Women and Terrorism: Keynote Address

This article is a transcript of ACLU president Susan N Herman’s keynote address at the Women’s Rights Law Reporter 40^th anniversary Symposium “The Gender Dimensions of Terrorism: How Terrorism Impacts the Lives of Women”. The event was held at Rutgers Law School on March 6, 2009. Herman addressed the impact of the predominantly male-centric views on terrorism held by western institutions. By gendering our understanding of terrorism, Herman argued, researchers fail to understand how terrorism both involves and affects women. This kind of stereotyping myth-creation about the gender and race of terrorists constrains definitions of terrorism and the anti-terrorism strategies employed by western institutions.