4

Women and Peace Operations

Helena Carreiras

4.1

Introduction

During the past decade, gender has become an increasingly relevant

factor in the design, implementation and evaluation of international
peace support operations. On the one hand, awareness of the gender
dimension of armed conflicts and the need for gender mainstreaming
into this type of operations emerged as a major requirement in the political agenda of international defence and security organisations. The
brutal evidence of the disproportionate degree of sexual-based violence
in conflicts (IRIN, 2007; Seifert, 1992; Skjelsbaek, 2001; Bastick et al.,
2007), as well as of peacekeepers sexual misconduct and involvement in
human trafficking and exploitation (Allred, 2006; Baaz and Stern, 2009),
were at the basis of what some have called a new gender regime in international security (Carey, 2001).
On the other hand, after the start of the conflicts in the Balkans
and in the context of peacekeeping expansion into areas of humanitarian relief, refugee return, demining, civilian policing, demobilisation,
human rights monitoring, elections and nation building, women have
been ascribed an ever-growing range of tasks. The changing role of the
military in complex multifunctional, multinational and multicultural
peacekeeping operations has also been identified as both requiring the
presence and providing new opportunities for women in the military.
Although peacekeeping had been conducted for over 60 years, the lack
of representation of women did not raise concerns, or at least did not
result in specific requests for more female peacekeepers, until the 1990s
(Simic, 2010: 1). From that moment on, however, things started to
change and womens participation has been intensifying together with

69

M. G. Galantino et al. (eds.), Managing Crises, Making Peace

Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2015

70 Helena Carreiras

an enhanced awareness of the need to mainstream a gender perspective

into international peace and stability operations.
This chapter addresses the gender dimension of international security,
focusing on women in the military and on the development of a renewed
approach to gender in peacekeeping, that unfolded after the unanimous
approval of the groundbreaking resolution UNSCR 1325 on women,
peace and security in 2000.
It starts with a brief revision of policies and instruments of EU (CSDP)
and other international organisations regarding womens involvement
as relevant actors in international security. It then proceeds with an
examination of the way these policies have been implemented, especially with regard to womens participation in military forces. Drawing
on empirical information from research conducted during the past
two decades, the normative dimension is then weighted against actual
practices and discourses concerning the presence of women in international operations, in order to highlight the novelty aspects as well as
the contradictions and paradoxes that might limit the transformative
potential of international organisations political agendas.

4.2 International political agendas on

gender and security
Following years of strengthening of international law and politics of
implementing gender sensitivity norms in peacekeeping, a new international regime of gender mainstreaming in peace missions has
been identified as an important juncture in world history (Carey,
2001), with new norms and institutions emerging rapidly after the
unanimous approval of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)
Resolution 1325 in 2000. This was the first UNSC resolution to specifically address the impact of armed conflict on women, and womens
contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace. UNSCR
1325 stresses the importance of womens equal and full participation
as active agents in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace
negotiations, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, humanitarian response
and post-conflict reconstruction. It calls on member states to ensure
womens equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the
maintenance and promotion of peace and security. It urges all actors to
increase the participation of women and incorporate gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts, including demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) and security sector
reform (SSR).

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71

After the approval of the resolution, not only UN member states but
also other international organisations concerned with security issues,
European Union (EU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE),
have started to design and develop policies aimed at implementing the
resolution and monitoring its progress.
During the following decade, the UN approved various other resolutions that together can be seen as forming a consistent international political agenda on the gender dimension of conflicts and security. In 2008,
UNSC Resolution 1820 was the first Security Council resolution to recognise conflict-related sexual violence as a matter of international peace
and security. It called for armed actors to end the practice of using sexual
violence against civilians to achieve political or military ends, and for all
parties to conflict to counter impunity for sexual violence and provide
effective protection for civilians. In 2009, two other resolutions were
approved: UNSCR 1888, strengthening the implementation of UNSCR
1820 through assigning leadership and establishing effective support
mechanisms, and UNSCR 1889, addressing obstacles to womens participation in peace processes and peacebuilding as prescribed in UNSCR 1325.
It called for the UN Secretary-General to submit to the Security Council
a set of indicators for use at the global level to track implementation of
UNSCR 1325. One year later, in 2010, UNSCR 1960 provided an accountability system for addressing conflict-related sexual violence. Already in
2013, two other resolutions were adopted. UNSCR 2106 focused on the
monitoring and prevention of sexual violence in conflict, adding operational details to previous resolutions and underlining the need for greater
involvement of all actors in this process. UNSCR 2122 created a roadmap
for a systematic approach to the implementation of commitments on
women, peace and security, proposing more robust measures to increase
womens participation in peace processes and conflict resolution.
The OSCE, which Code of Conduct on Political- Military Aspects of
Security, namely the section on democratic control and the use of armed
forces, was long considered unique in the security landscape (Ghbali,
2003; Eulriet, 2009), issued in 2006 an Implementation Plan on Gender
Mainstreaming. This document stressed the empowerment of women as
essential for comprehensive security and called for changes in the Code
of Conduct, including improvements on the number and role of women
in the armed forces.
With some delay, NATO also started to design initiatives and policies
aimed at implementing UN Resolutions. From 2007, the Euro-Atlantic
Partnership Council designed a policy tasking member countries to

