Ensuring women’s full and equitable involvement in the security sector has been recognized as essential for fostering a security sector that is more responsive, efficient, and accountable. With the launch of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions, which form the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda, there have been conscious efforts by the government, NGOs, and civil society organizations to implement as well as advocate for the implementation of the provisions of the resolutions.
Through the WPS agenda, the peace and security sector, both globally and nationally, has recorded tremendous shifts in its modus operandi and has, over the years, worked towards embracing a gender-sensitive approach. In Nigeria, the different security agencies have also responded to the call for a more gender-sensitive sector by creating a gender unit in the Nigerian Police Force and the Women’s Corps in the Nigerian Army. Meanwhile, the mere establishment of these units and corps does not always translate to greater representation and participation in the overall operations of the security agencies and institutions. In fact, the establishment of these units has further deepened the gender gap and exposed the gender stereotypes and discrimination inherent in the Nigerian security sector.
In the Nigerian Police Force, for instance, the gender unit is often flooded with female police officers, while male officers predominantly dominate departments such as criminal investigations. Another critical aspect of the stereotypical nature of these establishments is the belief that matters concerning children, juvenile delinquents, women, and families, administrative and non-combatant roles are best fit for women to handle. The presence of such a mindset undermines the ability of most female security officers to advance and grow in their careers within the security sector.
To address these challenges and ensure that more women in security fully reach their potential, the following recommendations must be operationalized:
Building Women’s Capacity
The call for national security is gendered and, as such, requires adequate training and capacity building of both male and female security officials. In 2021, the Nigerian Defence College (NDC) conducted gender training targeted at gender mainstreaming, inclusion, sensitivity, and responsiveness across Nigeria’s defense and security sector. While these trainings are highly important in advancing the WPS agenda, male officers often dominate them, primarily because of the numerical strength of male army officers as opposed to their female counterparts. This testifies to the underlying challenge ascribed to the underrepresentation of women within the security sector. Irrespective of the need to ensure the participation of both genders in professional training targeted at developing the capacity to implement and advance WPS (as well as every other assignment), ensuring a balanced representation of women must not be abandoned. One way to increase the opportunity to have more women advancing their careers in the security sector, regardless of their number, is by providing bespoke training focused on developing their confidence, leadership skills, and combatant skills. Such targeted bespoke training, amongst other professional capacity-building opportunities, is important and essential in developing their capacity and providing them with adequate techniques and tools to stand out and advance in their careers.
Removing Barriers to Recruitment and Promotion
Nigeria’s National Gender Policy, developed in 2006 and reviewed in 2013, has a 35% affirmative action provision, which places considerable emphasis on the need for increased involvement of women in all governance processes across sectors. The policy commits to ensuring that women comprise a minimum of 35% of leadership positions, thereby empowering more women’s involvement in governance and decision making.
Furthermore, the Gender Policy for Armed Forces, launched in 2021 by the then Chief of Defence Staff, targeted “prioritizing, implementing, and monitoring gender mainstreaming actions across the three services of the Armed Forces of Nigeria to address the gender disparity within the personnel as well as in its operations.” However, notable gaps persist regarding numerical representation within the Armed Forces of Nigeria and other Security Sector Institutions (SSIs). These notable gaps exist because of the challenges faced by women in the security sector that act as barriers to women’s recruitment and career advancement. These barriers include:
Gender Bias and Discrimination: This directly impacts the recruitment process and the achievement of at least 35% representation of women in the security sector in Nigeria. The presence of cultural norms and biases in Nigerian society regarding gender roles creates limitations for women to progress in their careers in the security sector.
Dominant Masculine Workplace Culture: Often viewed as a “men’s club,” the practices and structures found in the security sector remain anti-feminine and work against the ability of women in the sector to thrive.
Career Advancement Barriers: As noted above, men in the Nigerian security sector tend to advance faster in their careers than women. For instance, in past years women never stood a chance to be recruited into combat roles in the armed forces. This is because the role is perceived as requiring high military responsibility, and women are seen as not naturally designed for this. Their roles are often within administrative units and non-combatant ranks. However, in recent years, despite efforts being made to employ women as infantry and special force fighter pilots and accepting women as cadets at the Nigeria Defence Academy, very few women will be able to attain the peak of their military career. In other words, one of the many barriers is that men are seen as better fit for security and military endeavors. This “unfit” rhetoric is associated with the emotional and physical characteristics of women, especially with activities largely designed to suit men’s capabilities. Also, there is a belief that more inclusion of women in the security sector, especially the armed forces, will undermine unit cohesion, which will disrupt the morale of combat units since women might be confronted with various issues such as pregnancies and higher vulnerability to abuse, rape, and even torture if captured by an enemy.
Therefore, to achieve increased recruitment and promotion of women in the Nigerian security sector:
Women willing and committed to serve in combat roles should be given the opportunity to undergo the various physical and mental rigors associated with achieving such roles.
Security institutions must provide an enabling environment for women to thrive.
The security sector leadership must eschew the parochial beliefs that undermine women’s capacity to handle strategic roles when recruited.
By promoting a level playing field for women and men in the security sector, women will advance in all roles and achieve greater recognition.
