Women in Arms Control: Time for a Gender Turn?

Citation:

Dwan, Renata. 2019. "Women in Arms Control: Time for a Gender Turn?" Arms Control Today 49 (8): 6-11.

Author: Renata Dwan

Annotation:

Summary:
"On the face of it, women in the arms control field have had a good year, with gender equality featuring frequently in national and multilateral policy debates. Beyond the traditionally women-friendly humanitarian discourse, recent meetings of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) have seen side events and working papers on gender equality and perspectives ahead of the treaty's 2020 review conference. The first-ever side event on gender was held in the margins of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) meeting in Geneva this August. The fifth conference of states-parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) the same month went considerably further, convening a thematic discussion on gender and adopting a decision on gender and gender-based violence issues. New studies on the role of women in nuclear and broader arms control garnered significant attention and debate . . . In 2017, newly appointed UN Secretary General António Guterres pledged to achieve gender parity in UN senior leadership appointments by 2021 and across the entire system "well before 2030." The African Union, European Union, and NATO have established dedicated representatives for WPS issues with mandates to advance the integration of gender issues across their respective organization's policies and actions" (Dwan 2019, 6-7). 

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Political Participation, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Year: 2019