72 Helena Carreiras

develop practical proposals for the implementation of the resolution

and developed a conduct code for military personnel in operations; in
2009, a first gender advisor was deployed to the International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters in Afghanistan and, as part of this
process, a study was commissioned to eight specialists from four countries to identify best practices and lessons learned from the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325 in NATOs Provincial Reconstruction
Team (PRT) in Afghanistan. In 2009, an important directive was issued
aiming at integrating UNSCR 1325 and gender perspectives in the NATO
command structure including measures for protection during armed
conflict (Bi-Strategic Command Directive 401), which summarises the
alliances policy in this matter (NATO, 2009). The previously existent
Committee on Women on the NATO Forces, later renamed Committee
on Gender Perspectives, was mandated to support the implementation
of the various resolutions and an office on gender perspectives was established. In addition, in November 2010, Heads of State and Government
approved a concrete NATO action plan on mainstreaming UNSCR 1325
into NATO-led operations and missions, subject to review every two years.
NATOs Secretary General issues a yearly report on progress in implementation of UNSR 1325 and related resolutions (NATO, 2013) and in
August 2012, the first NATO Secretary Generals Special Representative
for Women, Peace and Security was appointed.
The European Union has also been fertile ground for policy initiatives in the field of gender mainstreaming. While this has long been
an objective of the EU, the adoption of gender mainstreaming as a
strategy for European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP)1 operations
has known a major impetus following the adoption of UNSC 1325
(Valenius, 2007a, 2007b). Since then, a variety of documents have
been issued and specific policies designed to implement the resolution. Gender mainstreaming in crisis management situations gained
momentum in 2005 when the European Council welcomed a document by the General Secretariat on Implementation of UNSCR 1325 in
the Context of ESDP, which included various proposals, among which
the increase of womens representation at all decision-making levels.
In the same year, a generic document on standards of behaviour for
personnel in ESDP missions was requested by the Political and Security
Committee (PSC).
In 2006, the PSC elaborated and endorsed a checklist to facilitate
the inclusion of a gender perspective from the outset of the planning
and conduct of operations aiming to serve as a reminder and provide
concrete examples of what can be done during the different stages of

Women and Peace Operations

73

the planning process. According to some analyses, this was the first real
policy commitment of the EU that specified action under UNSCR 1325
(Barnes, 2011). It already included the measure that became central to
CSDP policies on gender mainstreaming of appointing gender advisors
to missions. The first gender advisor, Charlotte Isaksson, was appointed
to EUFOR RD Congo and her experience resulted in valuable lessons
learned and documentation of good practices (Gya et al., 2008; EU,
2006). Soon after, the European Union Institute for Security Studies
(EUISS) published a first evaluation of the implementation of UNSCR
1325 in ESDP missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR Althea,
EUPM and EUSR) (Valenius, 2007b).
In 2008, following a number of initiatives from civil society networks
as well as by joint efforts from the French and Slovenian presidencies (Sheriff and Barnes, 2008), a Commission and Council document
outlining a Comprehensive EU Approach to the Implementation of the
UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 on Women, Peace and Security (EU, 2008) came
to embody and set out the fundamental principles and common definitions of the EUs approach. It outlined a threefold approach to its
work in this area: integrating women, peace and security concerns in
its policy and political action; mainstreaming a gender perspective into
its activities; and support strategic actions aimed at the protection and
empowerment of women. This document has been considered a crosspillar covering a diversity of areas, from conflict prevention to statebuilding, calling for policy dialogue with local partners and insisting
that indicators should be developed to verify the implementation of
UNSCR 1325/1820 (Hazelzet, 2013). In December 2008, an operational
paper Implementation of UNSCR 1325 as Reinforced by UNSCR 1820
in the Context of ESDP built on the previous documents and took into
account new developments, namely UNSCR 1820 on sexual violence.
Indicators to measure progress in the implementation of the resolutions
were adopted in 2010 (EU, 2010) and a first report was issued in May
2011 (EU, 2011).
With a view to the implementation of all these EU commitments, a
number of organs and instruments have been designed: the constitution
of an inter-service task force, including staff from various EU institutions; the promotion of the adoption of national action plans by the
member states; multilateral consultations with partners such as UN,
African Union (AU), OSCE and NATO; launching of a yearly conference
on UNSCR 1325; and specific funding tools or lines in the framework
of the CSDP budget, the European Initiative for Democracy and Human
Rights (EIDHR) or the Instrument for Stability (Hazelzet, 2013).

