The Militarization of Girls and Women: Violence and Resistance Susan Willhauck, Author of Female Child Soldiering, Gender Violence, and Feminist Theologies The issue of child soldiering has attracted a lot of attention in the media and is a timely concern. Yet theologians have not been very vocal on the ethical complexities of this phenomenon. The use of child soldiers in armed conflict represents a disturbing failure of the global community to safeguard the dignity of children. Even though the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989 and enforced in 1990, was intended to serve as an international mechanism to ensure the safety and well-being of children all over the world. There are approximately 300,000 child soldiers worldwide and about 40 per cent of them are female.1 Many armed groups and some government forces operating in regions of conflict have actively sought out underage female recruits. Girls are often subjected to sexual slavery, receive weapons training and deployed in combat. The phenomenon of child soldiers has been discussed in an expanding body of literature and popular media and non-profit organizations have been mobilized to respond to the crisis.2 Child soldiering is a complex issue and relates to other forms of gender violence such as sexual slavery and human trafficking. In an attempt to rectify a void in theological discourse, a new volume I edited entitled, Female Child Soldiers, Gender Violence and Feminist Theologies, examines the intersection of religion, theology, race and gender in the militarization of girls and women to critically analyze issues involved in the use of child soldiers and women's experience in armed conflict and gender-based violence. It is an interdisciplinary work that brings together feminist voices, including Latina, Korean, Womanist, Caribbean and Africana perspectives, engaging the resources of The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians and the Caribbean Women Theologians for Transformation as well as other Womanist and feminist scholars to engage their various disciplines of ethics, education, sociology and pastoral care. At a time when the U.S. political leadership engages in belligerent and divisive denigration of certain countries and of heightened awareness of sexual exploitation, and when women who disclose it are publicly ridiculed, we are overdue for critical examination of ideologies, policies and practices that lead to gender violence, genocide and the forced militarization of girls and women. Child soldiering is not a new phenomenon. Consider the Hitlerjugend of World War II, and (as Traci C. West reminds us in her contribution to the volume) the use of children in the Civil Rights movement, but of late, the number of child combatants has risen dramatically. Girls and women, however, face unique challenges, according to scholars Beverly Mitchell and Mary Nyangweso (Willhauck 2019), because of the inferior status projected onto them by culture, their vulnerability and increased stigmatization in their communities. Many are raped, forced to bear children and forced to harm or kill others, and their capturers exploit the fact that the girls or young women realize that they will not be welcomed back home, discouraging them from trying to escape. Because females are abducted, sexually violated and forced into combat in an extreme form of oppression with a particular sense of urgency, this work explores what feminist theology could provide that would witness against violence and foster resistance. Miryam Denov, in Girls in Fighting Forces: Moving Beyond Victimhood (2007), notes how in certain war-torn regions of Africa, girls are particularly valued because “they are perceived as highly obedient and easily manipulated, they can swell the ranks if there is a shortage of adults, and ensure a constant pool of forced and compliant labor” (2007, 4). Mostly, girls enter into armed groups after being forcibly abducted and torn apart from their families. However, some girls have been known to voluntarily join militias, sometimes motivated by ideology. In other circumstances, girls hope armed groups will provide protection from poverty, sexual abuse, forced marriages, and state or rebel-inflicted violence. The contributions in Female Child Soldiering, Gender Violence and Feminist Theologies help us understand the ways that child soldiers who are girls and young women are exploited in war, on the one hand, but who resist oppression and exercise agency through their soldiering on the other. Violence has itself been a means of resistance at times, and that girls and women would heed its call as a means of survival or to better their circumstances is no surprise. One would not want to downplay the historic role of women in struggles for liberation. I would not want to suggest that girls and women are less violent or ought to be than men because of their nature—a growing phenomenon of “girls with guns” does not bear out that notion. Some feminists themselves have applauded images of the strong female warrior that permeates culture (including children’s programming). Female child soldiering is a global phenomenon that resides within a complex web of gender violence. Gender-based violence is a social construct that is sometimes normalized based on gender ideals. While Mary Nyangweso addresses the particular challenges of being female in Africa in this new work, Christine Pae focuses on the historic abuse of Korean girls by Japanese and American soldiers, essentially co-opting them into the industrial-militarization complex normalizing exploitation with consequences that continue today. And Marjorie Lewis, Anna Perkins and Dianne McIntosh examine girl gangs in the Caribbean and the issues involved as girls are victims and perpetrators of violence. In her chapter, Traci C. West challenges western moral hypocrisy and embedded racism that assumes child soldiering is a problem “over there” and confronts the colonialism in bringing ideas born of white privilege to bear on child soldiering as in, “We know what is good for you.” She calls out U.S. military recruitment practices that target marginalized youth and promise a better life. To identify the harm in the recruitment of girl soldiers demands that we sort out our moral and religious commitments. Sadly, despite the long presence of child soldiers in war, Christianity has not developed an effective discourse or practice to protect children from soldiering and violence. Feminist theologians Beverly Mitchell and Evelyn Parker demand that we take action to live out our Christian claims on theological anthropology and human dignity with regard to resisting gender violence. ________________________________________________________ 1 According to the United Nations and the Council of Foreign Relations. It is impossible to pinpoint exact numbers due to underreporting. 2 Such as Global Network of Religions for Children; Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative https://www.childsoldiers.org/ and Cultures of Resistance Network https://culturesofresistance.org/end-child-soldiers. Susan Willhauck is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Susan Willhauck Author of Female Child Soldiering, Gender Violence, and Feminist Theologies 9783030219819