Recognizing Women’s Agency in the Security Sector
Given existing barriers, women’s agency in the security sector is grossly undermined. An important aspect of recognizing women’s agency is the conscious effort to appoint women to leadership positions and to have more women in combat and technical units rather than in the traditional career positions given to women that handle gender, family, and juvenile issues. The clear understanding is that women’s roles are not limited because they have the capacity to achieve incredible strides in their careers.
Embracing a Gender-Sensitive Security Sector Reform
Although there have been efforts to reform the security sector, integrating gender into these reforms remains a key challenge. The WPS agenda in Nigeria is designed to achieve the broad goal of a gender-inclusive security sector and sustainable peace. Hence, a security sector capable of achieving sustained national peace and providing adequate security in Nigeria is one that is adequately reformed and reflects inclusion, diversity, and fairness in its approach. This must also be reflected in appointments, promotions, recruitment, and personnel development.
In conclusion, the importance of the role of women in the security sector cannot be overemphasized. Therefore, ensuring that they have the capacity and know-how, that they are recognized for their skills and contributions, and that they are also integrated will lead to a more viable, balanced, and stronger security sector in Nigeria.
About the Author:
Nkechika Perpetua Ibe is the Founder and Director of Impact Her World Foundation, and the President of a new initiative under her organization, Women in Security, Peace and Diplomacy Network (WISPAD). She is a Tsuha Global Fellow at Curtin University Perth, Australia and also an Adjunct Research Fellow at same university. Through the WISPAD Network, Nkechika hosts the Police-Women security dialogues, peace and conflict resolution workshops for local women, periodic webinars and also anchors the Women in Uniform podcast. She holds a diploma in International Security from the European Academy of Diplomacy Warsaw, Poland. She also holds a master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Madonna University, Anambra Nigeria.
Antigua and Barbuda does not have an official WPS NAP.
Overall Assessment
Antigua and Barbuda have yet to adopt a NAP but have made concrete progress in addressing the security of women and girls through other avenues. The country is working toward gender mainstreaming and integrating gender perspectives into a wide range of policies, programs, and initiatives related to peace and security—notably in climate change policies and gender-based violence (GBV) programs. The government shows a commitment to integrating gender equality and WPS principles in the national police and defense forces and mainstreaming gender in other parts of its administration, such as the Department of the Environment. Still, more can be done to provide more and sustained funding for gender mainstreaming and greater participation of women in its security forces. The government should augment its efforts by appointing trained Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points in its security forces and implement a data-driven and results-based monitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensure efficient and effective implementation of its gender equality plans.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, Antigua and Barbuda is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Optional Protocol to CEDAW. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the national level, Antigua and Barbuda have adopted a national policy framework on gender equality, enacted relevant and progressive legislation, and worked towards increasing women’s participation in decision-making positions. Like other Caribbean nations, Antigua and Barbuda identifies climate change as a primary security concern and has developed national plans and policies to address the impacts of natural disasters and climate emergencies.[1] Recognizing the disproportionate effects of climate change on women and girls, the government acted to develop gender-responsive plans and programs to address these effects.
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
Antigua and Barbuda does not have a WPS NAP. However, over the past two decades, the government successfully implemented the following gender-responsive policies and national gender action plans:
National Policy Framework: Antigua and Barbuda adopted “The National Gender Policy (2013-2018),” which provides a strong foundation for addressing women’s rights and gender equality, recognizes the importance of women’s participation in peacebuilding, and emphasizes the importance of protecting women and girls during armed conflict;[2]
Gender Responsive Implementation: During the process of updating the “National Determined Contributions 2021,” Antigua and Barbuda made sex-disaggregated data for gender analysis more accessible and developed a series of national surveys to create an evidence base “of the differentiated impacts of climate change on men and women and the role of women as agents of change and on opportunities for women;”[3]
Legal Measures: Antigua and Barbuda took steps to align its legal framework with the principles of the WPS agenda. The Domestic Violence Act (2015) criminalizes domestic violence and provides legal remedies for survivors.[4] The Sexual Offences Act (1995) was amended to strengthen protections against sexual violence and harassment;[5]
Gender-Based Violence: Antigua and Barbuda recognizes the urgency of addressing gender-based violence (GBV) and has taken steps to combat it. A series of national strategic plans were developed and updated in the past decade, outlining the government’s approach to addressing GBV, setting out strategies for prevention, support services for survivors, and measures to strengthen the legal and institutional response to GBV.[6]
Antigua and Barbuda increased its efforts to advance gender mainstreaming to fight climate emergencies and its effects on women and girls. The Department of the Environment took the lead in several initiatives:
Developed creative gender-responsive frameworks, including climate financing for women and girls, recruited young women professionals as M&E consultants, and established a fund through which vulnerable communities, including women, can access support;[7]
Adopted a Gender Action Plan focusing on building women’s capacity to access the scientific and technical fields;[8]
Developed a Gender Manual to guide the Department’s National Gender Focal Points and other local agencies on how to mainstream gender into their daily activities.[9]
The government of Antigua and Barbuda partnered with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the regional inter-governmental entity for disaster management, to launch a gender-responsive early warning system in the country.[10]
Military and Police
The Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda (RPF) planning documents and operational planning processes reference WPS principles. National policies and documents include legal protection of vulnerable persons (women, girls, and boys) from domestic violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Information specific to the Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force (ABDF) was unavailable.
Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points
Data were unavailable to confirm whether the military and national police forces have appointed Gender Advisors or Gender Focal Points.
