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151. Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations: Baseline Study

Author:
Marta Ghittoni, Léa Lehouck, and Callum Watson
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The proportion of female police and military peacekeepers remains well below UN targets. Research suggests that the main reason behind the small numbers seems to be a variety of challenges and barriers to uniformed women deploying to PKOs. This baseline study compiles and analyses research published to date on the topic. The study was commissioned by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) in the framework of the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations. The main objectives of this study are to describe the current situation as concerns women’s participation in military and police roles in United Nations peacekeeping operations, document international good practice to increase such participation, and identify challenges and barriers to the recruitment, training, retention, deployment and promotion of uniformed women in peacekeeping operations.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Peacekeeping, Military Affairs, and Women
Political Geography:
Geneva, Canada, United Nations, and Global Focus

152. Placement of Pakistani Women during Democratic Regimes: 1988-2018

Author:
Shehzadi Zamurrad Awan
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
On women issues, the response of democratically elected governments of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), remained vague and noncommittal. Both parties in their manifestos for general elections, vowed to take steps for women socio-economic and political empowerment. However, after assuming power, these parties could not fullfill their promises. They could neither enact appropriate legislation on women issues nor they repealed or amended gender discriminatory Hudood Ordinance of Zia-ul-Haq. More so, these two leading parties failed to restore the expired women quota in National and Provincial Assemblies, resulting in insufficient representation in the legislative bodies. Nevertheless, in comparison with conservative PML (N), the expectations from a liberal Benazir Bhutto to enforce pro-women policies was more promising. Both parties formed coalition governments, thus remained incapacitated to enact women related laws. Furthermore, they were confronted with orthodoxy within and outside the legislative bodies, posing challenges to their political agendas. Nonetheless, the last two tenures of both parties marked a little difference in their approach towards women issues, resulting in some serious legislation, targeting women problems in socio-economic and political domains. It is imperative to say that the effectiveness of these newly in-placed women related laws and policies has yet to bring change in society as their proper implementation and required institutionalization is in its infancy stage.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Governance, Elections, Women, and Legislation
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, and Punjab

153. Tell Me, Miss…

Author:
Elizabeth Krijgsman
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
Full disclosure: the Foreign Service was not my first choice of career. I was in college back in the Dark Ages when unmarried women’s business cards said “Miss,” women were called “girls,” and pantyhose hadn’t yet been invented. When it dawned on me that I might not be getting married right after graduation, I began to think seriously about what kind of career I wanted. I decided that it would ideally involve a lot of free time. It would of course pay well. And I thought it would be very nice if it involved travel to exotic places. Being fond of indoor plumbing and not fond of physical labor, I immediately eliminated the Peace Corps as a possibility. During the summer after my junior year in college, I realized—I should become a Diplomatic Courier! Lots of down time on airplanes. Constant travel to those exotic locales. Staying in luxury hotels. Decent pay. And almost no actual work!
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Women, and Memoir
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

154. Gender-inclusive governance for e-commerce

Author:
Amalie Giødesen Thystrup
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Trade and Economic Integration, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals' SDG 5 places gender equality front and centre for sustainable development. The Joint Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment on the Occasion of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in December 2017 brings gender equality to the forefront of trade policy. In the intersection of trade policy and digital technologies, this paper examines how electronic commerce can work towards gender equality, filling a knowledge gap about gender-inclusive governance. Legal-empirical analysis of key regulatory and policy challenges facing women in e-commerce, and identification of vehicles for gender equality at the regional and multilateral level are followed by policy options for promoting women participation in e-commerce. The paper presents a framework for understanding the multiplicity of gender gaps as they manifest themselves in e-commerce models, suggesting potential but also concerns, and advances a multi-level approach to incorporating gender-inclusive e-commerce regulation into trade policy.
Topic:
Economics, Gender Issues, International Trade and Finance, Women, Digital Economy, and Sustainable Development Goals
Political Geography:
Global Focus

