(Mis)recognition of Female Combatants in Armed Rebellion Groups : Status Subordination Through Discursive Practices in the EZLN and the PKK

Abstract: Women in combat roles are present in at least 40% of armed rebellion movements, yet the narrative of women outside of traditional roles in conflict is invisible in various discursive communities of practice. Silence and misrecognition are the root of this issue: to be considered as agents and full partners of social interaction, female combatants need to exist in the discourse of leaders and institutions. Embedded in the feminist IR theory, I utilise Critical Discourse Analysis and Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis to unveil the extent of recognition given to female fighters in data internal and external to conflicts. United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1325, 1820 and 1889 are analysed to explore whether women are institutionally ‘allowed’ to exist as agents in war beyond the roles of victim and peacemaker. Analysis of discourse from the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party then serves to dive deeper into the recognition of female fighters by the leaders of armed struggle movements. Despite the ambitions of gender equality of all three actors, the research reveals that a greater level of feminist ideology seems to exceptionalise female combatants, thus not including and recognising them to the same extent as men.