What are the implications of gender for security and development? This paper from Conflict, Security & Development argues that gender is vital in any discussion of security and development since women are affected by war, conflict and poverty in different ways to men. It also illustrates the ways in which gender systems are bound up with other ‘differences’ and how these are specific to individual contexts.
Gender is not biologically given but socially and culturally made through meaning-making systems, such as language. Gender-based security threats are often inseparable from other threats. Trafficking, for example, is a highly gendered activity, where men and women are trafficked in different numbers and into different forms of work. Gender is also central to HIV/AIDS; women’s and girls’ susceptibility to HIV/AIDS is linked to their sociocultural, biological, economic and political subordination within broader society.
In recognition of these gender issues the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (1325) was passed in 2000. It specifically considers women’s rights in post-conflict societies and promotes their participation in reconstruction and reconciliation processes. However, it does not include enforcement and there is no uniform way to ensure that women’s participation in decision-making is increased.
Gender relations are dependent on a variety of factors including race and ethnicity, class, sexuality, age, disability and nationality. However, gender is not the only identity that should be considered in understanding the links between security and development. In some instances, gender may not always be the most important factor.
- Genocide and ethnic conflict play a role in trafficking as they cause fractures in communities, making vulnerable war-torn citizens.
- Since women and children in developing countries are more likely to be poor, they are more at risk of being trafficked. Cultural and social conditions, which devalue the role of women and children, create an atmosphere that makes trafficking possible.
- The greater scale of trafficking of women means that the problem of trafficking of men is entirely overlooked.
- The spread of the HIV/AIDS virus is linked to two gendered practices: the sex trade, established to ‘service’ soldiers, and rape as a weapon of war. Furthermore, vulnerable women and girls are coerced into sex to gain food, shelter and security in refugee camps.
- Other effects of conflict are also gendered: when entire communities of men are killed, women are faced with the burden of providing for their families.
- Although 1325 is important for improving women’s status globally, it fails to acknowledge adequately relations between genders and power relations in different contexts.
It is important to understand the political workings of gender in relation to security and development in order to develop new approaches to policy-making and practice. Scholars, practitioners and donors should focus on:
- the specific social and cultural contexts of development and the different ways in which men and women understand and experience security;
- the experiences of ‘third world’ men in trafficking and how they are regarded by governments and international authorities;
- the ways in which masculinity is intertwined with representations of security and development;
- the wider social and economic conditions of HIV/AIDS in order to promote human security;
- the difference between the HIV/AIDS strains dominant in Africa and in America and Europe in order to target interventions more effectively; and,
- connections between gender and post-conflict reconstruction activities and development initiatives.
