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The drama and tragedy that began to unfold in June 2011 after a military attack on Kachin army outposts in the north of Myanmar is usually explained in terms relating to military conflict, power struggles, and the failure of the Myanmar state to include and respect the rights of minority groups (International Crisis Group 2013; Lintner 1990; Smith 2007). The relationship between gender and conflict rarely enters the discussion, unless (Kachin) women are portrayed as victims of (state) violence. Women’s experiences of and responses to the conflict that do not fit with the dominant image of woman-as-victim are then typically silenced. 1 This chapter challenges that dominant narrative by critically investigating women’s conception of and involvement in the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). 2 It provides a new lens to understand the conflict between the Myanmar state and the Kachin minority group by exploring the circumstances that lead women to join or support the armed struggle in Kachin State, asking why and how women are involved in the