74 Helena Carreiras

Considering such a large set of policy initiatives,2 two questions must

be asked: To what extent have these political agendas been implemented?
What has been its impact on the gender regimes of both international
security and state policies?

4.3
4.3.1

A new gender regime in international security?

Implementing UNSCR 1325

Against initial expectations, enthusiasm with UNSCR 1325 has progressively been replaced by cautious statements and sceptical analyses, in
the face of what was identified as a gap between rhetoric and practice.
While recognising the groundbreaking character of this UN agenda and
its potential for awareness raising, both scholarly and policy assessments
have pointed to the limited results achieved if compared to initial ambitions (Carey, 2001). Reasons for this have initially been attributed to the
vagueness of implementation principles due to the regimes large aspirational scope, short track record and lack of compliance on the part of
states that find it easy to support unobjectionable principles if lack of
commitment will be perceived as justifiable. Carey stressed this fundamental problem of how in a context of scarce resources states and international actors alike may choose to prioritise competing needs, calling
attention to the fact that UN bodies and states are unlikely, except
perhaps in countries that observe Sharia law, to oppose gender mainstreaming on principle, but they may ignore them under the exigencies
of the moment or the budgetary constraints of the day (Carey, 2001:
63).
In NATO, the first study commissioned to evaluate the impact of
Resolution 1325 in NATO PRTs in Afghanistan concluded that awareness of the resolution and of the different security situation and needs
of men and women varied across work areas, and three actions were
proposed to fully integrate the resolution into NATO operations: use a
comprehensive strategy, hold commanders accountable for progress and
establish expert functions to enhance integration (Olsson and Tejpar,
2009).
Another study, entitled Review of the Practical Implications of UNSCR
1325 for the Conduct of NATO-led Operations and Missions, was
published in 2013. It aimed at evaluating the way the practical implementation of the gender perspective and UNSCR 1325 and related resolutions had been taken forward in NATO-led operations and missions,
identifying its measurable effects and consequences, and drawing lessons

Women and Peace Operations

75

from previous experiences. The review focused on NATO missions in

Kosovo and Afghanistan and concluded that although progress has been
made through the establishment of Gender Advisors positions, Gender
Focal Points and gender enablers, the integration of a gender perspective
and its relevance to military operations leaves ample room for improvement (Lackenbauer and Langlais, 2013). One of the highlighted aspects
was the need to better disseminate knowledge of the existing tools and
framework, namely of the Bi-Strategic Command Directive 401, since
few commanders and staff officers in KFOR and ISAF are aware of the
guidance it provides. The overwhelming majority were not aware of the
Directives existence (Lackenbauer and Langlais, 2013: 4). The review
also identified flaws in the gender-advisor system, stressing the need to
fill vacant gender-advisor positions and standardise their job descriptions, which seemed to be too open to the diverging interpretations of
both commanders and gender advisors alike. Moreover, it identified the
general absence of pre-deployment gender training as being a major
detriment to gender mainstreaming. In the light of these problems, it
recommended NATO to focus on the dissemination, enforcement, and
monitoring of Bi-Strategic Command Directive 401 (2012) throughout
the entire military structure; to make gender training a requirement for
the advancement to, and holding of, high-ranking commands; and hold
senior military leadership accountable for the implementation of the
directive, through regular reporting on its specific indicators.
In the case of the European Union, notwithstanding the long list of
documents and policy initiatives described above, a number of important
shortcomings have also been identified. A common recognition is that
the varied roles and responsibilities of the EU institutions, together with
the different dimensions of EUs action and instruments result in an
extremely complex scenario for the implementation of UNSCR 1325
(Barnes, 2011; Eulriet, 2009).
While admitting that there is an enormous potential for action,
that much progress has been made in the past few years and that the
Comprehensive Approach3 provides a strong framework that recognises
the agency of women, the risk that the protection dimensions of UNSCR
1325 become emphasised over the participation elements has been
stressed, negating womens agency during conflict and peacebuilding
and emphasizing their role as victims (Barnes, 2011: 217).
Various other obstacles to the possibility of a systematic and coherent
implementation of the resolution by the EU have also been described
(Barnes, 2011). First, there is a relative marginality of the Comprehensive
Approach and gender-related concerns within the EUs security policy,

