Cynthia Cockburn

Dr. Cynthia Cockburn is a feminist researcher and writer, honorary professor in Sociology at City University London, and at the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick. She lives in London. Her new book is Looking to London, published this month by Pluto Press.

‘Take me to London’ – stories of war, escape and asylum

London’s incoming asylum-seekers get a mixed reception, ranging from “refugees welcome” to “go back to where you came from”. A new book tells some poignant stories of arrival and re-homing.

By Cynthia Cockburn

/ 24 Oct 2017

World disarmament? Start by disarming masculinity

Massive world military spending is driven by the profit motive of the arms industry and politicians’ weaponized notion of ‘security’. But women peace activists hold militarized masculinity to account.

By Cynthia Cockburn

/ 30 Apr 2015

The pacifist dilemma: women peacemakers’ responses to Islamic State

Can non-violent strategies defeat the new fascism of Islamic State and its allies? Women peace makers’ hopes and doubts recall the rift in the peace movement when Nazism threatened Europe.

By Cynthia Cockburn

/ 28 Apr 2015

Wheels on the ground: women’s ‘peace train’ to The Hague

Normal 0 The women who have come to the WILPF conference in the Hague from Australia and Aotearoa- New Zealand, say that travelling with your feet on the ground, or at least with your wheels on the track, is the road to peace.

By Cynthia Cockburn and Delene Cuddihy

/ 24 Apr 2015

Labour, life and love: Marxist feminists join the dots

Last weekend two generations of international feminists met at a conference in Berlin designed to prompt fresh thinking on Marxist feminist theory and inspire the renewal of a socialist feminist movement.

By Cynthia Cockburn

/ 27 Mar 2015

Masculine violence: call of duty, or call for change?

The much-hyped launch of a new gun-shooting video game this month reveals the thread of gender linking socially-endorsed militarism to criminal sexual assault. Where are the social programmes that would address the reshaping of masculinity?

By Cynthia Cockburn

/ 27 Nov 2014

Executed: what were the principles for which Edith Cavell lived and died?

Nurse Edith Cavell was shot by a German firing squad in 1915. The words 'For King and Country' are inscribed on her monument in London, but so too are her own words, 'Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone'. Cynthia Cockburn explores this contradiction.

By Cynthia Cockburn

/ 4 Aug 2014

Women's power to stop war: Hubris or hope?

In the first of a series of articles marking the hundredth year of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Cynthia Cockburn explores the roots of the women's peace movement and its aim not just to outlaw war, but to root out its causes.

By Cynthia Cockburn

/ 28 Apr 2014

Plotting for a woman-shaped peace: Syrian and Bosnian women confer

Bosnian women live with the malign consequences of a peace agreement engineered by internationals between male war leaders. Syrian peace negotiations are heading the same way. Recently Syrian women met with Bosnian counterparts to strategize for a peace that delivers on the interests of women and

By Cynthia Cockburn

/ 24 Feb 2014

Sexual exploitation in street gangs: protecting girls or changing boys?

In its recent report on sexual exploitation in street gangs, the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England is eloquent on the need for better protection of girls. It lacks any policy recommendation for a conscious remodelling of young masculinity.

By Cynthia Cockburn and Ann Oakley

/ 9 Dec 2013

Sexual violence in Bosnia: how war lives on in everyday life

Rape has been recognized as a war crime in international and Bosnian law, but women survivors seldom receive the reparation they are owed. Meanwhile, persistent male violence makes daily life in Bosnia-Herzegovina a battleground for many women.

By Cynthia Cockburn

/ 28 Nov 2013

Marxism and feminism have a lot to tell each other: can they find the words?

Thirty years ago women were writing of 'the unhappy marriage of marxism and feminism'. Though the two schools of thought cohabit uneasily, the recent annual Historical Materialism conference in London showed that each has something to gain from listening to the other

By Cynthia Cockburn

/ 18 Nov 2013