In what ways have feminist

analyses both challenged and

developed academic and policy
approaches to peacebuilding?
Laura Bartley - 2017
2572 Words
Introduction

More than fifteen years following the watershed United Nations Security Council’s
resolution 1325, the issue of gender has increasingly become a central concern in the area of
peacebuilding and security. While peacebuilding and security practices have traditionally not
concerned themselves with using gender as a lens of analysis or entry-point, this has steadily
changed since the end of the Cold War and the emergence of ‘human security’. Many
therefore argue that feminist scholars and activists have highlighted the necessity of including
women in conflict resolution and post-conflict peacebuilding. Yet as Bell and O’Rourke
(2010, p. 955) point out in their study of 585 peace agreements signed from 1990 to 2010,
only 16% contained references to women, with women making up less the 8% of delegates to
UN mediated peace processes and with women accounting for less than 3% of the signatories
of the peace agreements (cited in Byrne and McCulloch 2012, p.567).
Thus, the purpose of this essay is to examine the different ways feminist ideas have
developed academic and policy approaches to peacebuilding, whilst also specifically
exploring the difficulties in translating feminist insights into policy in order to examine
whether there is an emergence of a gendered perspective of peacebuilding. By focusing in
particular on how feminist analyses truly challenged the militarised peacebuilding
institutions, this essay will question if the current policies and practices adopted by
peacebuilding institutions such as the UN are a translation of feminist insights - and if so will
proceed to examine the strategic incorporation of a gendered perspective of peacebuilding .
Firstly, the essay will begin by tracing the emergence of ‘peacebuilding’ as a concept
and practice, in order to appreciate its position as a realist concept within International
Relations. The essay will then proceed to critically assess the institutional spread of feminist
idea into the practice of peacebuilding to see if it has successfully challenged and developed
previous conceptions of peacebuilding. Finally the essay will conclude with an assessment of
the cost of increased institutional engagement with feminist ideas and what implications this
has on the transformative agenda of a feminist approach to peace.

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Tracing ‘peacebuilding’ within the field of security studies

In order to understand how feminist analyses have succeeded in challenging

conventional academic and policy approaches to peacebuilding, it is first necessary to be
familiar with the traditional positions and strategies of peacebuilding. Firstly peacebuilding is
typically discussed/practiced within the field of security studies, yet since the end of the Cold
War the concept of ‘security’ has greatly developed beyond its conventional state-centric
focus on military threats and protection of national security (Peoples and Vaughan-Williams
2015, p. 1). Whereas historically the diplomats and politicians who negotiated peace
agreements thought of security from this ‘realist’ perspective, there has been an increasing
recognition that the causes of violence are often connected with economic and social
inequalities or exclusions which pose an existential threat (Cockburn 2013, p.441). Therefore
when the United Nations (UN) published its ​Human Development Report ​in 1994, the
concept of security was reformulated to one of ‘human security’ which included the
understanding that the basic needs of the human must be satisfied (UNDP 1994).
However the idea of ​‘peacebuilding’ ​itself had already emerged decades previously
during the 1970s when it was first mentioned by Galtung (1976) who is now credited as the
​ y ‘peacebuilding’ he meant ensuring the presence of structures that
father of peace studies. B
facilitated and promoted a sustainable peace through addressing the root causes of violent
conflict and supporting local capacities for conflict resolution. Moreover the UN
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali repopularised the term by defining peacebuilding
in his 1992 ​Agenda for Peace ​as an “action to identify and support structures which tend to
strengthen and solidify peace in order to avoid a relapse into conflict” (p.6). Therefore while
inextricably linked to the processes of peacemaking and peacekeeping, peacebuilding is
differentiated as being a more long-term process of capacity building, reconciliation and
wider societal transformation to avoid the recurrence of armed conflict (Erzurum and Eren
2014, p.242). As the concept of peacebuilding is clearly contested with no one definition, this
essay will employ this broader understanding of peacebuilding throughout as it fully
encompasses multi-level and multi-sectoral nature of the process.
Yet just as the literature on security studies and International Relations has omitted
gender as an important category of analysis and relational power dynamic, so too has

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traditional academic literature and policy on peacebuilding which tends to have a top-down
view that stereotypes ‘men’ as active agents in the form of politicians, diplomats and soldiers
whilst ‘women’ are viewed more as passive actors or victims in need of protection (ibid).

