Research on feminist peace in Myanmar awarded

Jenny Hedström, Associate Professor of War Studies, along with Elisabeth Olivius and Zin Mar Phyo, receives the European Journal of Politics and Gender's award for the best scientific article of 2023.

The researchers are awarded for the article 'Feminist peace or state co-optation? The Women, Peace and Security agenda in Myanmar', in which they develop a new conceptual approach to feminist peace.

"We argue that feminist peace involves political conditions that allow women affected by conflicts to formulate their own visions of the changes needed, and that they have opportunities to influence the reconstruction of society after the conflict," says Jenny Hedström.

Feminist peace is not achieved in Myanmar

In the article, the researchers apply this approach in a case study based on interviews with 40 activists in Myanmar. The results show that the quest to achieve feminist peace fails in the case of Myanmar, primarily due to how international aid is organized, in combination with the Myanmar government's interest in excluding critical voices.

"This leads to limited opportunities to achieve feminist peace. Women who are directly affected by armed conflicts often have few opportunities to contribute to the reconstruction of society after the conflict," says Jenny Hedström.

Award justification

The European Journal on Politics and Gender is delighted to award the 2023 best article prize to Elisabeth Olivius, Jenny Hedstrom, and Zin Mar Phyo, for an outstanding piece of research on feminist peace in Myanmar. The article elaborates a new conceptual approach to feminist peace that is of analytical and practical utility to research on politics and gender.

The article conceives feminist peace as a political condition that allows all women affected by conflict to participate in reconstruction. The authors draw on interviews with 40 activists and advocates to show how this aspiration falls short in the Myanmar case. Through channelling international donor funds to specific women’s groups in specific locations, the government hinders diverse women’s ability to contribute to and benefit from peacebuilding initiatives. Women in conflict affected areas become those least likely to participate.

The jury was impressed with this article’s new, critical perspective to scholarship on the Women, Peace, and Security agenda and on its establishment of a new way to conceive of whether a feminist peace is or is not being implemented. The jury further valued the article’s empirical contribution into how illiberal post-war states can manipulate international aid to exclude women's voices and hinder feminist peace. Lastly, the jury celebrates the article’s relevance to current political debates and the inclusion of an activist in the authors’ team.

The EJPG Best Article Award is awarded annually to the best article published in the European Journal of Politics and Gender in the previous year. The winning article has been selected by a jury appointed by the journal's editorial board.