155. An International Look at the Women’s Movement: The Gender Agenda of the Global South

Author:
Berfu Şeker
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
We are at a time when the global politics of women’s rights, gender and feminism are intersecting at the regional and national level, forming around similar dynamics and practices. Against the gains made by women and LGBTI+ groups towards changing gender politics until the 2000s, we are seeing that new populist trends have been gaining power since 2000s.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Inequality, Populism, Feminism, and LGBT+
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

156. Purple Economy: A Strategy for Women’s Equal Economic Participation towards Sustainable Cities

Author:
İpek İlkkaracan
Publication Date:
02-2018
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
This policy brief is published in the framework of “Women’s Participation for Sustainable City” project under the umbrella project “Supporting Sustainable Cities” of TESEV funded by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty. If one were asked to associate a color with the concept of “sustainable cities,” the first to come to mind would be probably green. Not surprising, given that the issue of sustainability originated out of concerns for the environmental crisis and the green economy was proposed as a vision of an environmentally sustainable economy. Today it is widely acknowledged that an additional challenge to sustainability has to do with inequalities in the economic and social sphere. Gender is an important crosscutting dimension of multi-layered inequalities. Hence I would like to propose another color to associate with the concept of sustainable cities and sustainable economies, complementing the green: Purple, the symbolic color of the women’s movement in Turkey and in many countries around the world. The purple economy entails the vision of a gender egalitarian and hence a socially sustainable economy. It starts from the premise that the root cause of obstacles to women’s equal economic participation lies within the gender imbalances in the distribution of caring labor. Caring labor entails provisioning of goods and services to caredependent groups such as children, elderly, ill and people with disabilities as well as healthy adults necessary for their physical, social, mental and emotional wellbeing.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Women, Economy, and Urban
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

157. Kroc Insight – Negotiating at the Invisible Peace Table: Inclusion of Women in Informal Peacebuilding Processes

Author:
Jennifer Bradshaw and Mariam Yazdani
Publication Date:
01-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace Justice, University of San Diego
Abstract:
In the second installment of the Kroc Insight series, Program Officer Jennifer Bradshaw and 2018 Woman PeaceMaker Fellow Mariam Yazdani explore how to build more effective and inclusive peace negotiations. What came out of these conversations was a need to share out an often under-documented space within peace negotiations, “the invisible peace negotiation table."
Topic:
Peacekeeping, Women, Feminism, and Negotiation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

158. Women and the Law

Author:
Council on Foreign Relations
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
The connection between women’s economic participation and global prosperity is undeniable. Over the past two decades, international organizations and world leaders have increasingly recognized how critical women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion are to economic prosperity and growth. Analyses from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, and other leading institutions demon- strate the growth potential of women’s increased economic partici- pation. UN frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals recognize the relationship between economic opportunity for women and development, and include time-bound targets—such as equal access to financial services, natural resources, and technology, and equality in property ownership and inheritance—to advance women’s economic participation. However, despite growing awareness that women’s economic empowerment is critical to women, their families, and broader eco- nomic prosperity, many countries still legally undermine women’s economic participation and undervalue women’s work. Of the 189 economies surveyed in the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2018 report, 90 percent have at least one regulation that impedes wom- en’s economic opportunities. More than one hundred economies still prevent women from working in certain jobs; fifty-nine economies provide no legal recourse to women who experience sexual harassment in the workplace; and in eighteen countries, men can legally prevent their wives from working outside the home. An array of other legal barriers—from limitations on access to finance to laws restricting women’s agency and mobility—prevent women from fully participat- ing in the economy. Even in 2018, the legal landscape for women in the economy fails to reflect the value women’s participation adds to eco- nomic growth. But change is on the horizon. Over the last decade, several countries have enacted legal reforms that significantly advance women’s rights. Today, all but thirty-two countries legally guarantee gender equality in their constitutions, and a record number of countries now have laws prohibiting discrimina- tion or violence against women. While these gains—rightfully cel- ebrated—show that progress is possible, proposals to eliminate the critical barriers that limit women’s economic potential remain absent from mainstream discussions on international and national economic policy, and barriers to female economic enfranchisement persist in every region of the world. In order to realize the economic potential of 50 percent of the world’s population, nations need to do more to level the legal playing field for women. This volume collects in-depth analysis and commen- tary on legal barriers to women’s economic participation, with a focus on five areas in which the greatest obstacles to women’s economic par- ticipation endure: financial inclusion, identification laws, land rights, workplace discrimination, and family law. In the opening essay, I make the economic case for eliminating legal barriers that inhibit women’s economic participation. Closing gender gaps in the workplace could add an estimated $12 trillion to the global economy. Countries simply cannot afford to waste this economic poten- tial—and governments from Saudi Arabia to Japan are taking notice and enacting policies to promote women’s workforce participation. A web of discriminatory laws impedes women’s access to financial services and undermines their capacity to borrow, save, or obtain insur- ance. In an essay on financial inclusion, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Senior Fellow Jamille Bigio highlights how banks stand to ben- efit economically by ensuring women’s access to and use of financial services, by sharing the experience of a Nigerian woman who employed digital tools to save for her daughter’s school fees. CFR Senior Fellow Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, reporting on a successful financial inclusion program in Tanzania, explores how education can help women over- come legal and social barriers to opening bank accounts. The economic case for legal reform to promote women’s financial inclusion is strong: when women can use financial services without spousal consent and have control over where they live, and when unpaid work is recognized in marital property regimes, gender gaps in financial inclusion are nar- rowed. Legal reform needs to be a central component of any strategy to advance women’s access to and use of savings, credit, and insurance.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Feminism, and Participation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

