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∞ This article contributes to a developing field of scholarship that has been concerned with exploring the impacts of conflict and its transformation on sexual and gender minorities. Drawing on extant analysis, the article explores the marginalization of issues pertaining to sexuality and gender in international law and peace agreements. It then moves on to an assessment of the effects of the integration of sexual orientation and gender identity equality provisions into a limited number of peace agreements. The article contends that attempts to implement and extend sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) equality provisions in peace agreements in meaningful ways typically become cast as justifiable, residual or reprehensible by agonistic groups at local levels during transition. It claims that this fracturing of standpoints on SOGI equality can strengthen counterhegemonic articulations of sexual and gender minorities’ identities that provoke radical versions of peacebuilding.

Constitutions reflect national values and set out the foundational principles of governance. Traditionally, those values and principles have been male-defined. As such, constitutions often form the basis of the ‘gendered state’ with all its attendant inequities. Feminist constitutionalism challenges the wider domain of constitution-making to consider questions relating to gender inequality in constitutional debate, design and redesign. Through a case study approach, this article utilises a feminist lens to examine on-going constitutional debates in Northern Ireland that have been deepened by Brexit. Any new constitutional arrangements on the island of Ireland will drive multiple transformations in social, legal and economic life that will impact on the lives of women. Subsequently, this article explores the gender dynamics of current debates to contribute to the broader feminist literature on constitutional transitions in deeply divided societies.

In divided societies gender research has a relatively low profile. In regions where divisions are perceived to be driven by ethnicity, research and activism focused on anything but ethno-nationalis...

There has been comparatively little interest in studies of masculinities in Northern Ireland. This chapter explores why studies of masculinities have been slower to develop in Northern Ireland and examines the critical questions that studying men’s gendered identities open up in a society emerging from conflict. Northern Ireland challenges assumptions among some feminist scholars that the study of masculinities renders women irrelevant. Because gendered analysis of masculinities is near-absent in this context, women continue to be marginalised in practice. The chapter concludes by arguing that the integration of critical studies of masculinities into Northern Ireland scholarship exposes the role that gender played in the conflict and also how the region’s conflict transformation has been shaped by gender-power relationships.

Research Highlights and Abstract This article: Exposes how masculinised accounts of conflict transformational processes in Northern Ireland have distorted the historical record of the region's on-going transition from violent conflict. Assesses the theoretical and practical effects of de-gendering the analysis of conflict transformational processes in the region. Provides an empirical study of women's hidden contribution to the reduction of levels of paramilitary violence in ethnically divided, working-class communities in the region. Utilises focus group data to develop a gender-sensitive reading of community justice, security and peace. The 1998 Peace Agreement in Northern Ireland provoked local-level processes of demilitarisation that focused on developing community-based restorative justice practices to replace paramilitary forms of justice. These schemes were viewed as important aspects of the broader process of conflict transformation in the region. The dominant narrative surrounding the development of these new justice forms framed them as an outcome of the efforts of ex-combatant men. This article contests this narrative and examines women's contribution to the development of CBRJ in Northern Ireland. Using data from focus groups, the article exposes the consequences of displacing women in conflict transformational analysis. Additionally, it explores how women's articulation of their conflict transformational practices engenders a critical reframing of key terms in conflict transformational narratives including peace, security, and justice. This exploration reinforces wider feminist claims that any analysis of conflict transformational processes that displaces gender is both conceptually and politically problematic.

Men's dominance of the political and military dimensions of the Northern Ireland conflict has meant that the story of the conflict has generally been a story about men. Ethno-nationalist antagonism reinforced men's roles as protectors and defenders of ethno-national groups and shaped violent expressions of masculinities. Due to the primacy of ethno-nationalist frameworks of analysis in research on the conflict, the relationships between gender and men's violence have been under-theorized. This article employs the framework of Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities to examine these relationships and also explores the changing patterns of men's violence in Northern Ireland.

