Gendering rebel origins: women as first movers during civil wars

Research on women’s participation in rebellions explores why such groups recruit women members, women’s rationale for joining, their pathways into armed organisations and their experiences therein. However, women are not only mobilised into rebel activity; they are also first movers: women founded or co-founded at least nine rebellions in the post-Second World War period. How do some women overcome common gendered barriers to entry and establish armed groups? I suggest that known women founders’ pathways were facilitated in part by conditions within their social infrastructure – including political relationships, royal status or divine mandates – which supplanted typical gendered obstacles, widened non-traditional pathways into violence and bolstered their credentials among community members. However, many founders still experienced persistent sexism and gendered resistance within their own organisations. These patterns demonstrate the ephemerality of relational infrastructure and the durability of gendered orders that precede, persist and can even entrench despite opportunities created during war.