Gender and Peaceful Change

• This chapter examines the interplay between gender and peaceful change. It elaborates on how the concept of peace is inherently gendered by drawing upon feminist scholarship. There are a number of ways to conceptualize gender and peaceful change. The “women-peace hypothesis” assumes a proximity between women’s peacefulness and their experiences of maternal care. However, such a construction needs to be treated with caution since transformative peace requires deconstruction of that assumption, while staying attentive to women’s contributions to peacemaking. Debates on strategic essentialism and inclusive peace are also assessed as a way of gaining deeper and more meaningful understandings of gender-just peaceful change. We argue that women’s unique experiences pertaining to peace and conflict should be considered alongside those of men. In addition, we examine the assumption about states with a poor record on gender inequality are more likely to be involved in intrastate conflicts. The last part of the chapter focuses on policy practice, including the adoption of UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security and the reorientation in some states toward feminist foreign policy as a platform for peaceful change.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

kap (subject category)

ref (subject category)