Gender in the Ranks
The ABDF is a small military force. Out of an estimated 245 members, 50 are women (20%).[11] Its main priorities include internal security, prevention of drug smuggling and trafficking, protection from marine pollution, and relief services during natural disasters. Since the ABDF’s founding, all positions are open to men and women.
Training, Education, and Exercises
Training of government officials, law enforcement agencies, and civil society organizations addresses gender issues in the context of peace and security. Gender-sensitive training programs and workshops have been conducted to sensitize stakeholders, including police, judges, magistrates, and court personnel, on “the basic concepts of gender and GBSV, victim-blaming and other forms of re-victimization, and the relevant support services available to both survivors and perpetrators.”[12]
The Directorate of Gender Affairs has trained over 300 police officers on domestic violence legislation and gender-based violence, among other related topics.[13] Authorities also reported that several domestic violence programs include law enforcement and army officers training.[14]
The ABDF and RPF have also received training on conducting gender-sensitive firearms investigations. The United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs partnered with both forces to teach participants how to apply gender perspectives to criminal firearms investigations. By adopting this approach, investigators have identified evidence of gender-based violence and equipped security personnel with the necessary skills to conduct a gender-sensitive and rights-based approach.[15]
Work Environment
The RPF has promoted gender mainstreaming in its policies. The RPF does not publicly provide official guidelines or policies. However, the government has partnered with academic institutions and international organizations like the UN to strengthen its commitment to gender mainstreaming. On March 4, 2023, the RPF partnered with the American University of Antigua-AUA Campus, convening over 200 policewomen to present on topics aimed at empowering female police officers.”[16] While the RPF does not publish current sex-disaggregated employment rates, women comprise more than 200 of the estimated 750 staff members of the RPF—over 26% of the total force.[17] All positions and ranks are open to women and men in the RPF.
Family Policies
No publicly available documents outline family leave policies specifically for the ABDF or RPF. Labor laws in Antigua and Barbuda provide 13 weeks of maternity leave but no statutory paternity leave.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
As in many countries, women in Antigua and Barbuda are adversely affected by gender-based violence. Acknowledging this, the RPF launched the Special Victims Support Unit (SVSU) in 2017, handling all cases of domestic and intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and other gender-based related crimes.[18] The SVSU comprises officers who have received specialized sensitization training to meet the needs of survivors of gender-based and sexual violence. There is no publicly available information on workplace harassment, abuse policies, or training for the ABDF and RPF personnel.
Equipment and facilities
No information on gender-specific equipment or facilities is publicly available.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
The government of Antigua and Barbuda monitors and evaluates the implementation of gender mainstreaming within various government agencies and ministries. It works closely with several UN agencies, including the UNDP, UNEP, and UN Women, to promote gender-inclusive initiatives. Antigua and Barbuda also regularly submit voluntary reports to international organizations on its efforts to promote gender equality and women’s rights. These reports update the country’s progress and challenges in implementing gender-related policies and initiatives.
However, the ABDF and the RPF appear disconnected from the gender mainstreaming initiatives by the government and do not monitor, evaluate, or report gender-responsive programming. More publicly available information regarding monitoring and evaluation requirements from these security organizations would provide more transparency. The government acknowledges that advancing in gender integration requires the collection of sex-disaggregated data; more needs to be done both in the collection and public distribution of such data.[19] Information on whether the RPF and ABDF have appointed gender advisors or gender focal points was not available.
Recommendations
Overall, Antigua and Barbuda have advanced gender equality and gender mainstreaming considerably. The government has implemented policies and programs to promote and advance women’s rights at all levels of society and made political and financial commitments to promote gender equality and the security of women and girls. Yet, more can be done to achieve the goals set forth by UNSCR 1325 and subsequent resolutions.
For the Government of Antigua and Barbuda:
Adopt a WPS NAP, drawing inspiration from existing gender-responsive laws, frameworks, and policies and engaging with key stakeholders, including government agencies and the security sector, civil society organizations, and women’s groups in its development.
Conduct monitoring and evaluation to ensure gender mainstreaming within security forces, gathering sex-disaggregated data to support the process.
Commit to gender-responsive budgeting to track progress in training, programming, and institutional capacity building related to gender mainstreaming goals in the security forces.
For the ABDF:
Ensure all ranks receive anti-harassment and abuse training and make ABDF policies publicly available.
Work with government agencies to collect and publish sex-disaggregated data on female participation in the force.
Develop a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to assess progress in implementing gender equality and WPS principles over time.
Recruit Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points to support ABDF leadership.
For the RPF:
Commit to a monitoring and evaluation mechanism that engages civil society and utilizes sex-disaggregated data to guide future planning, programming, and policy decisions.
Promote gender-sensitivity and sexual harassment prevention training to ensure all police officers and law enforcement personnel have access to such training.
Recruit Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points to ensure the integration of gender perspectives in RPF policies and programs.
Barbados – Summary Report
WPS National Action Plan (NAP) Status
Barbados does not have a WPS NAP.
