This thesis explores women's experiences from participation in armed groups, and their subsequent reintegration into civil society within the Colombian context. The study is based on two months of fieldwork, and nine interviews with female ex-combatants from the FARC, the ELN and the AUC currently enrolled in the reintegration process. Most research focus on women in specific armed groups, and tend to portray women in terms of either empowerment or oppression. This thesis criticizes such tendencies, through the exploration of the complex and gendered processes of de/militarization. The study shows that the women's lives have always - before, during and after their participation in armed groups - been marked by insecurity and exposure to violence. Sporadic incidents of direct physical violence were not always found as most distressing, rather daily stressors including factors like poverty and psychological stress, had larger impact on the women. Further, the women experienced liminality, both as members of an armed group and as participants in the reintegration program, which offered both possibilities and hindrances. In the armed groups established power hierarchies were altered and gendered norms were transgressed, at the same time as the women's reproductive rights were severely constrained. In their quest to become a part of civil society, conforming to conventional femininity became a central strategy for hiding their past. However, the burden of being the primary parent posed challenges for the process of reintegrating.

This thesis sets out to explore the processes of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of female ex-combatants in Sierra Leone within the context of post-conflict peace building. International and local stakeholders including the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), the National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilisation Reintegration (NCDDR) and World Bank were responsible for DDR. The DDR of female adult combatants and girl soldiers was essential as part of the broader strategies to prevent the reoccurrence of violence and creating conditions for sustainable peace and development. It was aimed at transforming female ex-combatants into a civilian status congruent with peace after eleven years of horrific civil war in Sierra Leone that involved rebel forces, principally the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), and the government‘s Civil Defence Forces (CDF). The DDR process has been criticized in that female ex-combatants were often invisible and their needs disregarded. This study investigates the role of women in post-conflict peace building efforts, specifically DDR in Sierra Leone. Its nub is to critically assess the design, implementation and impact of the DDR of female ex-combatants. It focuses particularly on how female combatants are affected by current gender, security and international relations discourses. It assesses the progress made by the relevant international and local institutions in implementing international policies and guidelines on the DDR of female ex-combatants, in Sierra Leone; draws wider conclusions about achievements made and suggests lessons that may be applicable widely.

This thesis investigates media representations of female ex-combatants in ideologically polarized countries, looking to the case of Colombia. It employs a theoretical framework grounded in gender and framing theory, exploring how the dimensions time perspective, invisibilization, dehumanization, irrationality, victimization, and tone shape portrayals of female ex-combatants. A quantitative content analysis is performed on the three newspapers El Espectador, El Tiempo, and El Nuevo Siglo, to compare the relative frequency of these dimensions across newspapers of different ideological orientations. The results show that left-leaning media is more likely to portray female ex-combatants in an active manner through direct quotes, humanization, and rational portrayals, whereas right-leaning media are more likely to engage in invisibilization and passive portrayals. While these results confirm a tendency to invisibilize female combatants, the limited presence of dehumanization and irrationalization indicate a reduction of explicit negative bias. The findings suggest that in ideologically polarized countries, opposition to gender-sensitive peace processes can diminish gradually, which underscores the importance of sustained efforts for inclusivity.