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The Role of Gender During the Armenian Genocide
Abstract by Doris Melkonian
Coauthors: Arda Melkonian
On Session 085  (Gender, Violence, and State in the Middle East and North Africa)

On Friday, December 2 at 2:00 pm

2011 Annual Meeting

Abstract
The body of literature on the Armenian Genocide is primarily by and about men, their struggles and their experiences. Few studies have focused on the survival experiences of females, despite the fact that a higher percentage of Genocide survivors were women and girls. The focus of this study is to highlight the experiences of women, and the role women played in their personal survival as well as that of their loved ones. Acknowledging that men and women experienced the Genocide differently, a gender-related analysis is used to highlight these differences. Data for this paper are drawn from in-depth interviews of Genocide survivors conducted from 1970 to 2000. Using a gender lens, 185 survivor accounts were coded and analyzed. Ringelheim’s (1985) framework for analyzing gender differences was used to catalog the ways women were treated and the ways they responded during the Genocide. Specifically, women’s stories were grouped into two categories: 1) women’s vulnerabilities (“what was done to them”) and 2) women’s resources (“what they did”). Women’s vulnerabilities differed from those of men due to biological reasons. In particular, women’s sexuality and their reproductive capabilities made them especially vulnerable. First, pregnancy and childbirth during the Genocide made Armenian women even more vulnerable to attack. Second, Armenian women were particularly defenseless against sexual assault. Third, women were kidnapped, and often forced to marry their kidnappers. Women’s resources included survival strategies based on traditional gender roles, as well as behaviors inconsistent with socially prescribed roles. Women drew on their past experiences and socialization to ensure their survival by creating strong bonds with other relatives, choosing to marry Turks, ensuring their children’s survival by leaving them in the care of others (strangers, missionaries, trusted neighbors), and using skills acquired in their gender-specific roles to provide for their families. Additionally, the trauma of the Genocide forced behaviors that were inconsistent with traditional gender roles such as detaching from children and engaging in resistance. Some mothers abandoned their children and walked away, while others sold their children for food. Women who engaged in acts of resistance resisted assimilation by refusing to marry Turks and/or convert to Islam, assisted volunteer soldiers and hid weapons, and provided assistance to rescue others. This paper will attempt to draw attention to the role of gender during the Armenian Genocide. The unique suffering experienced by women, and their strategies for survival will be highlighted.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Ottoman Empire
Sub Area
Armenian Studies