The Politics of Gender in the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security

Citation:

Jansson, Maria, and Maud Eduards. 2016. “The Politics of Gender in the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 18 (4): 590–604.

Authors: Maria Jansson, Maud Eduards

Abstract:

Women’s groups have worked diligently to place gender and women’s vulnerability on the transnational security agenda. This article departs from the idea that negotiating and codifying gender and women’s vulnerability in terms of security represent a challenge to mainstream security contexts. By contrasting the UN Security Council resolutions on women, peace and security with feminist theory, this article aims to analyze what is considered to be threatened when women’s vulnerability is negotiated. The article identifies two approaches to the gender/security nexus: gendering security, which involves introducing ideas regarding gender-sensitive policies and equal representation, and securitizing gender, which proceeds by locating rape and sexual violence in the context of war regulations. We demonstrate that, although these measures are encouraged with reference to women’s vulnerability, they serve to legitimize war and the male soldier and both approaches depoliticize gender relations.

Keywords: gender, UN Security Council Resolution 1325, war, peace, security

Topics: Gendered Power Relations, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women

Year: 2016