This article introduces the concept of ethnicity in relation to gendered
security problems in conflict and post-conflict settings. Feminist
research has established that men and women experience conflict and
post-conflict situations differently owing to issues of identity and
power. National and gendered identities and women's disadvantageous
location within global and local power structures combine to
put women at risk, while simultaneously providing little room for
them to voice their security problems. Theories on women as female
boundary-makers show how ethnicity appears in part to be created,
maintained and socialized through male control of gender identities,
and how women's fundamental human rights and dignity are often
caught up in male power struggles. In post-conflict settings, gender
construction appears to be further complicated by both national
agendas of identity formation and re-formation, which often include
an ethnic focus, and the presence of a competing ‘fraternity' as a
consequence of the arrival of the international community