A Gendered Approach for Policy in United Nations Peacekeeping Missions

Abstract

Feminist sociologists and international relations scholars have advocated for the adoption of a gender perspective in our understanding of international conflicts and the unique postconflict environments accompanying them, problematizing the idea that “conflict” and “postconflict,” or “war” and “postwar” periods, actually make up distinct stages (Niarchos 1995, Enloe 2000, 2002, Nikolić-Ristanovic 2000, Cockburn 2001, Cockburn and Žarkov 2002). Using the term “postconflict” highlights a continuum of conflict that women experience through which a process of engendering humanitarian agencies, supranational institutions, and other development partners are able to assess specific needs of a population and to implement policies and provide services accordingly. While United Nations (UN) agencies and other international organizations struggle to provide services to those in need, they typically conceive of them in a decidedly “ungendered” way, leading to misguided and often inappropriate services, programs, and activities. The typical refugee, internally displaced person (IDP), or conflict-affected individual is approached as a generic “masculine” individual, devoid of gendered identity that may influence his or her response to and experience of the postconflict situation and, therefore, services required.