Woman and the repression of collaboration in Belgium after the second World War.

The Aim of this research project is to malke a gender analysis of the repression of the collaboration after the Second World War in Belgium. Using a prosopographical analysis and a qualitative approach, the specificity of represation of women will be studied taking into account all forms of collaboration and all aspects of repression . One of the prne foes of the study is the issue of how the image of female collaborators is constructed. Another majorconcem rs the criteria used to stigmatize women and whether they differed at different stages of the repres-sion .2. Objectives The map objectives ,formulated as operational hvpotheses guiding this research, are 1- Women played a range of differing roles during the war which were influenced by the different forms that collaboration took at different stages in the war and in different economic and social circumstances 2 After the war, the form of these rolff had an influence on the nature of repression used against women 3 The kinds of criteria used explicitly and implicitly were shaped by un-derstandings about gender as well as the roles played by women, and these criteria also varied depending on the stage in the repression 3. Design and methodology Research on the repression of the collaboration after the Second World War in Belgium has gained momentum ince the early 90s. There are many recent studies, as for example on the repression in general Dhondt,1991), the repression of the economic colla-bora-tion (Luy-ten,1996,1998) and the detention Qf Collaborators Seberechts,1994;Roszka,1996). pite this new concern ,there has been a remarcable lack of research on the position of women and isssues of gender. Women form a forgotten group in the study of the repression (Huyse & Hoflack,1994). There are different reasons to use a gender approach in the study of the repression, not in the least because Belgiurn reveals a knowledge gap in comparision to the neighboring countries of Holland and France. While recent research projects in France made use of antropological methodologto study repres-sion practi-ces to-wards women, no research whats ever has been undertaken in Belgium.