76 Helena Carreiras

visible in limited resources allocated to this purpose and few women in

senior positions in the institutions. Second, there is a lack of accountability for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 at all levels, from the
UN to regional and national. Referring to the lack of compliance with
existing regulations, Eulriet noted that, on the one hand, due to the intergovernmental mechanisms of the EU, the Council is not in a position
to force compliance if member states are reluctant to oblige when they
are invited to implement the measures they have otherwise approved
regarding gender mainstreaming (Eulriet, 2009). On the other hand, at
the level of the community legal order, despite the existence of a framework that provides a grid against which policies can be evaluated, a great
margin of appreciation is left to the member states. Third, a limited ability
to engage with local partners, namely womens groups and networks,
has been identified: there is also a lack of coherence between the policy
rhetoric in Brussels and the reality of the context the EC delegations are
working in, and major human resource constraints ... have had a major
impact on the ability of the EC to implement UNSCR 1325 ... on the
ground (Barnes, 2011: 219).
Some further empirical data illustrate well these difficulties and the
slow path towards implementation while providing, at the same time,
an occasion for exploring and trying to understand the reasons why it
happens.
4.3.2

The challenges of translating policy into practice

Three different paradoxes can be highlighted when it comes to examining the challenges of implementation of the gender agenda in international security (Carreiras, 2010). First, there is a gap between policies
and practices, whereby established goals have been difficult to achieve;
second, there are contradictory research results with respect to womens
participation in peacekeeping; third, there is a potential clash between
the discourses that are used to legitimise military womens new roles and
the conditions for their equal participation as agents in international
security.
4.3.2.1

Ambitious policy goals and fragile results

First, some quantitative indicators provide a global, even if limited, overview of the present situation. On the one hand, 13 years after the resolution, only 43 countries have developed national action plans,4 one of
the instruments deemed crucial to the implementation of the resolution.
On the other hand, there is a persistent problem with numbers. Most
policy documents stress the need to increase the number of women in

Women and Peace Operations

77

peacekeeping operations. As noted by Schjlset, At both national and

international levels, recruitment of women is believed to be strategically
important both with respect to increasing military capacity to manage
commitments relevant to defense and security, and with respect to
exporting national identity abroad (Schjlset, 2010). Independently of
whether the focus on merely increasing the number of women captures
the fundamental issues of gender mainstreaming, it has been considered
a necessary, even if not sufficient condition for narrowing the gender gap
in military and security forces. However, results in this respect have been
disappointing. A disjuncture exists whereby a discourse on the need to
increase the number of women has not been followed by consistent and
serious efforts on the part of states to increase the number of women in
their expeditionary forces, let alone their involvement in peace negotiations or at other levels of conflict resolution (UN, 2014). As noted by
Eulriet with regard to ESDP, The policy tools that have been designed
, while aiming to address all personnel and forces, have so far only
affected a minority of troops (Eulriet, 2009: 752).
Moreover, there seems to be no automatic connection between
successful recruitment at the national level and international deployments. Levels of participation have varied significantly among UN
members, but in general the proportion of women soldiers in the military component of peacekeeping missions is still much lower than their
representation in the respective national armed forces. Data from the
UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) show that female
presence ranges from a mere 1 to 4 per cent of the military personnel in
these missions (Table 4.1).
Although much more favourable, data from NATO member states
replicate this asymmetry and reveal the same unbalance. Even if NATOs
clear emphasis on recruitment of women to the armed forces might be

Table 4.1 Women in the military component of UN peacekeeping operations

(January 2014)

MONUSCO
UNAMID
UNIFIL
UNOCI
UNMISS

Male

Female

Total

% Female

19,658
14,160
10,024
8,354
6,834

366
554
365
64
195

20,024
14,714
10,389
8,418
7,029

1.8
3.8
3.5
0.7
2.8

Source: UNDPKO, Gender Statistics, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/contributors/

gender/2014gender/jan14.pdf, accessed 10 March 2014.

78

Helena Carreiras

interpreted as an indicator of a strong awareness of the link between

gender sensitivity at the national level and the implementation of
gender perspectives at the international level, the trend has been the
existence of an even greater gap in operations than in national forces
(Table 4.2).