Towards Holistic and Gendered Understandings of Peacebuilding

Feminists have critiqued the human security approach’s failure to recognise humans
as gendered beings, as it is vital to examine the needs of people not as a homogeneous group
but as individuals with intersecting identities and complex relationships (Sjoberg 2009). In
contrast to this feminists put forth ideas of security that seek to challenge the traditional
approaches, for instance Ann Tickner (1992, p.66) stated that “women’s definitions of
security are multilevel and multidimensional… Women have defined security as the absence
of violence whether it be military, economic or sexual.” In this manner feminist analyses of
peacebuilding both challenged and developed academic and policy debates about
peacebuilding by highlighting the gender-differentiated experiences of peacebuilding.
Specifically the liberal feminist belief of women’s equal representation has
contributed to the increased emphasis on equality of formal and informal institutional access
in peacebuilding (Shepherd 2015, p.270). For instance Sweetman (2005) has argued that
incorporating a gender perspective into peacebuilding is crucial in ensuring a democratic
decisionmaking process that is inclusive of all aspects of society. This emphasis on
inclusivity also speaks to this approach’s tendency to draw on the idea of feminist
intersectionality, which relates to the notion of ensuring the individual’s multiple
crossing-cutting and complex identities (e.g. LGBTI, ethnicity, socio-economic background)
are not marginalised in the peacebuilding process. Therefore this aspect of equal
representation is a clear example of feminist analyses cohesively inserting their framework
into the area of peacebuilding.
In addition, gendered perspectives on security and peacebuilding have challenged
traditional understandings of text and negotiations of peace agreements, highlighting the
discursive power of these agreements and importance of incorporating the writing of
gendered bodies.

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 Finally the gender dynamics and strategies of peacebuilding have been analysed in
detail by feminist scholarship that challenges the conventional academic and policy
approaches to peacebuilding by engaging with women’s agency in post-conflict societies
(Shepherd 2015, p.271). For instance this approach has enabled the examination of the
invisible variety of women’s roles in a post-conflict environment and often resulted in the
wider realisation that women play diverse roles in the conflict. Additionally, specific
scholarship relating to women’s agency in violence and their importance as peacebuilders
challenges the idea of a monolithic experience of women (and men) - not all women in the
one conflict zone have the same needs (e.g. combatants have different needs than peace
activists). Therefore these insights broaden understanding of women’s capacities beyond the
traditional frames of motherhood or passive victims to one of active agents.

Institutional Spread of Feminist Ideas in the practice of Peacebuilding

The idea of incorporating feminist ideas on gender and peacebuilding into the actual
practice of peacebuilding has gained significant traction in the past few decades. The growing
awareness of the gender-specific experiences and needs of women in post-conflict
environments and their persistent exclusion from the high-level institutions where security
‘happened’ resulted in a sequence of UN conferences beginning in the 1990s. For instance
the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action that was issued following the fourth
UN Conference on Women included a section on ‘Women and Armed Conflict’ stating
“equal access and full participation of women in power structures and their full involvement
in all efforts for the prevention and resolution of conflict are essential for the maintenance of
peace and security” (UN 1995, para 134, cited in Cockburn 2013).
The culmination of these developments resulted in the United Nations Security
Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 which since its inception in 2000 is widely acclaimed as
the foundation of gender-sensitive policy formulation in peacebuilding and security
(Shepherd 2015, p. 273). It has subsequently been followed by seven other Security Council
Resolutions (1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122 and 2242) which collectively form the
Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Significantly it incorporates several of the key
aspects discussed in the previous section of this essay as it recognises that women’s agency

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and participation are crucial in forming better policies and building sustainable peace. The 18
points of UNSCR 1325 cover three main themes; firstly ​protection,​ which promotes a clearer
understanding of women’s specific needs in conflict environments and secondly ​prevention,​
of gender based and sexualised violence or discrimination. Finally it focuses on ​participation​,
all member states are encouraged to increase representation of women at all level of peace
negotiations and to support local women’s peace activism (Shepherd 2015, p. 274).
From this it is clear that the international peacebuilding institution (the most pivotal
being that of the UNSC) has increasingly acknowledged the importance of including all
genders in its practices and has gradually incorporated feminist analyses into its policies in
the goal of working towards more gender-sensitive peacebuilding.

Assessing the Cost of Increased Institutional Engagement

“While there is much to celebrate about the Security Council’s WPS agenda in
terms of policy and institutional developments, admission into the inner sanctum
of the Security Council’s work has come at some cost to feminist goals.” (Otto
2016, p.3)

