Womenxs Empowerment and Political Extremism

While female empowerment appears to be a solution to the universal problem of oppression of women by men, the paper highlights the existence of different methods and goals of empowerment. For instance, while the Millenium Development Goal has sought to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women by means of increasing female representation in national legislatures, some other women have chosen political violence as a tool of empowerment. By looking at cases of women active in guerrillas (El Salvador, United States), terrorism (Rusia, United Kingdom), and civil guards (Pakistan, Siria and Iraq), the paper examines three issues: 1) the historical and contemporary nature of militant women. 2) Stereotypes associated with female participation in armed political movements. 3) Female roles within radical organisations (sympathizers, spies, fighters, leaders/generals, suicide bombers). The paper concludes by stressing the need to continue studying women´s political participation beyond Democratic institutions. Qualitative data for this paper comes from digital and printed versions of internaitonal newspapers, and biographies.