Table 4.2 Percentage of female soldiers in the armed forces of NATO and in
operations (2012)
Country

Albania
Belgium
Bulgary
Canada
Czech Republic
Croatia
Denmark*
Estonia
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary*
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxemburg**
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
The Netherlands*
Turkey
UK*
US*

% Women in
national forces % Women in operations

7.8
7.6
14.4
14.0
13.7
9.23
6.3
10.9
15.1
9.7
na
20.0
3.8
16.3
10.9
4.9
na
2.5
12.7
4.9
9.0
13.5
12.3
9.0
na
9.7
14.0

NATO

EU

UN

0.1
5.3
5.8
1.3
4.8
5.6

7.1
7.4

3.6

6.6
na

5.8
na

5.0
3.6
3.5
na
na
2.2
7.8
2.6
1.6
7.9
4.7

5.8

na
na
2.3

0.3
5.7
0.3
9.1

5.9

5.5
6.8

6.7
4.9
na
8.0
6.0

na
na

1.8
5.0
0.1
7.9

na

na

8.0
na
22.3
11.0

Notes: n.a. not available; *Data refers to 2011; ** Data refers to 2010.
Sources: Annual Reports 2013 NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives (http://www.nato.int/
cps/en/natolive/topics_101371.htm)

Women and Peace Operations

79

Reasons for this disparity can be found at different levels. On the

one hand, there is the type of contributing countries and the structure of military units and areas where peacekeepers come from. For
example, countries that are major contributors to UN operations, such
as Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, have few women serving in their
deployable military forces. Likewise, countries tend to select participants
in international missions from more operational units that already have
a lower representation of women at the national level. On the other
hand, a deliberate lack of political will to involve women and cultural
resistances cannot be ruled out as causes for the observed unbalance.
Therefore, even if the link is not direct, policies and practices of gender
integration at the national level have an impact on what happens at the
level of peacekeeping operations. Factors such as the ability to recruit and
retain women, the existence of restrictions on positions that women can
hold (especially related to combat roles), awareness of the gender dimensions of security and consequent attention given to gender equality in
the military are particularly constraining in this respect. The existence
of great differences in the way the various countries have designed and
implemented gender integration policies is well documented. In a study
of the participation of women in NATO forces in 2000, Carreiras found
that such differences were related to organisational factors, namely allvolunteer vs. conscript recruitment systems, but above all to the political
and economic situation of women in society at large (Carreiras, 2006),
and concluded that
change towards greater gender equality in the armed forces will not
occur automatically as a consequence of time or the increase in relative numbers. On the contrary, it will probably depend more on
the extent to which external variables, such as womens position in
society at large, might influence policy orientations and decisionmaking processes within the armed forces. (Carreiras, 2006: 127)
In the same vein, researching the armed forces in Europe, Forster has
shown that existing differences in gender integration are related to the
type of military institution from the perspective of its overall degree of
convergence with society, and convergence patterns might develop for
very different reasons (Forster, 2005).
Overall, however, it should be recognised that numbers are slowly
growing and that an unprecedented international pressure might at least
have some practical effects in the future, conditioning national policies
and orientations with regard to womens involvement in operations.

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Helena Carreiras

4.3.2.2

Research on gender integration in peacekeeping

Secondly, empirical research on gender integration in operations has

also revealed somehow apparently contradictory results. While some
studies have shown that womens presence in peacekeeping enhances
the effectiveness of the missions, others have raised concerns about the
prevalence of resistances to integration with potentially detrimental
effects on unit morale and performance.
A first important source of information on the effects of gender
integration in military operations comes from various sociological
studies conducted mainly during the 1990s (Miller and Moskos, 1995;
Maniscaldo, 1997; Olsson and Tryggestad, 2001). These empirical
researches have highlighted the importance of a gender perspective to
international operations, stressing the way the gender-integrated nature
of military units deployed to conflict areas accounted significantly for
its success. One important conclusion has been that, maybe counterintuitively, men and women seem to work better together under the difficult and stressful field conditions than often in garrison. The fact that
they are sharing tasks and goals presumably makes integration easier
and increases the possibility that people are seen as individuals more
than members of a group or sexual category (Moskos, 1988; Miller and
Moskos, 1995; Maniscaldo, 1997).
Even if not directly related to peacekeeping, one of the first researches
to highlight this result was conducted by Moskos in 1984 during the
US Granaderio exercise in Honduras, where the author observed the
performance of male and female soldiers in a difficult field situation.
According to Moskos,
the incorporation of women in the extended deployment and field
conditions of Honduras can be recorded as a success story. On balance,
the women were working well in demanding jobs in a difficult environment. Work relations between the sexes were better in the field
setting than was often the case in garrison. Over time, the women
came to be regarded and evaluated as individuals rather than as a
sexual category. This individuation contributed more than anything
else to the successful incorporation of women into nontraditional
assignments. (Moskos, 1988: 4243)
In another study of women and men performing operational combat
support service together in a field-deployed military unit, Devilbiss also
found evidence that cohesion is based on commonality of experience,

