Understanding War and Peace

This chapter examines the connections between sex, gender, and violence. It gives readers a basic introduction to the concepts of the biological category of sex, and the social category of gender, and how sex and gender relate to each other. It examines whether sex category factors such as testosterone levels and upper body strength affect propensities for violence. It identifies a number of factors connecting social and political structures pertaining to sex and gender – including the first political order, patriarchy, brideprice, polygyny, marriage market obstruction, militarized masculinity and the political repression of women – to various forms of violence, including wars between states, civil wars, terrorism, insurgency, violence against women, honor killings, selective abortion and infanticide, and sexual assault. It applies many of these concepts to a quantitative study examining when peacekeeping troops engage in sexual exploitation and abuse, and also to a case study of India. Last, it considers potential policy solutions to sex and gender repression and inequality, and to violence caused by them.