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181. Concrete Steps Toward a Feminist Foreign Policy

Author:
Stephenie Foster, Susan Markham, and Sahana Dharmapuri
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Our Secure Future
Abstract:
This paper seeks to do one thing: to make recommendations about how a feminist foreign policy could be operationalized within the US government. Main Recommendations: Diversify Representation; Prioritize Gender in Information Collection and Analysis; Ensure Input From Those Affected; Reform the Institutional Structure; Increase Accountability of Individuals and Transparency of Institutions; Increase Resources; Utilize Technology.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Government, Science and Technology, Feminism, Representation, Diversity, Accountability, Institutions, Transparency, and Gender
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

182. Teaching the WPS Agenda in a Changing Security Landscape: Women, Peace and Security Curriculum Consortium

Author:
Erin Cooper
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Our Secure Future
Abstract:
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was unanimously supported in 2000. Twenty years in, even with such broad ranging support, progress towards the goals of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) has been slower than expected. In Canada and the United States, there is a legal mandate to incorporate Women, Peace and Security in the military and civil service sector, but implementation has been met with many challenges. Trainings and educational programs on WPS are created in silos such as academia, military, government, etc., and are often ad hoc. WPS and gender-based analysis must be mainstreamed throughout the entirety of the defense sector. Professional military education (PME) was identified as a key area to target to ensure a broader knowledge base and application of the WPS agenda. Key Findings: Introduce gender analysis/gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) early in the career of military and civil service members, treating it as a core capacity integrated throughout all levels and aspects of training and education; Start with the gender assessment of a situation to mainstream gender at the beginning of a decision-making or project design process; Integrate gender analysis/GBA+ and the WPS framework in operational military planning and training scenarios as taught by PME; Prioritize cross-pollination between PME, academic institutions, and policymakers for successful integration across the field; “real-world” applications, curriculum design, terminology/vocabulary, research, and theory should all inform each other; Ensure frequent consultation with civil society to design, monitor, and evaluate implementation of strategy and commitments; Professionalize the field with regular convenings and budget support that demonstrate institutional commitment to gender analysis/GBA+ and integration.
Topic:
Security, Armed Forces, WPS, Civil Servants, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

183. Women, Peace & Security, and the Digital Ecosystem: Five Emerging Trends in the Technology and Gender Policy Landscape

Author:
Sahana Dharmapuri and Jolynn Shoemaker
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Our Secure Future
Abstract:
While technology offers immense potential for humanity, the digital ecosystem has also revealed a darker side - and it is closely intertwined with gender inequality. From lack of participation and access to gender-based bias, harassment, and abuse, women’s experiences in the technology space and with digital platforms are often amplifying inequalities. These issues are not central priorities for technology leaders or policymakers, much like other facets of society. There are pockets of attention on gender dynamics, but they are siloed from one another, and this has prevented a full picture of the landscape or its broader implications. Despite some calls for values-driven or human-centered technology development, and for embedding human rights into technology policy, international policy frameworks that underscore human rights and gender equality are largely missing from the conversation. The proliferation of disinformation, targeting of women political candidates, or marginalized groups such as LGBTQ+ communities on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms, are repeating patterns and events in the digital ecosystem that have significant consequences for society. We were able to identify these system failures as repeating events that affect at least 50% of technology companies’ end-users--and half of the world’s population. For policymakers, the costs of ignoring these trends could lead to new technology, peace and security structures, processes that weaken core human rights, and gender equality norms and obligations around the world.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Women, Digitalization, WPS, Bias, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

184. Diving Deeper: Under the surface of LBQTI Funding

Author:
Global Philanthropy Project (GPP)
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Global Philanthropy Project (GPP)
Abstract:
Diving Deeper: Under the surface of LBQTI funding data explores gaps and improvements over time and identifies opportunities to increase funding for LBQ, trans, and intersex communities and movements. The brief also identifies top LBTQI funders and shares good practice examples of government and multilateral funders integrating LBQTI issues into their gender equality development programming.
Topic:
Development, LGBT+, Equality, Philanthropy, Funding, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

185. Manufacturing Moral Panic: Weaponizing Children to Undermine Gender Justice and Human Rights

Author:
Juliana Martínez, Ángela Duarte, and María Juliana Rojas
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Elevate Children Funders Group
Abstract:
This research explores how gender-restrictive groups are using child protection rhetoric to manufacture moral panic and mobilize against human rights, and how this strengthens the illiberal politics currently undermining democracies. The report’s comparative analysis of three country case studies (Bulgaria, Ghana, and Perú) underscores recurring strategies, narratives, and actors and gives insight into how gender-restrictive groups collaborate and engage in coalitional work across the globe. This significant new research includes important findings and recommendations for funders.
Topic:
Human Rights, Children, LGBT+, Gender Minorities, and Gender
Political Geography:
Bulgaria, Peru, and Ghana

186. Case Study 1. Peru: How Gender-Restrictive Groups May Lose the Legal Battle, but Win the Communications and Cultural War