The riots that erupted in English cities in August 2011 were provoked by a complex mix of socio-economic factors. Sidelining structural explanations for the civil disorder, conservative commentators argued that dysfunctional families had caused the riots. Reinforcing traditional connections between criminality, the family and welfare, conservatives contended that the absence of fathers in lone mother-headed families explained both the dynamics of the civil disorder and the aggressive behaviour of some of the young men involved. Such claims located both the causes of the riots and solutions to expressions of violent masculinities in the familial sphere. Employing the framework of critical studies of men and masculinities this article interrogates these narratives and maps their depoliticising effects. Additionally, it exposes how the effects of a range of social problems were projected on to poor, lone mothers, reinforcing a range of regulatory narratives and practices that target this social group.

Both the business sector and government have claimed that there is a skills deficit among graduates in the UK. Universities are now under increasing pressure to develop graduate ‘employability’ strategies to improve the stock and quality of graduates' generic skills. Critical subject communities have been sceptical of an employability agenda that frames graduate employment solely around notions of personal career development and planning. This article discusses the intellectual and pedagogical debates that have surrounded the employability agenda in higher education. It details a critical pedagogical approach to graduate employment that was developed through a project funded by the Higher Education Academy's Subject Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics.

There has been extensive academic analysis of Northern Ireland’s ethnonationalist antagonisms. However, academic literature that has explored both the region’s ethno-nationalist conflict and its more recent processes of conflict transformation has neglected the concept of masculinities. This article employs the framework of critical studies of men/masculinities to analyze why men’s gendered identities have received so little attention in a society that is marked by deep gendered inequalities and also exposes the consequences of this neglect in terms of exploring gendered power relationships in Northern Ireland society. Additionally, the article employs the concept of militarized masculinities to explore the relationships between ethnonationalist conflict, conflict transformation, men’s gendered identities, and gender power in the region.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to offer a perspective to further the understanding of gender entrepreneurship. This paper considers the situatedness of the gendered entrepreneur within diverse international contexts marked by different constitutions of gender identities and networks of power, both within the context of contributions within this special issue but also more broadly within the field of gender and entrepreneurship research.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopt a feminist perspective and analyse the different framings of identity within gender and entrepreneurship literature and their contributions to our understandings of the concepts of both power and gendered identities.FindingsThe paper finds that power and identity are configured in different contexts in ways that open arenas for future analysis.Originality/valueThe paper highlights the importance of considering masculinities within gender and entrepreneurship research offering support for further analyses of entrepreneurial masculinities by examining two studies that expose entrepreneurial masculinities as shifting subjectivities influenced by men's social power, but also by interactions between men and women and broader cultural contexts and transitions. In so doing, it contributes to the research agenda in relation to gender and entrepreneurship in different contexts.

This article discusses the challenges of teaching sexual politics in the context of Northern Ireland. In this region, ethno-nationalism has been implicated in the constitution of sexual narratives that serve the respective ethno-nationalist struggles in the region. The interaction of sexuality with ethnicity reinforces the importance of reflecting on pedagogical practices around sensitive/controversial subjects. The article draws on a mixture of pedagogical perspectives and personal reflection to assess a set of pedagogical issues that face educators teaching in these complex contexts. While the reflections and discussions in this essay relate to a particular teaching context and subject matter, they have broader relevance in terms of the teaching of sensitive/controversial subjects.

Community-based restorative justice (CBRJ) schemes emerged in Northern Ireland during the ‘peace process’ to provide an alternative to paramilitary systems of justice. These initiatives have received considerable academic attention. A complex and critical literature has now emerged in this area; however, extant explorations of CBRJ have tended to sideline issues of gender power. Feminists and international bodies, such as the United Nations, have highlighted the importance of addressing historical gendered inequities in terms of the design and evaluation of conflict transformation initiatives. Drawing on contemporary feminist frameworks this article exposes the importance of the category of gender in evaluations of CBRJ in Northern Ireland. Moreover, it scrutinises the theoretical processes through which issues of gender power have been filtered out of evaluations of community-based restorative justice schemes in the region.

