Democracy / Democratization

How Women Could Save the World, If Only We Would Let Them: From Gender Essentialism to Inclusive Security

Citation:

Powell, Catherine. 2017. "How Women Could Save the World, If Only We Would Let Them: From Gender Essentialism to Inclusive Security." Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 28 (2).

Author: Catherine Powell

Abstract:

We increasingly hear that women's empowerment and leadership will lead to a safer, more prosperous world. The UN Security Council's groundbreaking resolutions on Women Peace, and Security (WPS)-and U.S. law implementing these commitments-rest on the assumption that women's participation in peace and security matters will lead to more sustainable peace, because women presumably "perform" in ways that reduce conflict, violence, and extremism. This idea is of heightened importance today because women are still vastly underrepresented in positions of leadership in the peace and security field, having yet to "shatter that highest and hardest glass ceiling" as Commander-in-Chief in the United States or rise to the role of Secretary- General in the United Nations. Before her own historic race to become the first woman Commander in Chief, Hillary Clinton had prominently made the claim we increasingly hear that women's empowerment is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do for global and economic security.

Such claims raise fundamental questions for international law, equality theory, and feminism. Assertions that the world would be a better-more peaceful, more prosperous-place, if women assumed leadership positions in peace and security matters are unapologetically instrumentalist and reinforce essentialist views of women. At the same time, evidence suggests that these claims are to some extent accurate. Thus, these assertions should be carefully examined. Reviewing new research, this Article argues that while some evidence supports these claims, the statistical evidence supporting these claims suffers from methodological flaws. Moreover, the forms of gender performance reflected in the data-which international law has organized itself around-are based on the socially constructed roles women play as caregivers, nurturers, and collaborators, not necessarily on their inherent biological roles. Yet, international law reifies these roles and the stereotypes that surround them, even as it tries to open up opportunities for women beyond traditional sex-segregated positions that have long relegated women around the world to the pink ghetto of economic inequality and inferior political and social status. Having to maneuver around formal equality, on the one hand, and instrumentalist claims that women will "save" the world, on the other, means that the category of "woman" can restrict even as it liberates. After all, not all women are "peace-loving," particularly in a world where the women who succeed are often those who can succeed on terms defined by men.

Two prevailing theoretical frameworks-antisubordination and securitization-shape the current debate about WPS, but each ultimately falls short. This Article identifies democratic legitimacy as a novel third approach missing from the existing debate. As an alternative view, the democratic legitimacy account effectively reframes the WPS debate as one concerning inclusive security-emphasizing that women's participation enhances the representativeness, democracy, and fairness of the process as a whole-rather than privileging the "special interests" of a particular group (as the antisubordination approach is accused of doing) or reinforcing gender essentialism (as the securitization approach does). Notably, a democratic legitimation paradigm is grounded in a model of inclusion that can be applied to vectors of inequality beyond gender, as well as to inequality at the intersection of various forms of inequality. Moreover, by emphasizing democratic representation, this approach insists on local ownership and bottom-up solutions, thereby emphasizing participation and leadership by women in conflict zones, rather than female global elites. Under a democratic legitimacy paradigm, women can still "save" the world, but in a different way than the predominant discourse would have us believe.

Topics: Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Law, Peace and Security, Political Participation, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS

Year: 2017

International Women’s Organizations, Peace and Peacebuilding

Citation:

Goodman, Joyce. 2019. “International Women’s Organizations, Peace and Peacebuilding.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Global Approaches to Peace, edited by Aigul Kulnazarova and Vesselin Popovski, 441–60. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Author: Joyce Goodman

Abstract:

This chapter uses the published records of the International Federation of University Women (IFUW) and of the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) to analyze how the positioning of international women’s organizations around neutrality played out in organizational configurations of peace and peacebuilding. The chapter argues that the IFUW’s “disinterested” neutrality and the WIDF’s “active” neutrality connected to differing political views on equality, expertise, democracy, sovereignty and imperialism with consequences for the framing of the organizations’ peacebuilding activities and for their organizational links with Korea. The chapter uses the interactions of Kim Hawal-lan and Germaine Hannevart with Korea to conclude that women’s engagement with the peacebuilding initiatives of international women’s organizations should be seen as the outcome of a series of encounters.