Women and Peace Operations

81

shared risk, and mutual experiences of hardship, not on gender distinction (Devilbiss, 1985: 543).
Research conducted by Miller and Moskos among American soldiers
deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996, concluded that there was
a generalised acceptation of women in peacekeeping operations: 98 per
cent of the soldiers were contrary to the possibility of preventing the
participation of women in this type of mission. This opinion was identically shared by both sexes (Maniscaldo, 1997).
More recently, a growing body of evidence, from research conducted
in the framework of monitoring the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in
peacekeeping operations in countries such as Cambodia, Kosovo, TimorLeste, Afghanistan, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, has
been used to show that the application of a gender perspective improved
peace and security (Dharmapuri, 2011).
In this context, the new opportunities and distinct advantages of
womens involvement in peacekeeping have been widely stressed
(Degroot, 2001; Karam, 2001). Their presence has been considered
essential to perform a variety of roles, from the more practical aspects
related to corporal searches on women at roadblocks or airports, to the
strategic goal of information gathering through informal socialisation
with local women, or to the more diffuse goal of promoting an environment that discourages sexual exploitation and abuse (Hendricks and
Hutton, 2008).
The ability of women to access local spaces where men cannot enter,
and to gather crucial information to allow better assessments of the
security situation in conflict settings, has been one of the most important
arguments for increasing the presence of women. The US Marine Corps
experience of using all-female elite units, first in Iraq, then in Afghanistan,
illustrates well this particular goal (RCS, 2014). These provisional female
engagement teams (FET) supported Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)
in Afghanistan since March 2010. They were trained to have a deeper
understanding of Afghan culture and mandated to connect with Afghan
women to gather information through routine patrols, clearing operations, security checks, gathering census information and engaging key
leaders. According to Dharmapuri, if female engagement teams were a
critical component of a comprehensive gender strategy, the use of FETs
and strategic approach to gender sensitive operations would in all likelihood promote an improvement in womens status at the local level and
support stabilisation efforts in the long term (Dharmapuri, 2011: 60).
The objective of countering abuses of military personnel and
improving the missions environment has also been frequently put

82 Helena Carreiras

forward. Analysing the UN Observer Mission in South Africa (UNOMSA)

in the frame of a comparative study of peacekeeping missions, Pillay
showed that during the mission there were no incidents of abuse of
local women or undisciplined behaviour of the sort that have frequently
been reported in peacekeeping operations. She cites women members
who noted that the mission drew strength from what they termed
feminine traits, including concern for the wider needs of community,
shedding symbols of status and power; networking; sharing information; making intuitive decisions; and using a hands-on approach
(quoted in Hendricks and Hutton, 2008). Likewise, in a case study of
the Nordic Battalion experience in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon
(UNIFIL), Karam concluded that female staff contributed to a good
mission environment as well as an increased access to local information (Karam, 2001). In the same vein, Al-Hussein argued that the presence of more women in a mission especially at senior levels will help
to promote an environment that discourages sexual exploitation and
abuse, particularly of the local population (Al-Hussein, 2005).
It has also been seen as enhancing operational effectiveness. Claims
have been made that a greater proportion of women relate to the success
of missions (Bridge and Horsfall, 2009) and that greater gender equality
in operations is a force multiplier through improved information gathering, enhanced credibility and better force protection (Dharmapuri,
2011; CCOE, 2008).
Other researchers have, however, called attention to difficulties
of gender integration in peacekeeping and focused on tensions that
emerge from the clash between traditional gender norms concerning
soldiers identities and the specific contexts of peacekeeping. Whitworth
(2004), for instance, sustained that there is an inherent contradiction
between the warrior-soldier model, based on the promotion of assault
and violence, and the peacekeeping-soldier model, based on benign
and altruistic behaviour. According to her, the militarised masculinity
of warriors affects peacekeeping in negative ways and tension develops
when the same forces are expected to perform according to both models,
sometimes within the same operation or mission (Whitworth, 2004).
That seems to be in line with the findings of Sion in research with two
Dutch peacekeeping units in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo
(Sion, 2008). Based on ethnographic fieldwork, Sion argued that soldiers
are ambivalent toward what is perceived as the feminine aspects of
peace missions. She contended that, although peacekeeping is a new
military model, it reproduces the same traditional combat-oriented
mindset. In her case studies,

