Human Rights Awards Reception - Spotlight! on Kathleen Kuehnast!

Our Human Rights Awards Reception takes place this Thursday, December 10, and among our awardees, we are deeply pleased to introduce you to Dr. Kathleen Kuehnast.

Currently serving as the Senior Gender Advisor for the United States Institute of Peace, Dr. Kuehnast will receive our Perdita Huston Human Rights Award. Her human rights efforts have focused a great deal on women, gender, and the conflict/post-conflict arena, and we had a great conversation about her life, passions, and pursuit of human rights. If you have ever wondered what connection gender has to peace and conflict, and what bearing the current and ongoing conversations about gender equality have on our future, you should definitely take the time to hear what she has to say. 

UNA-NCA -   To start out on a lighter note—we know that you completed your field work for your doctorate in Kyrgyzstan. Are there other countries you have lived or worked in, as well? We would love to hear about those experiences and the continuing impact on your life. 

K.K. - I am what some sociologists call a “third culture” kid. I spent six years of my childhood in Germany and then the Philippines as my father was in the Air Force. While abroad, my parents made sure we traveled often and I always have loved seeing how different societies and countries solve human organizational problems. It wasn’t until I entered graduate school to study socio-cultural anthropology that I fully appreciated how my experience as a child outside of my American culture helped me understand the anthropological approach of “participant observer.” As a young adult, I traveled extensively throughout Russia, the former Yugoslavia and East Germany, Tanzania, Kenya, and Europe.

My first solo trip when I was 24 years old was by bicycle from the west coast of Ireland up through Northern Ireland during “the troubles.” It was also my first experience in a conflict-affected country. I worked that summer at the reconciliation community called Corrymeela. I still draw from my time there, especially understanding the day to day trauma and healing of the children who grow up in violent conflict. I learned how early hatred is taught and fear is spread. Nevertheless, healing is possible.

“One critical reason why we need a broader lens to understand gender is to respond to ISIL’s violence against women and girls in conflict and fragile settings. We must address gender in its complete socio-cultural dimensions—that is gender is not simply another name for women; men and boys are also gendered beings.”

UNA-NCA -   Now, when did you first connect human rights, gender, and peace/conflict issues? 

K.K. - While living in Kyrgyzstan as it emerged from its 70 years under Soviet rule, I began to connect human rights, gender and peace and conflict issues. Later at the World Bank, these connections became more apparent in my work as part of a cadre of social scientists examining the economic impact of the USSR’s collapse on women and children and their subsequent impoverishment. In some regions, collective farms and industries were shut down and jobs disappeared nearly overnight. Women attempted to bridge economic upheaval by selling off their belongings, books and prized possessions. In Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, one of the first laws debated by their new governments was legalizing polygamy. Witnessing how quickly human rights and social protections can disappear during social upheaval, and in the case of Tajikistan, during civil war, it became clear that we cannot take any rights for granted. Human rights must be continually protected.

UNA-NCA -  This is a really definite path you have travelled. What brought you into the field of gender and human rights in the first place—what would you say ignited that passion for you?

K.K. - The first time I realized that there were different social rules for girls and boys was when I was in kindergarten in 1960. When I told the class I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up, my teacher said “You can’t because you’re a girl.” I was so surprised I told her without thinking, “You’re wrong.” Then, she told me I had to stay after school for talking back. I guess you could say I became a feminist that day.

Much later, in Kyrgyzstan, while doing fieldwork for my PhD on Soviet gender policy and its impact on Central Asian Muslim women, this began my curiosity about gender dynamics.

When I arrived in the USSR in 1990, I immediately recognized what Soviet women called their “double burden” – required to be both the good worker and the good mother. Although women were as educated as men, if not more so, and since the 1930s “freed” by the state to join the work force, they nevertheless received little support to fulfill the dual roles of worker and caregiver. Many of these social norms came to an abrupt end when the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. Living there for 22 months, I witnessed the malleability of gender norms for both men and women, especially in the context of a society encountering massive change. Thus, began my lifelong examination of the anthropology of transitional societies.

UNA-NCA -   You have worked hard to engage men in the fight for gender equality. Why is gender equality not just a "women's issue?” What have been some of your biggest challenges and greatest successes in that expanding area?

K.K. - One critical reason why we need a broader lens to understand gender is to respond to ISIL’s violence against women and girls in conflict and fragile settings. We must address gender in its complete socio-cultural dimensions—that is gender is not simply another name for women; men and boys are also gendered beings. The tendency among policy makers and practitioners alike is to use gender and women interchangeably.

Why is this important? In order to understand the nature of this brutal and extreme violence, we must broaden our analytical lens to include how “hyper masculinity” notions of manhood are being propagated by ISIL. We must continue to challenge not only ISIL’s human rights abuses, but also its flawed notions about Islam and gender. We need to ask more gender aware questions such as “What does it mean to be an ISIL man.” Does this sense of failure to become a man in their own society lead to their distorted notions of power and extreme violence? Unless we broaden our discussion and incorporate a broader gender lens, we normalize this hyper manhood, this violent rite of passage for a generation of young men, and I will also add young women who chose to join this perverted form of human war.

Although a critical part of gender equality is focusing on the empowerment of women and girls, I also believe that we cannot reach gender equality without engaging men and boys. I think the UN’s HeForShe campaign is a great way to begin articulating this change.

Gender equality goes beyond just being advocates for women and girls. It also requires self-reflection about the multiple gendered expressions, identities and orientations of each human being. We cannot talk only about a binary approach to men and women, as it does not include our LGBTI dimensions. We need to help remove the gender barriers and the gender blinders that keep so many oppressed. We need to help build bridges to a holistic understanding of our many gendered selves, and that begins with our education curriculum as well as our foreign affairs policies.

UNA-NCA - How do you see the work that you do at USIP  making an impact in these areas?

K.K. - Working for the past eight years at the US Institute of Peace (USIP) has been a great privilege. USIP is made up of a very talented and dedicated group of people in DC and around the world in conflict countries, who are implementing on-the-ground innovative efforts and research, including training and education, to bring an end to violent conflict, and to integrate more effective approaches toward creating sustainable peace. Over 30 years ago, the US Congress envisioned USIP. And when I try to explain what USIP is about, I often refer to Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, “Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.” We are organizing for peace, which goes hand in hand with human rights.