Topics: Conflict, Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Peacebuilding Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: North Korea, South Korea

Year: 2019

What’s War Got to Do with It? Post-Conflict Effects on Gender Equality in South and Southeast Asia, 1975–2006

Citation:

Bhattacharya, Srobana and Courtney Burns. 2019. “What’s War Got to Do with It? Post-Conflict Effects on Gender Equality in South and Southeast Asia, 1975–2006.” Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs 6 (1): 55-81.

Authors: Srobana Bhattacharya, Courtney Burns

Abstract:

Does gender equality get better or worse following civil conflict? Given the plethora of research linking gender equality to less bellicosity, we aim to look at the relationship between post-conflict situations and gender equality. Specifically, we argue that circumstances surrounding how a conflict ends can better explain gender equality levels in a country in the post-conflict set up. We discuss whether outright victory for rebel groups will have the best impact for women due to the regime change and democratic process that typically follows. We conduct a Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 13 cases of intrastate conflicts in South and Southeast Asia for the years 1975–2006 along with an in-depth case study of Nepal.We find that rebel victory does have a positive impact on women in post-conflict situations when religious freedom was high, the conflict was centre seeking and wanted to establish a democratic regime.

Keywords: post-conflict, gender equality, conflict termination, civil war

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Democracy / Democratization, Conflict, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Post-Conflict, Religion Regions: Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2019

Gender and the Security Sector: Towards a More Secure Future

Citation:

Arostegui, Julie L. 2015. "Gender and the Security Sector: Towards a More Secure Future." Connections 14 (3): 7-30.

Author: Julie L. Arostegui

Annotation:

Summary: 
In recent decades, the nature of war has changed dramatically. Internal conflicts are being waged by opposing armed groups, often divided along ideological or ethnic lines that increasingly target civilians and wreak havoc on society with severe physical, psychological, social, political, and economic consequences. With the changed nature of conflict has come an increasing demand to consider its varied effects on women and girls, men and boys, and to address their specific needs before, during, and after conflict. There is also an increasing awareness of the importance of including women in peace and security processes. Women are 50 percent of the population and a critical part of society and, without them, real and sustainable peace cannot be achieved. They are not merely victims of conflict; they also play active roles as combatants, peace builders, politicians, and activists, and are often in the strongest position to bring about peace in their communities. Women around the world have emerged as voices of peace, mobilizing across communities and using their social roles and networks to mediate and mitigate violence. They have demanded attention to the complex issues of peace and peace building, and the needs of the communities involved, rather than to just cease-fires and power sharing. The international community has responded with a framework for addressing women, peace, and security, which includes United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions and binding international law. Regional bodies such as the European Union, NATO, and the African Union have also developed strong frameworks around gender equality and women’s rights in order to build sustainable peace, driven by advocacy by women’s groups and the experiences of conflict. With these changes has also come a paradigm shift in the concept of security from one of state security to human security. Whereas traditionally security involved the protection of borders and state sovereignty, the modern concept of security addresses the security of individuals and communities. It broadens both the nature of security threats such as poverty, discrimination, gender-based violence, lack of democracy and marginalization, and the actors involved, including non-state actors and civil society. It means creating societies that can withstand instability and conflict. It is more than the absence of armed conflict; it is an environment where individuals can thrive.2 A security sector that is based in human security takes into account the differing needs of men, women, boys, and girls, and ensures that the full and equal participation of women addresses the needs of all of the population and helps to establish a more peaceful and secure society. Integrating a gender perspective into the security sector is essential: 1) to abide by universally accepted human rights principles; 2) because when both men and women are involved in decision-making processes, there are better outcomes; and 3) using gender perspectives and mainstreaming increases operational effectiveness" (Arostegui 2015, 7-8).