Author:
Juliana Martínez, Ángela Duarte, and María Juliana Rojas
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Elevate Children Funders Group
Abstract:
Peru is the birthplace of one of Latin America’s strongest transnational gender-restrictive movements. Understanding its sociocultural and political context sheds light on the operation of gender-restrictive groups and the rise of neoconservative politics in the region. Lima is geopolitically and strategically important because it hosts the headquarters for various gender-restrictive organizations in the region, including Ceprofarena, the Office for Latin America of the Population Research Institute, Latin American Alliance for the Family, Opus Dei, and Sodalicio de la Vida Cristiana (interview with George Hale, 2020). Therefore, many strategies that instrumentalize children32 to manufacture moral panic and oppose “gender ideology” in countries such as Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, and Chile are oftentimes planned or tested in Peru, or implemented in the country after their success elsewhere. Concretely, the Don’t Mess With My Kids (DMWMK) movement33 in Peru is representative of how genderrestrictive groups instrumentalize children to threaten children’s rights, along with gender-justice, in a country with disturbing evidence of gender-based violence and intense sexism. The Peruvian case also illuminates the ways in which gender-restrictive groups identify key battlefields related to women’s and children’s issues—such as Comprehensive Sexuality Education—that they use as a toehold to advance gender-restrictive initiatives in many policy areas and at several political levels.
Topic:
Human Rights, Children, LGBT+, Gender Minorities, and Gender
Political Geography:
South America and Peru

187. Case Study 2. Bulgaria: "How Children's, Women's, and LGBT Rights Got Lost in Translation; The Development of the Most Effective Gender-Restrictive Movement in Eastern Europe

Author:
Juliana Martínez, Ángela Duarte, and María Juliana Rojas
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Elevate Children Funders Group
Abstract:
The Istanbul Convention (IC) was the first European treaty to provide a comprehensive framework to address all forms of violence against women and girls. With wide support from across the political spectrum, the EU presented it to member states for ratification in 2011. Despite the endorsement of 18 European countries, Bulgaria became the first country to decide against ratifying it in 2018. Furthermore, the Bulgarian Constitutional Court declared the treaty unconstitutional. Though this decision took many by surprise, it was the culmination of years of work by gender-restrictive groups in the country. As a member of the European Union since 2007, Bulgaria is a signatory of multiple international declarations that protect LGBT,60 women’s, children’s, and human rights. However, over the last decade—and particularly since 2018—the country has also seen the rise of well-organized gender-restrictive groups that have successfully worked to curtail the advancement of human rights and gender justice.61 Bulgaria’s rejection of the IC was the first of a series of events that jeopardized human rights by directly undermining LGBT, women’s, and children’s rights.
Topic:
Human Rights, Children, Women, LGBT+, and Gender
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, and Bulgaria

188. Case Study 3. Ghana: How Faith-Based, Gender-Restrictive Groups Sowed Homophobia and Reaped Political and Social Power

Author:
Juliana Martínez, Ángela Duarte, and María Juliana Rojas
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Elevate Children Funders Group
Abstract:
The actions of faith-based, gender-restrictive groups85 in Ghana gained international attention in 2019 due to two main events: the World Congress of Families (WCF), which convened in Accra, and the opposition to the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) program proposed by the government. Though the two were not originally related, faith-based, gender-restrictive groups used the WCF as a platform to amplify their message against the CSE program, as well as LGBT86 rights more broadly. The Ghanaian case illustrates how faith-based, genderrestrictive groups use the rhetoric of protecting children and leverage entrenched anti-LGBT sentiment in many English-speaking countries in Africa to manufacture moral panic. This strategy both effectively advances a genderrestrictive worldview and strengthens the social capital and political power of these groups. Furthermore, the anti-LGBT cause allowed these groups to work across denominations and religions—for example, Evangelicals with Catholics87 or Christians with Muslims—to create a powerful interfaith alliance that constitutes a serious threat to gender justice88 in Ghana.
Topic:
Human Rights, Religion, LGBT+, Homophobia, and Gender
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

189. Culture, Gender, and Women in the Military: Implications for International Humanitarian Law Compliance

Author:
Robert U. Nagel, Kinsey Spears, and Julia Maenza
Publication Date:
10-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS)
Abstract:
The increased number of women in the Armed Forces presents a timely opportunity to examine how the changing gender makeup of the US military affects operations and culture, what potential barriers exist, and what women’s participation means for compliance with international conventions such as the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and International Humanitarian Law (IHL). We conducted semi-structured interviews with former enlisted personnel, active and retired commissioned officers. The interviews, along with a comprehensive review of government and military policies, independent review reports, and academic literature, allow us to illustrate how the combination of an entrenched masculinized military culture and overreliance on Special Operations Forces (SOF) present an obstacle to women’s full integration, impeding the implementation of the WPS agenda and IHL compliance. We recommend that the US Department of Defense address three central gender-related issues—the equal and meaningful inclusion of women, restrictive physical standards, and sexual assault—to achieve the goals of the 2020 Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan (SFIP).
Topic:
Security, Culture, Armed Forces, Women, Discrimination, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and Gender
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

190. Gendered Impacts on Operational Effectiveness of UN Peace Operations

Author:
Robert U. Nagel, Kate Fin, and Julia Maenza
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS)
Abstract:
Currently, women are underrepresented in peacekeeping. As of January 2021, women make up fewer than 5% of all military personnel, 11% of personnel in formed police units, and 28% of individual police officers on peacekeeping missions. And yet, the authors find that across various missions, women’s participation improves community engagement and changes the narrative of women’s roles in society. The report offers recommendations on how gender mainstreaming and the integration of local perspectives can improve operational effectiveness, along with recommendations for better data collection policies and practices. This study is based on 78 interviews of mission personnel from three ongoing UN PKOs in Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Lebanon, along with civil society actors, and a comprehensive review of personnel data, strategy, policy, and standard operating procedure documents related to operational effectiveness.
Topic:
United Nations, Peacekeeping, Participation, and Gender
Political Geography:
Lebanon, Cyprus, Global Focus, and Congo