Overall Assessment
Barbados has demonstrated a moderate amount of political will and has taken several steps in recent years toward implementing the WPS agenda. Women remain underrepresented in the military but do not face sex-based restrictions on promotion. In the police force, women are more proportionally represented, and the force has a strong orientation toward the prevention of gender-based violence (GBV). Future actions taken by the government of Barbados toward achieving WPS principles depend on committing funding and staff to transform institutional policies and culture to advance gender equality and WPS principles in security sector forces.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, Barbados is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the national level, the current National Strategic Plan (2005-2025) mentions gender equity and equality as areas of strategic note.[20] Barbados established a Bureau of Gender Affairs whose mandate is the integration of a gender perspective in all national development plans to achieve gender equality.[21] Barbados also adopted the Domestic Violence Protections Order Amendment Act 2016, which empowers the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) with robust emergency protection orders in cases of gender-based violence.[22]
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policies
The principles of WPS and gender-based violence are mentioned in police strategic documents and operational policy processes. The RBPF has created an action plan for addressing domestic violence and GBV.[23]
Women in the Barbadian military have achieved the highest level of enlistment distinction for a soldier.[25] All positions in the military and police forces are open to women.
Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points
There are no Gender Advisors (GENADs) or Gender Focal Points (GFPs) in the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) or the RBPF, though the country has gender equality offices and units.
Training, Education, and Exercises
Barbados provides updates to the Organization of American States MESECVI, which examines adherence to the Belém do Pará Convention. The MESECVI 2019 reported that the Barbados police conducts training “in relation to women’s Human rights[sic].”[26] Barbados has hosted intervention programs focused on encouraging nonviolent lifestyles for men.[27] In 2022, Barbados was one of six country police forces in the Caribbean to form a community of practice to improve responses and mitigation measures against gender-based violence.[28]
The 2005-2025 National Strategic Plan signaled an intention to conduct gender sensitivity training “at all levels of the public services, private sector, and the community.”[29] Police officers receive training from the Family Conflict Intervention Unit (FCIU) on domestic violence, as do new recruits.[30] Information pertaining to training for military personnel was unavailable.
Work Environment
Women in Barbados are entitled to at least 12 weeks of maternity leave.[31] The Barbados government announced on July 29, 2023, that paternity leave will be available in 2024.[32] No data were available regarding uniforms and equipment. Police stations in Barbados cite inadequate facilities as a notable constraint in integrating women into the force.[33]
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
Police strategic action plans highlight the responsibility to protect civilians from GBV and domestic violence. Toll-free domestic violence reporting lines are maintained at each station.[34]Data on anti-harassment and abuse policies in the RBPF and BDF were unavailable.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
Information on the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for the military and police forces was unavailable. While the Barbados national police publish police statistics, the data collected are not sex-disaggregated.[35] The Bureau of Gender Affairs collects data, but the Bureau’s limited resources make data collection difficult.[36]
Recommendations
For the Barbados government:
Adopt a WPS NAP, engaging with key stakeholders, including government agencies, civil society organizations, women’s groups, and local communities throughout the process;
Provide necessary resources to maintain a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensure the effective implementation of gender integration policies;
Secure better funding and staff for the Bureau of Gender Affairs and for collecting sex-disaggregated data and data analysis to assess progress in gender integration.
For Barbados Defence Force:
Appoint fully trained Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points to implement gender mainstreaming in military policy, planning, and operational documents;
Evaluate sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse policies for personnel and provide sexual harassment and abuse prevention programming and training in all ranks;
Evaluate institutional policies and practices (e.g. family leave, childcare, sexual harassment and abuse policies, promotion opportunities, hostile work environment) that work to recruit, promote, and thus retain women in the force.
For the Royal Barbados Police Force:
Appoint a Gender Advisor or Gender Focal Point to promote gender mainstreaming and gender-responsive policies in the force;
Collect sex-disaggregated data to ensure better analysis and evaluation of measures needed to improve police services;
Ensure that sexual harassment and abuse prevention policies for police personnel are in place and training in sexual harassment/abuse and GBV programs are mandatory for all police and law enforcement officers.
The government of Belize has made a significant commitment to gender equality and gender mainstreaming. Belize’s 2020 WPS agenda for its security forces is a big step towards achieving gender equality and inclusion in the Ministry of National Security of Belize. The Belize Police Force (BPF) performs better in terms of women in the ranks—over 25% as opposed to 6% of women represented in the Belize Defense Force, signaling the need for the defense force leadership to review recruitment policies as well as existing institutional policies and practices that are often hurdles to women’s participation in security forces. As the Belize government steps up its efforts to address growing gender-based violence, it must also act to decrease gender-based violence in its security forces through prevention training and the enforcement of existing zero-tolerance policies.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, Belize is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the CEDAW Optional Protocol. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the national level, Belize’s interest in the WPS agenda has grown over the past decade. In 2020, the Ministry of National Security launched the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda for the security forces in Belize to “empower women as equal partners in the development of a prosperous and stable Belize, especially in achieving our national security goals.”[37] In the Belize National Security and Defense Strategy 2018-2021, Goal 3 aimed to “provide the necessary environment for a prosperous and stable Belize.” The Strategy further includes an objective to “[i]mprove investment in gender equality and youth development.”[38]
As in many countries, gender-based violence incidents in Belize have increased. The rise in gender-based violence prompted the government to pass a National-Gender Based Violence Plan of Action (2010-2that led to legislative reform and the establishment of a domestic violence unit in the Belize National Police, among other actions.[39] However, the Belize Ministry of Human Development acknowledged that the impact of these changes was limited, and it is still unclear whether the plan will be renewed in the current decade.[40]
The creation of the Ministry of National Security’s WPS agenda demonstrates the political will to advance gender equality and the rights of women in Belize. Other efforts to improve the conditions of women are the regular publication of “Gender-Based Violence Statistics” through the Belize Crime Observatory and the Women and Family Support Department of the Ministry of Human Development, which works to “promote gender equality and equity” among its citizens.[41]
The National Women’s Commission acts as “a strategic advisory body to the Government of Belize on issues of gender.”[42] The Commission addresses threats and mistreatment a person may suffer when reporting gender violence. It has opened a virtual space for the person submitting the complaint to report any unprofessional behavior while filing the report.