Topics: Armed Conflict, "New Wars", Civil Society, Democracy / Democratization, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Law, International Organizations, Peace and Security, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Security, Human Security, Security Sector Reform, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS

Year: 2015

Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East

Citation:

Moghadam, Valentine M. 2013. Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Author: Valentine M. Moghadam

Annotation:

Summary:
The subject of this study is social change in the Middle East, North Africa, and Afghanistan ; its impact on women's legal status and social positions ; and women's varied responses to, and involvment in, change processes. It also deals with constructions of gender during periods of social and political change. Social change is usually described in terms of modernization, revolution, cultural challenges, and social movements. Much of the standard literature on these topics does not examine women or gender, and thus [the author] hopes this study will contribute to an appreciation of the significance of gender in the midst of change. Neither are there many sociological studies on MENA and Afghansitan or studies on women in MENA and Afghanistan from a sociological perspective. Myths and stereotypes abund regarding women, Islam, and the region, and the events of September 11 and since have only compounded them. This book is intended in part to "normalize" the Middle East by underscoring the salience of structural determinants other than religion. It focuses on the major social-change processes in the region to show how women's lives are shaped not only by "Islam" and "culture", but also by economic development, the state, class location, and the world system. Why the focus on women? It is [the author's] contention that middle-class women are consciously and unconsciously major agents of social change in the region, at the vanguard of movements for modernity, democratization and citizenship. (Summary from Google Books)
 
Table of Contents:
1. Recasting the Middle East, North Africa, and Afghanistan
 
2. Economic Development, State Policy, and Women's Employment
 
3. Reforms, Revolutions, and the Woman Question
 
4. Patriarchy, and the Changing Family
 
5. Islamist Movements and Women's Responses
 
6. Iran: from Islamization to Islamic Feminism, and Beyond?
 
7. Afghanistan: Revolution, Reaction, and Attempted Reconstruction
 
8. All That Is Solid Melts into Air

Topics: Democracy / Democratization, Development, Economies, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Religion Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa, Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Iran

Year: 2013

Gender Mainstreaming in a Post-Conflict State

Citation:

D’Costa, Bina and Katrina Lee-Koo, ed. 2009. Gender Mainstreaming in a Post-Conflict State. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Bina D'Costa, Katrina Lee-Koo

Abstract:

Gender equality is widely believed by international organizations and mainstream commentators to contribute to the consolidation of democratic norms and domestic and international peace.1 The United Nations (UN) has promoted strategies for achieving gender equality as a central part of its peacebuilding and reconstruction programs. In Bosnia, Kosovo, and East Timor, UN missions have incorporated gender mainstreaming and gender-balanced decision-making policies and programs to foster civil society as means to ensure long-term peace and development. To what extent, though, are these institutional initiatives able to transform the deep-seated gendered social hierarchies in these new states? Feminist scholars argue that such hierarchies are at the root of violence against women, women’s lack of voice, and political representation. They hold that any meaningful democratic strategy must eliminate these hierarchies to bring about political freedom and equality. In Timor these feminist perspectives on gender justice and equality are an emerging part of the public debate about the processes of democratization in state and civil society. They can be seen in speeches, communications, and reports of local women’s organizations, donor agencies, NGOs, and the UN, however, this political activity has yet to be theoretically analyzed by feminist or nonfeminist scholars. Here we seek to highlight some of the gendered practices of democratization and assess the struggles within East Timorese civil society to forge a gender-equal democracy.

Keywords: civil society, domestic violence, United Nations, gender equality, gender perspective

Topics: Civil Society, Democracy / Democratization, Development, Domestic Violence, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gendered Discourses, Gender-Based Violence, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, Peacekeeping Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Oceania Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Timor-Leste

Year: 2009

Women at the Peace Table: The Gender Dynamics of Peace Negotiations

Citation:

McWilliams, Monica. 2015. "Women at the Peace Table: The Gender Dynamics of Peace Negotiations." In Gender and Peacebuilding, edited by Maureen Flaherty, 229-244. London: Lexington Press.

