Peace Negotiations as Sites of Gendered Power Hierarchies

Abstract

Since the passage of UNSCR 1325, women’s formal inclusion in peace negotiations has been advocated as a means to pursue gender equality and improve peace outcomes. A narrow focus on inclusion and the embodied presence of women, however, does not address the gendered hierarchies embedded within negotiations. This article highlights how gender functions as a power structure that normalizes masculinity as the operating standard within the practice of peace negotiations. By focusing on the centrality of militarization and masculinity to liberal peacebuilding, I suggest three ways negotiations function as patriarchal institutions: the issues centered as essential peace components; the types of violence that “count” as conflict-related; and the actors deemed legitimate for inclusion. While inclusion is a critical aspect of improving gendered peace outcomes, attention to gendered bodies must include recognition of gender as an analytical category that shapes not just who is included but how the process is built.