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
As mentioned earlier, Belize’s National Security and Defense Strategy 2018-2021 states that gender equality is a strategic objective. In January 2022, the Government of Belize announced the beginning of stakeholder consultations for the National Security Strategy 2022-2027, which included the participation of members from the security forces, government, private sector, and civil society.[43] However, no further information about the 2022-2027 Strategy is publicly available online.
The Ministry of National Security’s WPS agenda (2020) aims to set the framework “to increase women’s participation in efforts to promote security, maintain peace, and prevent conflict.”[44] The Ministry has focused on recruiting and promoting more women, education, and training in sexual- and gender-based violence in security forces and implementing the WPS agenda.
The Women’s Department of Belize released a handbook in 2012 on sexual violence, which presented definitions, response protocols, risk reduction actions, and other relevant information regarding sexual violence.[45]
Gender in the Ranks
The Belize Police Force has over 500 female police officers. Currently, 25% of police officers serving are women.[46] In March 2023, the BPF held a ceremony celebrating the promotion of 62 female police officers to positions ranging from constable to senior superintendent.[47]
In contrast, just over 90 female officers in the Belize Defence Force (BDF) are women and constitute only 6% of the total number of BDF officers.[48] There have been allegations of assault in the military, though the BDF maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment and assault. Progress is evident in the 2023 officer selection board decisions, where five of the ten recruits are women. Five women recruits are in officer training programs in the United States and will be commissioned as second lieutenants in the BDF.[49] All positions in the Belize military and police forces are open to women.
No data were available on the appointment and training of Gender Advisor and Gender Focal Points in the military or police forces.
Training and Education
Members of the BPF and BDF have access to training and education opportunities on gender mainstreaming and GBV. Members of the BDF also participate in region-wide WPS training to encourage more effective gender integration in the military.[50]
Work Environment
According to the Belize Labour Act, women receive fourteen weeks of maternity leave in any public or private industrial or commercial undertaking and every branch of government.[51] The law does not provide for paternity leave or parental leave.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
In February 2022, the Ministry of National Defence and Border Security and the Ministry of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries established the Joint Sexual Violence Prevention and Response (JSVPR) Programme for the security forces that will provide response services when sexual assault occurs within the Belize security forces.[52]
In 2019, the Belize organization Our Circle, a national organization that supports family units formed by LGBTQ+ persons, received funding to address gender and diversity issues in the Belize Defence Force and to conduct “a review of welfare policies which already exist not only from a gender equality perspective but also a sexual orientation and gender identity approach.”[53] Part of the initiative involved training a cohort of peer educators to provide training in the ranks and work to ensure the BDF has the guidance and data to ensure a safe environment for all service members. Although there is no more information on the advancement of this project, it shows the collaboration between civil society organizations, a regional non-governmental organization, and the security forces in Belize.
Monitoring and Evaluation
The Belize Crime Observatory collects sex-disaggregated data on gender-based violence.[54] This information is publicly available online, making it possible to observe the trends of gender violence in Belize and assist policymakers in creating more effective policies and strategies against this phenomenon.
Recommendations
For the Belize Government:
Adopt a WPS National Action Plan (NAP) based on the new Women, Peace, and Security Agenda and following the National-Gender Based Violence Plan of Action;
Update the National Gender-based Violence Plan of Action of 2010 to meet current and updated goals and strategies to achieve them;
Update the Revised National Gender Policy of 2013, upload it on their official publications, and give maintenance to the webpage to access information.
For the Belize Defense Force:
Evaluate strategies to increase the number of female recruits and address gaps in institutional policies and practices (e.g., family leave, childcare, sexual harassment policies, promotion opportunities) that often impact the recruitment of women and their decision to remain in the force;
Evaluate sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse programming for protecting military personnel within the ranks and make the data publicly available;
Deploy trained Gender Advisors or Gender Focal Point officers;
Ensure sex-disaggregated data is collected, analyzed, and made publicly available;
Maintain an effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism to improve decision-making and resource allocation.
For the Belize Police Force:
Consider appointing a Gender Advisor and Gender Focal Point officer;
Ensure effective sexual harassment and abuse policies for protecting police personnel within the ranks are in place and require gender-sensitive and GBV training for all law enforcement officers;
Collect sex-disaggregated data and make the data publicly available;
Maintain an effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism to improve decision-making and resource allocation.
While Bolivia does not have an official NAP, it has made significant strides to advance the WPS agenda and develop comprehensive strategies to address the challenges faced by women in the country. The government’s commitment to gender equality and gender mainstreaming is reflected in its declaration of 2022 as the “Year of the Cultural Revolution to Dismantle Patriarchy for a Life Free from Violence Against Women.” National institutions and mechanisms have been established to support women in the ranks and counter discrimination, gender harassment, and gender-based violence (GBV). More attention is needed in establishing work-life integration policies for security institutions, such as maternity and paternity leave and family leave. The military and national police forces have comprehensive monitoring and evaluation tools to assess progress in gender equality initiatives and programs. Nevertheless, developing an official WPS NAP could solidify Bolivia’s standing as a progressive regional leader, driving positive change and fostering greater gender equality and security.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, Bolivia is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). Bolivia signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the CEDAW Optional Protocol. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment and is a signatory of the American Convention on Human Rights “Pact of San José, Costa Rica.”
