SECURITY, GENDER AND POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION: THE NEED FOR A "WOMAN QUESTION" WHEN ENGAGING IN RECONSTRUCTION

[...]incorporation permits - if not encourages - the adoption of extraordinary measures that challenge socially constructed, anachronistic practices, norms, and boundaries - whether custom-based, religious, cultural, or legal - that some then use as an excuse to defend discriminatory practices. Infusing gender issues into a national security paradigm in a post-conflict setting means making gender an existential issue.16 This approach is not only just, but is also practical: [C]onflict often leaves more women alive than men, skewing the population and forcing women to lead their households and to take on other leadership roles simply because of the absence of the men who used to play those roles. [...]even if a country does not want to involve its women in the transition process, their involvement may just be a fact of the circumstances, and any hindrance to women taking on these responsibilities can be detrimental to the country's transition.