Patriarchal Structures in Disarmament

This webinar on “Patriarchal Structures in Disarmament” will focus on the rhetorics and power structures that underpin the disarmament discourse, particularly with regards to women’s role in an order that privileges the ‘strength and dominance’ of their male counterparts. It will offer a stark introduction to the relationship between masculinity and militarism and how these contribute to the continued existence of nuclear weapons, resulting in the fight for disarmament to become equated with feelings of emasculation and weakness. We will ask our panelists to unpack these binary views of the patriarchy and instead challenge these gendered perspectives that are enforced in the disarmament regime. To do so, we will focus on the importance of intersectional feminism within the discourse and discuss the links between hetero-patriarchy and racism and how these processes have detrimental effects, not only on the women who suffer as a conseqence of nuclear arsenals, but also on the leadership role of women in disarmament.