Transcript Document

Security through the Gender
Lens:
NTS Training Programme
Singapore, 21-24 August, 2007
Sumona DasGupta
Women in Security, Conflict Management and
Peace (WISCOMP), New Delhi
Security Through the Gender
Lens:
Module Plan:
 Demystifying Gender
 Revisiting new issues of security
 Mapping the interface of gender and
security
Demystifying Gender

What is gender? There is a lot of
misunderstanding about the word
gender which is often seen as being
synonymous with women. Why is there
this misunderstanding?
Women and the status quo
3 different roles of men and women:
 Productive roles
 Reproductive roles
 Community roles
Gender roles and gender
activities
Roles
 Chef, tailor,
farmer, doctor
Activities
 Cooking, sewing,
planting
vegetables,
caring for the
family
Understanding Gender

Gender is about the balance of power
between men and women
 Gender refers to the cultural ideals and
expectations about masculinity and feminity.
Changes from one culture to another and
from one time period to another.
 Gender refers to how men and women’s
roles, social relationships and expectations
are built by society.
Terms of engagement


Gender inequality is a form of social exclusion.
Gender justice encourages the greatest possible
participation of both women and men on equal terms
in society.
Feminist Insights

Patriarchy: A system of social relations in
which men’s power is dominant.
 Essentialism: the idea that men and women
possess certain universal natural
characteristics and these form a basis of
solidarity between them.
 Agency embodies the idea that all human
beings take active steps to deal with the
constraints and limitations that life imposes of
them.
New Issues of Security
Since 1994 UNDP's Human
Development Report has emphasised
people's security as opposed to
territorial security. It has stressed the
shift from security through armaments,
to security through human development.
Freedom from Fear and Freedom from
want – twin pillars
Ford Research
First phase of research yielded a cluster
of issues- globalization, state and nation
building, life and livelihood issues,
movement of people across borders
and boundaries, transnational crimes,
trafficking, terrorism, proliferation of
drugs and small arms, public health,
militarization, collapse of financial
markets, ethnic and other conflicts
Revisiting Security

How do you sort out this mixed bag?
Security is not self referential. Security
for whom, security for which values,
security from what threats?
Seven Security Sectors:


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Economic security: assured basic income
Food security: Physical and economic access
Health security: against parasitic and
infectious disease
Environmental security: land, forests
Personal Security: against physical violence
Community Security: cultural identity
Political Security: human rights
Security from What ?

Disruptions caused by globalization,
terrorism, cross national crimes, drugs
syndicates, proliferation of small arms
What does gender mean for
our understanding of security?

New formulations on security have as
their twin planks freedom from fear and
freedom from want. Women’s
organizations and those concerned with
women’s rights have tended to welcome
this definition because it allows for
issues of concern to to women and girls
to be viewed in the context of women’s
human rights.
Rethinking Conflict/Security
Using a Gender Perspective:
How security issues be addressed in a manner
that is sensitive to gender issues?
 How does conflict impact the security of
individual men and women differently?
 Do gender relations change as a result of
heightened insecurity during a active conflict?
 Why do women’s rights matter?
 What does gender mean for our
understanding
of security?
How does Conflict Impact
Individual Men and Women
Conflicts generate 3 kinds of social changes
all of which have a gender implication.
 Demographic change or change in patterns of
residence, population and organization.
 Economic change: War requires people to
adapt to new forms of livelihood
 Political change: people, institutions,
leadership
Do Gender Relations Change
As a Result of the Conflict
There are different aspects of gender
relations:
Gender roles
Gender identities
Gendered power structures
Gender ideologies
Why do women’s rights
matter?

Priority: saving lives. Post conflict everyone
has to pull together to rebuild. 2 main
arguments:
 Women’s human rights are assured under the
charter of the United Nations. These
instruments assert that institutions that fail to
provide representation to all sections of the
populations are undemocratic.
 Women’s participation and perspectives
enrich and transform political agendas and
conflict resolution at all levels.
Women's Global Milestones

1945 Charter of the United Nations
1947 Establishment of the United Nations
Commission on the Status of Women
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1952 Convention on the Political Rights of
Women
1967 Declaration on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women
1975 International Women's Year: Equality,
Development, and Peace
Milestones continued

1975 World Conference of the International
Women's Year, Mexico City, Mexico
1976 - 1985 UN Decade for Women
1979 Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women
1980 World Conference of the UN Decade for
Women, Copenhagen, Denmark
1985 World Conference to Review and
Appraise the Achievements of the UN Decade
for Women: Equality, Development and
Peace, Nairobi, Kenya (Forward Looking
Strategies)
Milestones continued

1992 United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil (Agenda 21)
1993 United Nations World Conference on
Human Rights, Vienna, 1993 Declaration on
the Elimination of Violence Against Women
 1994 International Conference on Population
and Development - Cairo, Egypt
Milestones continued

1995 World Summit on Social Development,
Copenhagen, Denmark
 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women Beijing, China (Beijing Declaration and the
Platform for Action
 1996 United Nations Conference on Human
Settlements (Habitat II), Istanbul, Turkey
(Habitat Agenda)
2000 UN General Assembly Follow-up to the
Platform for Action - New York
Landmark Resolution
2000: UN Security Council
Resolution 1325 on Women,
Peace and Security
Utstein Definition
The Utstein Definition of Peacebuilding
included a security dimension to
peacebuilding. In this
conceptualization,security specifically
implied humanitarian mine action,
disarmament, reintegration of
combatants, small arms & light
weapons, security sector reform