Peacebuilding through Women’s Community Development

Wee Women's Work in Northern Ireland

Amanda E. Donahoe

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9783319551937
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319551944
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: European Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book explores the gendered history of the Troubles, the rise of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, and the role of community development as a new field in Northern Ireland. Nearly twenty years after the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement that ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland, tensions persist and society is still deeply divided. The book addresses the ways in which women navigate these tensions and contribute to peacebuilding through community development, described dismissively by many in Northern Ireland as the work of "wee women." Women navigate this gendered space to build peace strategically through "Wee Women's Work." The author focuses in particular on the Women's Sector and draws on feminist theory to examine the distinction between formal and informal politics.

Table of contents

• Peacebuilding through Women’s Community Development
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Benign Apartheid
• 3 The Gendered Politics of Violence
• 4 The Coalition And The Peace Process
• 5 The Development Of Community Development
• 6 Wee Women’s Work
• 7 Politics and Constraint
• 8 Looking Outward
• Appendix A: Interview Annex
• Bibliography
• Index