While it is clear that feminist analyses have been crucial in challenging the status quo
in peacebuilding theory and practice, many feminist scholars have begun to question the cost
of increased presence of feminist ideas in hyper-masculinised structures and how the
transformative agenda of a feminist approach to peace may not be reflected in these newly
reformed, ‘gender-conscious’ practices. Indeed, concepts such as gender mainstreaming have
created opportunities for advancing women’s rights and equality but undoubtedly there have
been some costs to the emancipatory aspirations of feminist theory and practice (Otto 2009).
In many ways the increased rhetoric surrounding the WPS agenda has not been fully reflected
in practices, but instead enables institutions to selectively engage with gender as a secondary
concern which in fact leads to a dilution of the transformation agenda of feminism.
As highlighted by Halley et al (2006) there has been a “quite noticeable installation of
feminists and feminist ideas in actual legal-institutional power”. However other feminist
scholars are more skeptical about the degree to which feminist analyses of peacebuilding and
the transformative agenda of feminist ideas have been sincerely embraced by these
institutions (Deiana and McDonagh 2017 and Otto 2009). There is a strong criticism of the
institutional reception in peacebuilding arenas such as the UN, EU and other regional bodies

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arguing that the management and mainstreaming of feminist ideas “work to divest them of
their emancipatory content and therefore depict the result as ‘cooption’” (Otto 2009).
Furthermore more recently Otto (2016) has continued to question whether feminist
aspirations for permanent peace has been diluted to practices of increasing women’s
participation in the decisionmaking structures of the already existing frames of war. This is
significant in that it raises questions about the motivations for hyper-masculine institutions
such as the UNSC (or the EEAS in the EU) working towards increased women’s participation
and whether gender-sensitive policies will actually led to women being equal actors in
conflict prevention and resolution; or indeed able to challenge the militarism of these
organisations; and instead promote the transformative positive peace found in feminist
analyses. As Cynthia Enloe (2005) has argued, the international peacebuilding community
have failed to recognise and embrace the transformative feminist ideas which UNSCR 1325
was built on, and have failed to absorb:

“The genuinely radical understanding that informed the feminist analysis

undergirding 1325. That feminist understanding is that patriarchy – in all its
varied guises, camouflaged, khaki clad, and pin-striped – is a principal cause
both of the outbreak of violent societal conflicts and of the international
community’s frequent failures in providing long-term resolution to those
violent conflicts” (Enloe, 2005, p.281)

Indeed the fact that the UNSCR is called Women, Peace and Security rather than Gender,
Peace and Security highlights how it intends to focus on adding women (not gender) to
pre-existing security practices, policies and institutions. Instead critiques of this ‘add women
and stir’ policy suggest a move away from the fixation on gender balancing and
mainstreaming for a more ‘gender sensitisation’ and committed focus on transforming
attitudes in order to close the current gap between theory and practice (Kunz 2014, p.606).
Moreover issues of masculinities and male vulnerabilities (or women’s agency in reproducing
violence) are still rarely addressed in peacebuilding although progress has been made.
Additionally issues regarding sexual (LGBTI) and gender minorities remain relatively absent
from discussions on gender, peace and security - but hopefully will become a greater focus of
the agenda in coming years as the post-conflict period can be particularly insecure periods for
LGBTI persons (International Alert 2014).

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 Despite the fact that feminist analyses and understandings of complex gender
identities still struggle to find a place in peacebuilding policies and practices, policies such as
UNSCR 1325 have been pivotal in the reform of peacebuilding and security in that they
provide new approaches to the everyday practices of security for women (Ellerby 2013, p.
442).

Conclusion

“We have to achieve gender equality in society. We will then acquire power,
which will give us the means to achieve sustainable peace”

- A Bosnian woman peace activist (Equal power -

lasting peace, 2012, p.132)

Throughout, this essay has explored the different ways feminist ideas of have developed
academic and policy approaches to peacebuilding, whilst also specifically exploring the
difficulties in translating feminist insights into policy in order to examine whether there is an
emergence of a gendered perspective of peacebuilding. In doing this it has highlighted how
feminist ideas and activism have undoubtedly influenced peacebuilding practices and
challenged the biases of traditional security studies, but has also shown how the incorporation
of feminist ideas has not been totally unproblematic.
In tracing the emergence of ‘peacebuilding’ as a concept and practice, it is evident
that peacebuilding still has the tendency to focus on security threats and the immediate
ending of violent hostilities, but that more and more gender has a role to play. The WPS has
become a central part of international peacebuilding and responds to violence to such a
successful extent that few international interventions in unstable contexts are without a
gendered element (International Alert 2014).
In conclusion, almost 27 years after Cynthia Enloe first exclaimed “where are the
women?” in reference to the complete gender invisibility (specifically the invisibility of
women as subjects) in International Relations - the consequences of not studying how women
are not included in peace processes clearly has had a direct impact on security policies and
practices (Ellerby 2013). However as evocatively posed by Otto (2009) “while it is clear that

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‘feminist’ ideas are today spread throughout the UN system, we need to ask whose purpose
they serve.” Moreover we must also ask ourselves if its possible for the transformative
agenda of a feminist approach to peace to truly challenge peacebuilding practices (as it has in
the past) while also continuing to engage and work within this security paradigm in helping
develop more policies such as UNSCR 1325?

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