At the national level, Bolivia’s constitution, adopted in 2009, recognizes women’s rights and promotes gender equality. Article 8, Section 15 obligates the state to take all necessary measures to prevent and eliminate GBV and designates power to the president to create ministries and enact laws that promote gender equality.[55] In January 2022, after conducting years of analysis on the factors contributing to gender inequality, the Bolivian government announced that 2022 would be the “Year of the Cultural Revolution to Dismantle Patriarchy for a Life Free from Violence Against Women.”[56] The government followed up with comprehensive laws to criminalize various forms of GBV and the provision of services for women and girls who are victims of domestic and intimate partner violence, rape and sexual assault, sexual harassment, and femicide.”[57][58]
Foreign policy documents, including the Bolivia Foreign Policy Plan and the Plan for Economic and Social Development 2021-2025, also support the government’s policy of dismantling patriarchy and call for strengthening regulatory frameworks to address and dismantle the structural causes of violence against women.[59]
Finally, the country has established institutions and mechanisms to promote gender equality and women’s rights:
The Ministry of Justice and Institutional Transparency has a Directorate of Gender Equality (Dirección de Igualdad de Género) that is responsible for coordinating and implementing policies and programs related to gender equality, the promotion of women’s rights, and the elimination of gender-based discrimination;
The National Council of Women is under the Ministry of Justice and Institutional Transparency. It advises the government on policies and strategies to promote gender equality and women’s rights. The Council brings together representatives from government agencies, civil society organizations, and women’s rights advocates to ensure cohesion and proper implementation;[60]
The “Multisectoral Plan to Dismantle Patriarchy and Promote Women’s Right to Practice the Right Way of Living” also advocates for women’s rights by implementing policies and coordinating initiatives.[61]
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
Several policies are in place that testify to the political commitment of the military to implement WPS principles. The “Strategic Plan to Dismantle Patriarchy and the Prevention of Violence Against Women” identifies the military and police as principal actors in preventing violence against women and advancing gender equality.[62]
Gender in the Ranks
The most recent Institutional Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Defense 2016-2020 cited goals and quotas to increase the participation of women in all ranks of the Bolivian armed forces. The government has worked closely with UN Women and the Bolivian Ministry of Justice to recruit more women.[63] The government set a goal of increasing the number of women in the armed forces to 8.65% by 2020.[64] This goal was surpassed; as of 2021, women accounted for an estimated 10% of the armed forces.[65]Current projections estimate that by 2025, women will make up 11.7% of the total military force, though that number will likely be higher due to these efforts.[66] Women in Bolivian security forces face other challenges as well, including corruption, abuse of power, and mistreatment of women officers by their male counterparts.[67]
In terms of the Bolivian Police Corps (PNB), women comprise 16.25% of officers. The PNB likewise does not have official policies linked to the WPS agenda. However, as part of the government’s plan to dismantle patriarchy, the PNB was identified as a leading actor in combatting GBV and violence against women. According to the Strategic Institutional Plan for Bolivian Police 2016-2020, a strategic objective is to equip police with training, equipment, and infrastructure to protect women from violence.[68]
For the armed forces and the police, all positions of all ranks are open to women, and the principles of WPS, though not specified as such, are integrated into military programming, strategy, and planning.
Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points
According to publicly available documents, GENADs are currently serving in the PNB. They are fully trained and serve at senior levels. Information on whether the Bolivian armed forces retain GENADs or Gender Focal Points (GFPs) was unavailable.
Training, Education, and Exercises
In adhering to the government’s overall strategy of decolonization and dismantling patriarchy, the armed forces and national police receive specialized training and education on these principles. According to government sources, 4,240 armed service members received specialized training with “a focus on decolonization, dismantling patriarchy, and the fight against racism and discrimination.”[69] Various police units received specialized training on best practices for addressing gender-based violence and crimes against women and combatting human trafficking, which disproportionately affects women and girls.[70]
Work Environment
The Ministry of Defense instituted a Gender Equity program to prevent GBV, raise awareness of the issue, and encourage more women to consider careers in the military and defense institutions. This program allows for the gradual increase of women in military service and has created a more equitable work environment for women.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
In 2016, the Ministry of Defense established several mechanisms, measures, and policies to ensure the recruitment and retention of women in the armed forces. These included a series of anti-harassment protocols in the workplace, manuals for gender units, and an inspection guide to ensure proper implementation.
