Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the gender dimensions of violence prevention in the context of communal conflict in the city of Jos, in central Nigeria, during times and in places regarded as highly vulnerable to clashes.

Paper long abstract:

Research has examined non-violence and civilian resistance in war, but the gender dimension of the prevention of killings has remained under-explored. We know that countries with higher levels of gender equality are less vulnerable to armed conflict, but little about whether this 'gender equality and peace hypothesis' has explanatory value at the micro-level of conflict-affected communities. This paper examines the gender dimensions of violence prevention in the context of communal conflict in the city of Jos, in central Nigeria, during times and in places regarded as highly vulnerable to clashes. My argument is two-fold: (1) bottom-up violence prevention efforts account for the observed absence of violence; and, (2) the transformation of militarized masculinities was constitutive for violence prevention because respect-building among youth at risk and restraint masculinities enabled the effective prevention of killings.