farming, and the women
really feel left unaddressed basically.
And after a couple of years some NGOs started implementing some projects there, but also
those were quite stereotypical in terms of gender, so women were given projects to raise
chickens or to start a tailoring workshop, but these were really unsustainable financially,
so they didn't really help much to give women a new position or a stronger role as socio-economic actors.
So lessons here are that in a post-conflict situation, development and basic services
are important to make sure that women actually have the time and space to be involved in
other spheres, rather than the household.
And this requires also engaging men, because as I explained before, in a conflict gender
relations often change and it is a lost opportunity to then let them return to normal, whereas
this could also be a time to really shake up gender relations and to start involving
men in different tasks, including those in the household.
So in Colombia this was unfortunately not the case, but these could be lessons for other
situations in the future.
So this is in a nutshell some of the things that I deal with in my research, and which
I also sometimes teach about or accompany students in their dissertation work.
I hope it was interesting to you and we really look forward to seeing you in IDD next year!