Women and Peace Operations

83

peacekeeping missions are perceived by peacekeepers as feminine and

therefore as a challenge to their combat and masculine identity. As a
result, soldiers reject the participation of women and perceive them
as endangering the missions prestige. If even a woman can do it,
the value of the mission for proving masculinity is thrown into question. (Sion, 2008: 562)
This underlines the importance of context to explain observed patterns.
As Sion points out, it is the contrast between the type of training soldiers
receive and the reality of missions (perceived as soft) or even the characteristics of their units (perceived as more or less tough) that might
explain the confusion and ambivalence towards the mission: [w]hile
peacekeeping training was violent and exciting, the missions in Bosnia
and Kosovo were peaceful and more humanitarian. The disappointed
soldiers, especially infantry, perceived the mission in feminine terms
(Sion, 2008: 566).
In a similar vein, Higate and Henry underline the tensions that arise
when a pre-existing male soldiers socialisation into a supposedly hypermasculine gender role clashes with typical peacekeeping requirements
in the field:
peacekeeping operations are argued to require impartiality, sensitivity and empathy, attributes that may have been discouraged by
traditional military training; and it could even be argued that such
attributes involve the very opposite of the conventional activities
of warriors such as aggression, instrumentality and goal-oriented
brutality. (Higate and Henry, 2004: 484)
In what regards womens contribution to create an environment that
discourages sexual abuse, scepticism has also developed, together with
claims that the mere presence of women will not challenge gender hierarchies in the military or help to change soldiers attitudes: So far there
has been little evidence that the presence of women in PKOs changes
attitudes of men towards their comrades or towards local women (Simic,
2010: 196). According to this view, women have been called to peacekeeping to save the UNs reputation and credibility damaged by sexual
scandals involving peacekeepers. Reacting against what she perceives as
a manipulation of women, who appear to have been invited to join
PKOs as moral elitists to civilise men and set a good example, Simic
argues that the problem of sexual violence in PKOs requires more than
an add and stir approach, and the UN needs to introduce justice

84 Helena Carreiras

systems that both end impunity in relation to sexual violence and its
root causes (Simic, 2010: 196).
4.3.2.3 Making sense of womens presence in peacekeeping:
the discursive dilemma
A third aspect, where a paradox has also been recorded, regards the
nature of discourses about the new opportunities opened to women in
peace support missions. As noted above, new roles and opportunities
for women have indeed emerged in the framework of peacekeeping. All
the analyses that stress the distinct advantages of womens involvement
in this type of operation underline the idea that their presence actually
makes a difference. The problem, however, is that such comparative
advantage is mainly attributed to womens perceived gentle nature,
peacefulness, ability to control aggression and conciliatory attitude.
Ironically, the supposed peacefulness of women, or at least the social
perception of female stereotypical characteristics is now being used to
legitimate the inclusion of women, while in other instances, it has been,
and continues to be, used to sustain the opposite claim. Dittmer and
Apelt note this inconsistency when they contend that these arguments,
which were used previously to exclude women from the military, are
now being used to require their inclusion (Dittmer and Apelt, 2008),
and De Groot perceptively wrapped it up: militaries of the future might
want women for the very same reasons they have rejected them in the
past (Degroot, 2001: 133).
New opportunities for women in the military are now legitimised by a
discourse that conforms to traditional gender stereotypes, based on the
association of women and peace. This paradox seems to be reinforced
by the very language of UN documents, where the recurrent definition
of women as vulnerable individuals has been considered to perpetuate
stereotypes, removing womens agency and keeping them in a subordinated position (Puechguirbal, 2010).
The equation of women and peace, however, has been a contested
issue among feminists, especially during the heated debates of the
1980s and 1990s. While some argued in favour of the existence of
that specific connection, others have fundamentally questioned
it. Among the first, Ruddick argued that there is a specific womens
culture based on preservative love emerging from womens maternal
experience, which, if transformed by a critical feminist consciousness, could become a reliable resource for peace. By pointing out how
women seem to be disproportionally involved in all societal modes of
care and by noting the important role that they have played in peace

