‘Women and Children First’: Gender, Norms, and Humanitarian Evacuation in the Balkans 1991–95

Abstract

Of all noncombatants in the former Yugoslavia, adult civilian men were most likely to be massacred by enemy forces. Why, therefore, did international agencies mandated with the protection of civilians evacuate women and children, but not military-age men, from besieged areas? This article reviews the operational dilemmas faced by protection workers in the former Yugoslavia when negotiating access to civilian populations. I argue that a social constructivist approach incorporating gender analysis is required to explain both the civilian protection community s discourse and its operational behavior. First, gender beliefs constitute the discursive strategies on which civilian protection advocacy is based. Second, gender norms operate in practice to constrain the options available to protection workers in assisting civilians. These two causal pathways converged in the former Yugoslavia to produce effects disastrous to civilians, particularly adult men and male adolescents.This project was supported in part by a Jane Grant Fellowship through the Center for the Study of Women in Society at the University of Oregon. I am indebted to the availability and engagement of all those at the ICRC and UNHCR during the interview process; particular thanks to David Harland, Mark Cutts, and Charlotte Lindsey. Adam Jones provided the insight that led to this empirical study. I am also grateful to Ronald Mitchell, Robert Darst, Lars Skalnes, Dennis Galvan, Anita Weiss, Wendy Weber, Julie Mertus, Alyson Smith, Smail Cecic, Helen Kinsella, Debra DeLaet, Michael Barnett, Lisa Martin, Kristin Williams, Valerie Sperling, Jordan Salberg, and Stuart Shulman for encouragement and helpful feedback.