Terrorism poses a great threat for societies all over the globe. Research on the phenomenon of terrorism used to be predominantly focused on men, and if women's participation was recognized, they were oftentimes not seen as active agents of terrorism. Reasons for that are found in the stereotypical assumption that women are generally passive and/or nurturing. Not acknowleding the participation of women in terrorism is dangerous, as terrorist groups have become increasingly aware of the stereotypes and untilize them to their advantage. Therefore, this thesis aims to map the existing research on women in far-right, and Islamist terrorism, focusing on their roles and motivations. This is done by conduction a scoping review based on 19 English-language peer-reviewed articles, utilizing five online databases. The results show that even though women are holding a variety of active roles in both types of terrorism, the most prominent role is still that of the mother and wife. Research on women in Islamist terrorism illustrates a great variety of motivations, dividing between Western and non-Western women. Research on women in far-right terrorism, on the other hand, only offers indirect knowledge about their motivations. Nevertheless, the results illustrate that women are driven to participate in terrorist groups by shared ideologies and belifes, similar to men. Despite limitations, such as resorting to Western-centric research, or the challenging use of terminologies and definitions, the review holds interesting implications for future research and prevention of (female) terroism. The importance of recognizing women as valid agents of terrorism is emphasized.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-67712 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Brenner, Lea |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Institutionen för kriminologi (KR) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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