Women and Peace Operations

85

movements and peace-thinking, the author claims that such recognition may be used to empower women and make peace politics more
efficacious (Ruddick, 1983). However, this position was criticised for
reproducing the gender stereotype of the non-violent caring woman,
thus supposedly eroding the very basis that would allow the claim for
non-discrimination and equality of opportunities between men and
women. Elshtain and Tobias (1990) identified the absolutising effects
of such an equation, arguing that the social boundary reinforced
between a masculine, patriarchal, violent, and disordered world on the
one hand, and a peaceful, non-violent, harmonious world on the other
hand, have helped to maintain the dualism of separate spheres: Such
is the irony of total inversions, which wind up endorsing indeed
requiring that which they would oppose. Until such absolutist
constructions are challenged, not in opposition to but in the name of
a critical and ironic feminism, peace will remain a problem (Elshtain
and Tobias, 1990: 265). A similar position was held by Richards in a
provocative piece significantly titled Why the Pursuit of Peace Is Not
Part of Feminism (Richards, 1990). She insisted that the apparently
radical claim for the building of a new society based on female peacefulness is profoundly conservative, helping to sustain traditionalist
claims concerning separate spheres (Richards, 1990: 213). Advocating
the need to reconsider traditional notions of citizenship, Ann Tickner
joined the chorus of criticism, arguing that a new notion of citizenship cannot come about until myths that perpetuate views of women
as victims rather than agents are eliminated (Tickner, 1992: 59). One
such myth she claims is the association of women with peace, an
equation that has been invalidated through considerable evidence of
womens bellicosity and support for wars in many societies. According
to Tickner, the association of femininity with peace lends support
to an idealized masculinity that depends on constructing women as
passive victims in need of protection (Tickner, 1992: 59).
In sum, although international peace operations provide a space
for possible subversion of traditional cultural patterns of gender relations (Duncanson, 2009, 2013), the contents of ideological discourses
concerning objective changes in womens roles in peacekeeping have
been giving meaning to their activities in ways that might limit their
potential to intervene at all levels of conflict. Moreover, they seem to
entail another possible damaging consequence: the danger of jeopardising previous achievements regarding womens integration in the
military.

86

4.4

Helena Carreiras

Conclusion

This chapter reviewed present developments regarding the way international security organisations have addressed the implementation of
UNSCR 1325, and related resolutions, and mainstreamed gender into
their structures and practices, including the participation of women in
the military component of international peace operations. It was argued
that these organisations new political agendas have an enormous potential for change, and significant progress has been reached in terms of the
legal and formal definition of policies and instruments for implementation, monitoring and evaluation. However, actual implementation
seems to lag behind and results in the field have not met initial expectations. Research on gender integration in peacekeeping unveils contradictions and paradoxes that might limit the transformative potential of
the political agendas of international organisations, but also provide the
clues for overcoming existing obstacles.
At the symbolic discursive level, there is a need to reframe the narrative about womens supposed peaceful virtues that would make them
more suitable for peacekeeping. Although this is not an easy task, it
will certainly depend on our ability to reject essentialist views of both
women as inherently peaceful and men and masculinities as essentially
violent. The assumption of womens special relationship to peace helps to
perpetuate a dualism where the feminine side is assimilated to passivity
and powerlessness. Likewise, a male soldiers necessary socialisation into
a warrior-like ideal and the stereotypical hyper-masculine traits that some
analyses take for granted is, at best, an oversimplification. If military
cultures evolve from specific social and historical contexts and masculinity is understood as diverse and complex, there is no homogeneous
group of male peacekeepers. After all, as Higate and Henry noted, military
masculine subcultures create and shape a complex and nuanced range of
soldier/peacekeeper identities and practices (Higate and Henry, 2004).
At the level of practice, one important insight from research, which
at the same time explains seemingly apparent contradictions, is that
gender is not something that works disconnected from other positionalities of its agents and the broader context of interaction. Research
results on gender integration in operations must thus be examined in
a context-sensitive manner, taking into account a whole set of intervening factors, from macro-level influences (e.g., mission definition
and rules of engagement) to meso-level organisational determinants
(e.g., gender numerical balance, quality of leadership, previous training,
amount of shared experience) or to micro arrangements at the level of

Women and Peace Operations

87

daily interactions. What research has already shown is that some of

these factors, namely the quality of leadership and shared experience
have a positive impact on soldiers adjustment during deployments and
operations. Both features, in any case, depend on the existence of organisational policies that promote gender integration in the first place and
make commanders accountable and responsive with regard to the gender
dimension of their missions. We should thus ask questions such as the
following: Under which circumstances has it been possible to achieve
successful gender integration in peacekeeping operations? Which were
the specific factors that prevented that from happening in other cases?
To what extent do force-related factors such as the previous common
work experience of men and women, the training received or the quality
and gender awareness of leadership impact on the results? How do these
factors interact with aspects related to the type of mission, its perceived
danger and specific engagement rules? Or with the local gender regime
in the areas where missions take place? Can we single out the direct and
combined effects of all these factors?
These questions can be turned into an agenda for future research.
State militaries and international organisations alike can use evidencebased knowledge to better mainstream gender into peacekeeping operations and thus help integrated forces work effectively in the field. This
will certainly contribute to better implement a promising new gender
regime in international security.

Notes
1. Later renamed Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).
2. A listing of the most important documents can be found in Gya (2010).
3. As defined in the above-referred document, Comprehensive EU Approach to the
Implementation of the UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 on Women, Peace and Security (EU,
2008).
4. Of these, 17 are members of the EU.

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