Female Soldiers in Sierra Leone

The eleven-year civil war in Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002

was incomprehensibly brutal—it is estimated that half of all

female refugees were raped and many thousands were killed.

While the publicity surrounding sexual violence helped to

create a general picture of women and girls as victims of the

conflict, there has been little effort to understand female soldiers'

involvement in, and experience of, the conflict. Female

Soldiers in Sierra Leone draws on interviews with 75 former

female soldiers and over 20 local experts, providing a rare

perspective on both the civil war and post-conflict development

efforts in the country. Megan MacKenzie argues that

post-conflict reconstruction is a highly gendered process,

demonstrating that a clear recognition and understanding

of the roles and experiences of female soldiers are central

to both understanding the conflict and to crafting effective

policy for the future.