Gender Mainstreaming in Peace and Security Policymaking - Jacqui True - WILPF Academic Network
Over the last two decades, gender mainstreaming has been adopted in a variety of forms, creating both opportunities and risks for advancing women's rights and gender equality. This policy brief reviews a selection of gender-mainstreaming practices implemented in the context of peace and security, and assesses their potential impact. It further calls for a more transformative model of gender mainstreaming that would utilize a gender perspective to challenge existing frameworks. For this to be achieved, the policy recommendations include the participation of women and women's organizations in designing and implementing gender-mainstreaming policies and the involvement of UN Women in strengthening the relationship between governments, and civil society in delivering gender-mainstreaming programs.
The effects of gender mainstreaming have so far been limited. To overcome the shortcomings of gender mainstreaming policy, an integrated framework for action is required. This research report brings forth the following three recommendations:
- Gender-mainstreaming practices should address both institutional and structural barriers to equality faced by different groups of women (and men). To do so, gender analysis should inform any gender-mainstreaming actions.
- The expertise of women and women's civil society organizations must be substantially involved in designing, implementing and monitoring gender-mainstreaming programs for gender analysis to be credible and relevant.
- UN Women can play a crucial role in strengthening relationships between governments, universities, and civil society actors for a transformative vision of gender mainstreaming in peace and security that would reconnect mainstreaming efforts with feminist goals of justice and equality.
Margot Wallström’s recent decision not to continue the cooperation on arms deals with Saudi Arabia, where the access to weapon is considered a driver of human rights abuses and violence against women specifically, presents the security policy which integrates a gender perspective in order to deliver equality and justice.