159. Integrating Women’s Normative Roles into Peacebuilding in Zimbabwe

Author:
Rose Jaji
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Social Science Research Council
Abstract:
This policy brief addresses the under-representation of women in Zimbabwe’s public service institutions and in the security sector, despite the government’s expressed commitment to UN Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. While women account for 25 percent of public servants, there is no woman in the highest ranks of the security sector, particularly in the Zimbabwe Defense Forces (ZDF). Also, women’s representation in the national parliament is 35 percent, while their repre- sentation in the country’s urban and rural councils is below 20 percent.1 Women’s under-representation is reflected in their limited influence on peacebuilding in Zimba- bwe. Women who engage in peacebuilding in the public sphere face sexual harass- ment, arrest by the authorities, and censure. The marginalization of women in the public sphere is mirrored in the private sphere. Yet this is a space where attitudes are shaped and value for peace can be instilled in children and young people. The combination of gender discrimination in the public sphere and the exclusion of the private sphere from peacebuilding policies constrains women’s participation at lo- cal, national, and international levels (Björkdahl 2012; Tiessen 2015).
Topic:
Gender Issues, Peacekeeping, Women, Feminism, and Norms
Political Geography:
Africa and Zimbabwe

160. Securing Our Lives: Women at the Forefront of the Peace and Security Discourse in Kenya

Author:
Vicky Karimi
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Social Science Research Council
Abstract:
The research presented in the 2015 United Nations Global Study on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 comprehensively demonstrates the key role played at all levels by women in the operational effectiveness, success, and sustainability of peace processes and peacebuilding efforts. It recommends that mediators, facilitators, and leaders in peace operations be proactive in including women in all aspects of peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding. More importantly, the study found a need for the normative framework to be localized and for greater attention to be given to mapping what local communities and women actually need.1 Since 2000, the United Nations has passed several resolutions that constitute the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. These are particularly significant because they were adopted by the UN Security Council. UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 prioritizes the inclusion and participation of women in all stages of decision-making in peace processes.2 Subsequent resolutions UNSCR 1820 (2008), UNSCR 1888 (2009), UNSCR 1889 (2009), UNSCR 1960 (2010), UNSCR 2106 (2013), UNSCR 2122 (2013), and UNSCR 2242 (2015) focus on various aspects of the WPS agenda, such as sexual and gender-based violence, peacekeeping, rule of law, impunity, and the role of women in countering violent extremism.3 Together, these resolutions provide a robust normative framework for the substantive participation of women in the discourse on peace and security.
Topic:
Security, Women, and Peace
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa