Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 3, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2018 | Page 24

Conflicting Values Shaping Perceptions of Community Security and Women’s Health Security
While it is crucial for NGOs and scholars to have an extensive understanding
of the dominant culture of the community, this does not mean that the individual
needs of women need to be subsumed by the needs of the community as if
the two are inherently distinct. Moreover, those seeking to work with women in
these situations must consider the complexity of women’s roles in any culture and
seek to recognize and promote the voices of women. Seeking to be advocates for
women is a delicate balancing act, but an indispensable one for individuals and
organizations working to provide education and alternatives for women. National
and transnational actors have made progress in recognizing not only threats to
women’s health, but the imperative to include women in the solutions. To truly
achieve security, these evolving and differentiated circumstances must be taken
into account at all levels of policy as well as in theoretical conceptualizations of
security. A gendered human security approach recognizes that the health needs of
women are not simply a matter of individual security; they affect security in ways
that are ultimately important to the larger community and the nation-state. These
cases have broad applicability to human security theory and resulting policies as
well as notions of collective identity.
References
Al Jazeera. 2016. “Quiverfull Report (America Tonight).” March 4. https://www.
youtube.com/watch?time_continue=483&v=gNGhwLqNVFU.
Anderson, Benedict. 2006. Imagined communities: Reflections on the Origin and
Spread of Nationalism. New York, NY: Verso Books.
Brannum, Kate, and Joe Campos. 2016. “Fear as Currency in Political Actions.” In
No Escape: Excavating the Multidimensional Phenomenon of Fear, edited by Dean
Caivano, 41-50. Oxford:Inter-disciplinry Press.
Carter, Marion W. 2004. “Gender and Community Context: An Analysis of Husbands’
Household Authority in Rural Guatemala.” Sociological Forum 19 (4): 633-
52.
Challies, Tom. 2007. “The Truth Will Set You FreeChristian and Birth Control.”
@Challies, February 1. http://free-in-truth.blogspot.de/2007/02/christian-andbirth-control.html.
CTV. 2012. Quiverfull—Shunned from God’s Army, a CTV Documentary.
CTV Broadcast Company Bell Media. February 7, https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=anct8wFLwFA.
21