ence played an important role in the shaping of colonial societies and establishing power and it continued to be a tool of retaining power during post-colonisation and modern day conflict. It is clear that even in modern day society there is a large amount of inequality throughout the world in terms of men’s and women’s opportunities, and unfortunately the inequalities can become amplified during times of conflict. During World War 1 80% of casualties were soldiers, during the Vietnam War 80% of casualties were civilians mostly women and children (Fagan,1999). This is an example of an extremely concerning trend and that is that women and children have become tools and pawns in conflicts to gain or retain power on both international and national levels. As instability in security increases the risk of sexual violence also increases all across the board for men, women, and children. The use of sexual violence is used a psychological tactic to control and weaken communities through loss of social cohesion. Colonization and war both contributed to the objectification and demoralization use of sexual violence to carry out the task at hand. We see this with early colonizers who were quick to brutalize native women and exploit their newly taken power. A more modern examples would be the conflicts in Rwanda, Uganda, and Bosnia–Herzegovina, which saw sexual violence used as a systemic tool of war; but also can be used to control populations in times of peace (Close, 2011). The use of sexual violence reinforces gender stereotypes in societies both developed and developing, especially the idea that conflict is a male dominated.

Through the analysis of various resources and the utilization of real world examples this paper was able to establish a timeline of the hieratical system from colonization to modern day warfare. It is clear that the colonization of the Americas dramatically altered the ideals and beliefs of gender and the role they play within society. The European ideal of a binary gender system has been spread through colonization and has been exploited to retain and gain control over people by asserting dominance physically and mentally through sexual violence. Through the institutionalization of gender and its use of it in a violence form further cemetes the role of power and hierarchy within societies It is unclear if we will ever fully be able to educate our society in terms of gender norms and beliefs but academics and NGOs are trying to correct the damage that has been done and the important first step of documenting colonized peoples pre colonization is alre