Author: Monica McWilliams

Abstract:

Where violence and conflict have become the norm, negotiating an agreement built on peace and justice can be a challenging prospect for those involved. Since 2000, with the introduction of Security Council Resolutions on women, peace, and security, the United Nations has asserted that the environment enabling peace agreements become more inclusive of women and that gender perspectives be taken into account throughout the peace building process. This chapter draws on examples from the Northern Ireland peace process to show the changes that took place when a group of women moved out of the political activism of civic society to become engaged in the more formal politics of peace negotiations. The women activists grasped the opportunities of the “constitutional moment” to frame gender-specific interests within the new constitutional framework of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. They built on skills honed through years of activism to form the Women’s Coalition, a political party that was involved in the multi-party peace negotiations, and became signatories to the peace agreement. However, in the transitional space that opens up following a peace agreement, what gets resourced and implemented often falls short of what was promised. Despite its success in the negotiating process, enforcing the proposals on women’s interests in the aftermath proved to be the most difficult task. Where a democratic deficit exists, with women continuing to be excluded from political participation, those who have struggled to build a new society will ask for whom was the reconstruction meant. For a genuinely transformative process to take place, women’s interests must not be left in the “aspirational/to do” list but instead form a central part of the “constitutional” and legislative guarantees for the new society.

Keywords: women, Gender, peace processes, peace agreements, Northern Ireland

Topics: Civil Society, Democracy / Democratization, Conflict, Gender, Women, International Organizations, Justice, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Political Participation, Peace Processes, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, Violence Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2015

Whose Seat Will Become Reserved?: The 30% Quota Campaign in Sierra Leone

Citation:

Ibrahim, Aisha F. 2015. “Whose Seat Will Become Reserved?: The 30% Quota Campaign in Sierra Leone.” African and Asian Studies 14 (1-2): 61-84.

Author: Aisha Fofana Ibrahim

Abstract:

Post-war reconstruction efforts in Sierra Leone combined with global discourses around issues of democracy and participation have, to some extent, created a space for political engagement of traditionally marginalized groups, including women. Women’s political engagement has, in recent times, centered around a campaign for a 30% constitutionally mandated gender quota system which, it is believed, will be the most effective way to get more female representation in legislatures as well as close the wide gap that exists numerically between both genders in the public sphere. This paper seeks to examine women’s engagement with political processes in Sierra Leone, their long and unsuccessful struggle for a quota system and how all of this fits into a wider struggle for gender justice in Sierra Leone. The main argument raised in this paper is that the gender quota campaign is fraught with challenges because women in the struggle, especially female parliamentarians, have found it difficult to go beyond the borders of their political parties’ ideological stance, and organizational boundaries to collectively and successfully advance the campaign. In addition, the campaign seems to be more centralized in the capital with little or no engagement at the com munity level. Moreover, because of the widening political divide, meaningfully engaging an elite male cadre that has variedly resisted women’s full and equal participation in the public sphere remains a challenge.

Keywords: Sierra Leone, Women's political leadership, quotas, women's activism, gender equality, women legislators

Topics: Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, Governance, Quotas, Post-Conflict, Political Participation Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2015

Civil War and Trajectories of Change in Women's Political Representation in Africa, 1985–2010

Citation:

Hughes, Melanie, and Aili Mari Tripp. 2015. “Civil War and Trajectories of Change in Women's Political Representation in Africa, 1985–2010.” Social Forces 93 (4): 1513-40.

Authors: Melanie Hughes, Aili Mari Tripp

Abstract:

In recent decades, the expansion of women's political representation in sub-Saharan Africa has been nothing short of remarkable. The number of women legislators in African parliaments tripled between 1990 and 2010, resulting in African countries having among the highest rates of women's legislative representation in the world. The dominant explanations for this change have been institutional factors (namely, the adoption of gender quotas and presence of proportional representation systems) and democratization. We suggest that existing research has not gone far enough to evaluate the effects of one powerful structural change: the end of civil war. Using Latent Growth Curve modeling, we show that the end of long-standing armed conflict had large positive impacts on women's political representation, above what can be explained by electoral institutions and democratization alone. However, post-conflict increases in women's legislative representation materialize only after 2000, amid emerging international and regional norms of women's political inclusion. In countries exiting armed conflict in these recent years, women's movement into national legislatures follows a trajectory of social change that is much faster and more extensive than what we observe in other African countries.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Governance, Quotas, Post-Conflict Governance, Political Participation, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa

