Throughout history women have been involved in clandestine and terrorist activities. Although, a significant amount of discourse revolves around male participation and leadership within terrorist organizations the literature presented exposes how valuable women have been in progressing various causes. Through recruitment and of their own volition women have entered into a male dominated arena to assert their capability to effectively navigate operating within an organization that promotes terror. The literature to follow presents historiographical patterns as to how women become involved in such regimes and how they survive the life of their involvement as a female combatant.
Oppression has been a motivating factor for women to become involved with terrorist organizations. Upon investigating female terrorists in the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party, Knight (1979) found that many of the women who flocked to groups such as the previously mentioned one felt that their opportunities were jilted by an androcentric system. Knight (1979) postulated that the women driven towards committing terrorist acts endorsing violence were “highly motivated, self-assertive young women who may have turned to terror out of a sense of isolation and frustration nurtured in a society that offered them so little opportunity” (p. 145). Oppression being a highly motivating factor to propel women into committing heinous acts was also echoed in Hellmann-Rajanayagam’s (2008) depiction of women members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Hellmann-Rajanayagam (2008) mirrored sentiments that Knight (1979) held in the context that the militant group in India was recruiting women in order to further women’s emancipation; such a goal could only be achieved through women being actively involved in the terrorist organization. An increase in women participating in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam reached a peak when, in 1911 British administration changed the dowry law so that the husband was able to control his wife’s assets without her knowledge or permission; such a change enabled women to feel a personal connection to the cause of the organization in a way that demanded participation (Hellmann-Rajanayagam, 2008). Such a control on what women considered to be their right was an infringement that propelled Tamil women to engage in combative activities. A push for women to join the movement mirrored Knight’s (1979) illustration of Russian women witnessing the “injustice of tsarist society” when they were unable to find employment when compared to their male counterparts and began witnessing the poverty that was permeating social lines (p. 145). Such frustrations provided the backbone for joining a movement that inspired societal change, specifically improving women’s position within society.
Gender equality demands stemming from an oppressive society were equally reflected by Jacquette’s (1973) revelations regarding the women who engaged in revolutionary movements in Latin American. Specifically, Jacquette (1973) determined that the “Revolution of May in Argentina opened new possibilities” for women and loosened the chains that had previously bound them” to the male-centered culture (p. 345). In addition, Jacquette (1973) continued this assertion correlating the previously mentioned revolution to the Revolution of 1910 in Mexico where “the period of violence” led to an ideological change favorable to the emancipation of women” (p. 345). In Uruguay the Tupamaro movement engaged in guerilla warfare that a high number of women participated in (Jacquette, 1973). Jacquette (1973) notes that the Tupamaro ideology was constructed, in part, around the notion that women had been “disadvantaged by a classist education which” avoided training centered on physical improvement and limited a woman’s “initiative and even their agressivity” (p. 351). Such confinements placed constraints on women becoming powerful members of their society. However, in opposition to the validity of fighting for women’s emancipation through violent means Sajjad (2004) questioned the ability of women to be taken seriously in their struggle for emancipation from oppressive societies.
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Blee, K. (1996). Becoming a racist: Women in contemporary ku klux klan and neo-nazi groups. Gender and Society, 10(6), 680-702.
Bloom, M. (2007). Female suicide bombers: A global trend. The MIT Press, 136(1), 94-102.
Cunningham, K. (2003). Cross-regional trends in female terrorism. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 26(2), 171-195.
Healing, R. (2005). White stockings and black widows: Women in chechnya-myths and realities. Off Our Backs, 35(3), 44-47.
Hellmann-Rajanayagam, D. (2008). Female warriors, martyrs, and suicide attackers: Women in the LITE. International Review of Modern Sociology, 34(1), 1-25.
Jacques, K., & Taylor, P. (2008). Male and female suicide bombers: Different sexes, different reasons? Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 31(4), 304-326.
Jaquette, J. (1973). Women in revolutionary movements in latin america. Journal of Marriage and Family, 35(2), 344-354.
Knight, A. (1979). Female terrorists in the russian socialist revolutionary party. Russian Review, 38(2), 139-159.
Naaman, D. (2007). Brides of palestine/angels of death: Media, gender, and performance in the case of the palestinian female suicide bombers. The University of Chicago Press, 32(4), 933-955.
Sajjad, T. (2004). Women guerillas: Marching toward true freedom? An analysis of women’s experiences in the frontlines of guerilla warfare and in the post-war period. Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 59(4), 4-16.
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