Gender discrimination is an issue that occurs at the societal, interactional and individual

level. Understanding the role of gender in conflict is best achieved through an examination of
those levels. Within these three levels are two majorly different gender models that direct
researchers to this topic. One model assumes an outside female world, in which women are by
nature different than men. Most of these studies focus on womens maternal abilities as shapers,
caretakers and peacemakers. The other denies the assumptions that women and men have crucial
natures. In fact, it denies the crucial nature of anything. By focusing on language, symbols, and
meaning, post-modern feminism studies how social power is exercised and how social relations
of gender, class and race can be transformed. This doesn't rule out the specificity of women's
experiences, and their differences from men, since under patriarchy women have differential
access to the spreading field.
The majority of our research took place on the internet. We feel that our topic is an
important one that has concerned the lives of many individuals. To go in depth with the topic is a
task most people find difficult to do.
Some of our main website sources were the Scholars Strategic Network, Harvard
University and The Huffington Post. I found that these helped us the most in developing this
specific topic due to their vast amount of information concerning the topic.
Women and men differ in ways that they would talk about their conflicts. Women talk in-
depth and at length about the context of the dispute, particularly focusing on their involvement in
the relationship with the other party. Men use more rational, linear and legalistic language to talk
about their issues. Women talked about fairness in a way that incorporated both their material
interests and the network of relationships in the dispute. Contrary to what the researchers
expected, the women in the study were significantly more than men. Also unexpectedly, women
are no more concerned than men with maintaining a positive relationship with the other party.
Finally, women were as concerned with resolving the particular issue as were men. While
women felt more vulnerable, their vulnerability did not seem to interfere with their ability to
actively handle their disputes. However, women talked at length about feeling disempowered and
disadvantaged in attempting to deal with their conflicts. Northrup focuses on how men and
women's essentially different realities may lead us to understand conflict differently and
therefore to approach conflict resolution differently.
These research studies helped shed some light on some of the complexities of studying
the role and effect of gender in conflict. Future research should focus on gender differences of
parties and third party intervenors (third party being LGBT). Research should focus on how
gender influences the ways that conflict is seen, felt and understood by individuals and groups.
Research on gender expands the ways that we think about conflict, justice and social change.
A Battle Worth Fighting: Gender Inequality
Giselle Santos and Jesus Cortez
Website
Senior Division
Word Count: 485