In the summer of 2008, the Westminster MP and Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Iris Robinson, made homophobic statements during interviews with the media. Robinson's anti-gay remarks highlight the continuing challenges for sexual politics in Northern Ireland. However, conflict transformation literature in the region has elided issues of sexuality. This article, drawing on elements of Judith Butler's analysis of injurious speech, assesses the issues that Robinson's homophobic speech highlights in relation to sexual equality in Northern Ireland. It concludes by assessing the role of conflict transformation literature in charting sexual politics in the region.

This article examines and develops a comparison of the Holy Cross School conflict and the campaign by Robert McCartney's sisters and partner to bring those responsible for his murder to justice in Northern Ireland. Both events involved women who identify with the Irish nationalist community in public protest. The article employs a feminist theoretical framework to investigate the ethno-gender dynamics of these particular manifestations of women's political protest. By engaging in a comparative analysis of both protests, the article exposes how these specific expressions of women's political agency and the political discourses and images that they stimulated were influenced by, reflected and disturbed notions about the role of women in nationalist societies.

Academic feminists have turned to feminist theory to develop ways of managing or solving ethnic antagonisms, especially among feminists/women in Northern Ireland. This essay troubles the applicatio...

The murder of Robert McCartney in Belfast in January 2005 sparked a campaign by his sisters and partner to bring his murderer(s), allegedly members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, to justice. The article examines the gender politics of this campaign. It explores how the campaign simultaneously reflected and contested traditional ideas about women's subjectivities and roles in ethnically divided societies. Furthermore, the article highlights how the ideologies of masculinity and femininity acted as political resources for the campaigners in their struggle with the Irish republican hierarchy.

This article explores the Holy Cross school dispute in Northern Ireland from a feminist perspective. This ethnic quarrel produced a situation whereby women and young schoolgirls became the focal point of a sectarian protest from September 2001 to early 2002. Throughout the conflict, issues of gender were sidelined from the analysis of the dispute. The article attempts to remedy this omission by moving the category of gender to the forefront of the analysis. It examines the relationship between nationalist discourses of gender identity and representations of the nationalist women's agency during the dispute. While exposing these dimensions of the conflict, the article also considers the impact of women's ethno-nationalist agency on their role and positioning within nationalist cultures. It concludes that the Holy Cross conflict exposes the potentially disruptive aspects of women's ethno-nationalist agency and highlights the political significance of that agency for nationalist cultures pursuing ideals of gender equality.

This article revisits the issue of male experience and its possible relationship to gender politics. Traditionally, feminism has viewed male experience as representing a bar to the development of feminist knowledge and consciousness. This conceptualization of male experience continues to inform the contemporary debate on male feminism. The article argues that this experiential bar emerges from a theorization of male experience as singular, fixed, and organic. Challenging this conceptualization, the article retheorizes male experience as a diverse, shifting, and contested category that produces different political outcomes. Through an analysis of men’s group discourse, the article illustrates how particular interpretations of male experience produce both feminist and antifeminist effects. It concludes that feminism needs to examine male experience as a multifaceted category that can act as the material upon which male feminist resistance operates.

Explorations of Protestant, unionist and loyalist (PUL) women’s identities during the conflict suggested that they were less politically active than their Irish nationalist and republican counterparts. Throughout the conflict, they appeared to be suspicious of feminism and content to ‘do their bit’ to defend the Union within the regulatory gender structures of male dominated unionist politics and culture. Generally, unionism has been viewed as providing limited space for feminist reconstructions of PUL women’s identities. Certainly, in comparison to Irish nationalist and republican women, PUL women were less visible during the conflict. However, recent feminist research has illustrated that their political agency and gendered transgressions are diverse and shifting. This chapter employs a radical constructionist framework to explore the complex processes through which PUL gendered identities are constituted, disciplined and transgressed. This volume’s division of pro-unionist identities into the categories of Protestant, unionist and loyalist already recognises the necessity of mapping the effects of intra-communal differences on seemingly homogeneous groups. This chapter explores the concept of difference in the unionist community further by foregrounding the intersection of Protestantism, unionism and loyalism with gender. Throughout, it illustrates how extant feminist research exposes the challenges for PUL women in a context not only marked by contested political histories and processes of conflict transformation/management, but also the historical relationships of gender that have impacted women in both ethno-nationalist communities.