ABSTRACT
In 1985, Betty Reardon’s Sexism and the War System made the argument that there are ‘interrelationships between sexist oppression and militarization’ such that ‘the two problems not only are symbiotically related, but twin manifestations of the same underlying cause’ (Reardon 1985: 2). The link between these, according to Reardon, is patriarchy – a system of dualism where there are ‘aggressors and victims who play through the deadly combative ritual to achieve status’ (Reardon 1985: 37). Because she sees political violence and gender subordination as products of the same root problem, Reardon suggests that it is a good idea to take on ‘as one goal the two major transformative tasks of our generation: achieving equality for women and complete disarmament’ (Reardon 1985: 97).