Year: 2015

Rethinking Transitional Gender Justice: Transformative Approaches in Post-Conflict Settings

Citation:

Shackel, Rita, and Lucy Fiske, eds. 2019. Rethinking Transitional Gender Justice: Transformative Approaches in Post-Conflict Settings. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Rita Shackel, Lucy Fiske

Annotation:

Summary:
This book draws together established and emerging scholars from sociology, law, history, political science and education to examine the global and local issues in the pursuit of gender justice in post-conflict settings. This examination is especially important given the disappointing progress made to date in spite of concerted efforts over the last two decades. With contributions from both academics and practitioners working at national and international levels, this work integrates theory and practice, examining both global problems and highly contextual case studies including Kenya, Somalia, Peru, Afghanistan and DRC. The contributors aim to provide a comprehensive and compelling argument for the need to fundamentally rethink global approaches to gender justice. Rita Shackel is Associate Professor of Law at The University of Sydney Law School, Australia. Her research program is broadly focused on evaluation and reform of legal and social justice processes, with a specific focus on sexual and gender based violence and the needs of victims and survivors especially women and children. Lucy Fiske is Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses on forced migration, human rights and gender justice. (Summary from Palgrave Macmillan) 
 
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: Rethinking Institutions
Lucy Fiske and Rita Shackel
 
Part I: Rethinking Institutions
2. The Rise (and Fall?) of Transitional Gender Justice: A Survey of the Field
Lucy Fiske
 
3. Ebola and Post Conflict Gender Justice: Lessons from Liberia
Pamela Scully
 
4. Making Clients Out of Citizens: Deconstructing Women’s Economic Empowerment and Humanitarianism in Post Conflict Interventions
Rita Shackel and Lucy Fiske
 
5. Using War to Shift Peacetime Norms: The Example of Forced Marriage in Sierra Leone
Kiran Grewal
 
6. More Than a Victim: Thinking through Foreign Correspondents’ Representations of Women in Conflict
Chrisanthi Giotis 
 
Part II: Rethinking Interventions
7. WPS, Gender and Foreign Military Interveners: Experience from Iraq and Afghanistan
Angeline Lewis
 
8. Addressing Masculinities in Peace Negotiations: An Opportunity for Gender Justice
Philipp Kastner and Elisabeth Roy-Trudel
 
9. Recalling Violence: Gender and Memory Work in Contemporary Post-conflict Peru
Jelke Boesten
 
10. ICC Prosecutions of Sexual and Gender Based Violence: Challenges and successes
Rita Shackel
 
Part III: Learning from the Field
11. Speaking from the Ground: Transitional Gender Justice in Nepal
Punam Yadav
 
12: Quechua Women: Agency in the Testimonies of the CVR - Peru Public Hearings
Sofia Macher
 
13. The Effects of Indigenous Patriarchal Systems on Women's Participation in Public Decision Making in Conflict Settings: The Case of Somalia
Fowsia Abdulkadir and Rahma Abdulkadir
 
14. ‘Women Are Not Ready to [Vote for] Their Own’: Remaking Democracy, Making Citizens after the 2007 Post-election Violence in Kenya
Christina Kenny
 
15. ‘An education without Any fear?’: Higher education and Gender Justice in Afghanistan
Anne Maree Payne, Nina Burridge and Nasima Rahmani
 
16. Transitioning with Disability: Justice for Women with Disabilities in Post-war Sri Lanka
Dinesha Samararatne and Karen Soldatic
 
17. Conclusion
Rita Shackel and Lucky Fiske

 

Topics: Conflict, Democracy / Democratization, Education, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Indigenous, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Transitional Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, MENA, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Americas, South America, Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kenya, Liberia, Nepal, Peru, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka

Year: 2019

Pages

© 2024 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.

Subscribe to RSS - Democracy / Democratization