1. Decolonizing the Mainstreaming of Gender in Peacebuilding: Toward an Agenda for Africa
- Author:
- Heidi Hudson
- Publication Date:
- 07-2016
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Social Science Research Council
- Abstract:
- Peacebuilding is big business in Africa and the gendering of peacebuilding even more so—if the number of workshops and funding proposals with gen- der as their focus is anything to go by. As an academic enterprise, gender and peacebuilding have equally grown in stature and scope.1 But more often than not, gender acts as a proxy for women, especially because we are con- tinuously reminded that they must be included in all peacebuilding efforts because they make up more than half of the population and war and its aftermath affect them differently. So why bother with mainstreaming gen- der if it is actually just about adding women? Practice has shown that the rhetorical commitment to gender within peacebuilding programs (hailed as positive by some) has neither changed the generally widespread gen- der-blind nature of policy and practice nor led to more than an increased mainstreaming of women’s and girls’ needs based on a very narrow inter- pretation of male-female categories.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Decolonization, and Peace
- Political Geography:
- Africa