Despite progress, there are documented cases of gender violence and discrimination in the military. Between 2019 and 2021, the General Directorate of Human Rights and Intercultural Affairs in the Armed Forces received 340 cases of violations of human rights and gender violence and discrimination. According to the most recent publicly available information, 168 patients were registered in 2019, 91 in 2020, and 81 in 2021. The reduction by year in the number of complaints by women is likely attributable to the implementation of Law 348 (called “the law that grants women a life free of violence”)[71] and various gender initiatives by the armed forces, which establishes four ways to report harassment: complainants can report directly to the Ministry of Defense, Force Commanders, the supervisor in their unit, or a designated person in their larger military unit. Under these initiatives, victims receive psychological, legal, medical, and social work support and are encouraged to report their complaints to the Public Ministry and Special Force to Combat Violence.[72]
Women police officers in Bolivia likewise face sexism, harassment, and abuse by male colleagues. Women make up an estimated 16.25%, or 6,500, of the 40,000-person police force and have, historically, been undervalued. Recognizing this problem, the Ministry of Government launched the “Mujer Policia y FELCV Digna” program in 2021, spearheaded by Lt. Colonel Jannet Montecinos.[73] The program aims to investigate complaints of sexism and verbal or physical harassment against women police officers by their colleagues.[74]
Family Policies
Bolivia has maternity and family leave policies for women and men. Women are entitled to 90 days of maternity leave, broken down into 45 days before the expected due date and 45 days after the child’s birth. Men receive three days of paid paternity leave. There are no provisions for parental leave.[75]
Equipment and Facilities
Information about equipment and facilities for women in security forces is not publicly available.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
Despite the absence of a WPS NAP, the Bolivian armed forces and the national police have developed comprehensive tools for monitoring the success of various gender equality initiatives and programs. The Gender Council, established by the Ministry of Defense, developed measures and mechanisms to evaluate gender equality progress, both in the rate of women graduating from Bolivia’s Military College and in the recruitment and promotion of women in the military. GENADs serve in the police force under Lt Colonel Montecinos to monitor and evaluate the “Mujer Policia y FELCV Digna” program and identify gaps in implementing gender equality principles.[76]
Recommendations
For the Government of Bolivia:
Adopt a robust WPS NAP that aligns with national gender plans and policies and engage with civil society actors, women’s rights groups, and other key stakeholders throughout the NAP development process;
Adequately fund sexual and gender-based violence training in security forces;
Incorporate gender-responsive budgeting to track progress in training, programming, and institutional capacity building related to gender mainstreaming goals in the security forces;
Evaluate institutional policies and practices (e.g., family leave, childcare, promotion opportunities, hostile work environment) that work to recruit, promote, and thus retain women in the military and police forces.
For the Armed Forces of Bolivia:
Clarify and adequately resource maternity, paternity, and family leave policies specific to the armed forces and police;
Appoint GENADs and GFPs to support leadership and staff, provide technical expertise, and ensure effective implementation of gender mainstreaming in security institutions;
Collect and publish sex-disaggregated data and integrate it into the monitoring and evaluation process to encourage goals of increasing women’s participation in security fields;
Mandate gender-sensitive, GBV, and anti-harassment training for service members in all ranks.
For the Bolivian Police Corps:
Provide adequate support and resources to conduct gender-sensitive, GBV, and anti-harassment training for police officers in all grades;
Collect and publish sex-disaggregated data and goals and integrate them into the monitoring and evaluation mechanism to improve decision-making and resource allocation;
Revise institutional policies and practices that will improve the recruitment, promotion, and thus retention of women in the police force.
Despite electing the first woman Prime Minister in the Caribbean in 1980, Dominica faces challenges in direction and transparency to implementing gender mainstreaming initiatives in its government and the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force (CDPF). Dominica has no military forces, though it is a member of the Regional Security System (RSS), a regional security alliance in the Caribbean. Given the scarcity of publicly available information and data in regional and international bodies before 2022, it is unclear whether the Dominican government is committed to adopting a NAP.
Regarding gender equality at the civil society level, Dominica established the Bureau of Gender Affairs to build partnerships for gender-related programming. Dominica has adopted a National Gender Policy, but little public information is available to evaluate programmatic initiatives and their effectiveness, including whether such programming extends into the CDPF. Dominica’s commitment to adopting the WPS agenda and its principles is thus an open question, but there is much room for improvement. The government should be encouraged to commit the political will and the necessary resources to adopt legal measures and policies to advance gender equality and the WPS principles in the security forces.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, Dominica is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). It signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) though not the Optional Protocol to CEDAW. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the national level, gender equality is mentioned twice in the national constitution of Dominica, which was revised and updated in 2014.[77] Few domestic or foreign policy documents are made publicly available. There is no mention of WPS or women’s security more broadly in official national or foreign policy documents made publicly available.
The primary government ministry that works on issues of gender is the Bureau of Gender Affairs, which develops partnerships for gender-related programming within civil society.[78] No documents made publicly available by the Bureau identify the national police as actors or collaborators in gender equality initiatives or in gender-based violence (GBV) prevention programs. The Bureau is the primary governmental partner executing Dominica’s 2006 National Policy and Action Plan for Gender Equity and Equality in the Commonwealth of Dominica (NPAP).This plan signaled the government’s shift in focus from “women’s empowerment” to “gender equality.”[79] The document further outlines that the Bureau has the responsibility to institutionalize gender mainstreaming, develop gender-responsive policies, and ensure policy implementation at various government agencies.[80]
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
Following the NPAP adoption, Dominica’s government adopted the National Gender Policy in 2006, which promotes gender equality, sustainable development, and social justice.[81] Little information about recent initiatives or programming is made publicly available, though this does not necessarily indicate the absence of efforts to fulfill the National Gender Policy. There is some indication that the Bureau of Gender Affairs is active though struggles to implement gender mainstreaming across ministries and government agencies because of a lack of resources.[82]
Nevertheless, recent data that would aid in understanding strategies, plans, or practices related to gender equality in civil society and in institutions such as the national police are unavailable, as Dominica does not regularly report on gender-related data to the same degree as other countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
Gender in the Ranks
The Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force (CDPF) website states that the force has 444 active personnel.[83] The Dominica police force is recruiting women and expects to increase its forces above 500 police officers. In 2021, it recruited 14 females out of 53 recruits (26%), and in 2022, the Dominican police inducted 51 new trainees, 25% of whom (13) were women.[84] Dominica has no military forces.
Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points
No current data were available.
Training, Education, and Exercises
The Bureau of Gender Affairs conducted police training on gender sensitization and analysis and gender violence and human rights training.[85]
Work Environment
Women in the Dominican police force continue to struggle on many fronts. Despite progress over the past decades—by 2016, women constituted 12% of the police force and served in every police department—promotional opportunities are limited and tend to favor men, women have less managerial support and little to no female mentors, and institutional sexism remains an ongoing concern.[86]
Success will depend on the leadership’s capacity to change policy and practice—by integrating gender mainstreaming and WPS principles in central directives and guidance documents, promotions to leadership ranks, training and education opportunities, and creating a positive climate and environment of trust and respect for all officers.
Family Policies
In Dominica, women are entitled to receive 14 weeks of paid maternity leave. Men receive two days paternity leave. There is no legal requirement for parental leave.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
Dominica has not adopted legal protections against sexual harassment. Incidents of sexual harassment are addressed–though not adequately–via the Sexual Offences Act. The Act is currently under review and will reportedly be revised to respond to sexual harassment cases fully.[87] No information is publicly available to identify whether the national police force has or enforces anti-harassment or abuse policies. Domestic laws that criminalize rape (including spousal rape) of men and women exist.[88] However, no sexual harassment legislation allows for civil remedies or criminal penalties for harassment in the workplace, schools, or public spaces.[89]
Equipment and Facilities
No information is publicly available.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
No information is publicly available.
Recommendations:
The Dominican government should act to build a comprehensive strategy to integrate gender equality and the principles outlined in the WPS agenda across government and society and commit the political and financial resources to sustain it.
For the Government of Dominica:
Develop a WPS NAP to identify priorities, responsibilities, and resources to advance gender equality and women’s full participation and advancement in the security sector;
Ensure adequate budgeting and staffing for the country’s Bureau of Gender Affairs to allow for effective gender mainstreaming in government institutions, policies, and practices;
Collect gender-disaggregated data relating to gender equality indicators, including violence against women and girls, and regularly publish the results;
Implement a monitoring and evaluation mechanism that is independent, transparent, and includes civil society in every stage of the process;
Regularly participate in voluntary national reviews as part of UN conventions on women’s rights and work with UN committees to promote gender equality programming.
For the Commonwealth Dominica Police Force:
Develop strategies and policies to recruit, train, and promote increased women’s participation within the police force;
Ensure effective sexual harassment and abuse policies for protecting police personnel within the force are in place and require gender-sensitive and GBV training for all law enforcement officers;
Ensure sex-disaggregated data is collected, analyzed, and made publicly available;
Engage with government agencies, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to ensure transparency and adequate monitoring, evaluation, and reporting in gender mainstreaming initiatives to meet local community concerns.
El Salvador adopted its first WPS NAP in 2017 (2017-2022), developed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Salvadoran Institute for the Development of Women, and the Implementation Committee and Technical Monitoring Committee.[90] In March 2022, El Salvador presented its biannual National Action Plan: Women, Peace, and Security 2022-2024 (Mujeres, paz y seguridad 2022-2024)to strengthen further the implementation of the WPS agenda in the country.[91]
Overall Assessment
El Salvador’s 2017-2022 NAP outlined a series of indicators and objectives and has established a biannual WPS National Action Plan (NAP) for 2022-2024. Alongside several other documents related to gender, El Salvador shows strong signs of prioritizing the implementation of WPS principles, which speaks to the political will demonstrated by the country. Institutionally, the security sector leadership signaled its commitment to gender mainstreaming and implementing WPS principles by appointing Gender Advisors (GENADs) to serve in the El Salvadoran military and police forces.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, El Salvador is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). It signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) though not the Optional Protocol to CEDAW. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the national level, El Salvador’s foreign policy includes gender equalityas one of its main pillars, and the government has developed policies that support actionable programs.[92] The Salvadoran Institute for the Development of Women (Instituto Salvadoreño para el Desarrollo de la Mujer, or ISDEMU) is the most important national gender institution. It is a significant actor responsible for formulating, executing, and monitoring compliance with the National Policy for Women, promoting legislative initiatives on women’s issues, and championing the participation of civil society, women’s organizations, and local communities in their work.[93]
In 2017, the National Civil Police of El Salvador (PNC) adopted an implementation plan that engages all government agencies in meeting WPS objectives.[94] Documentation indicates that the government is prepared to allocate resources and personnel towards WPS implementation, supported by a GENAD and an additional budget allotment.[95] El Salvador’s government website, where most information about its policies is publicly available, reflects the government’s commitment to transparency.
For the Armed Forces of El Salvador, the National Action Plan 2017-2022 supports the active participation of women in the armed forces and calls on the government to increase the number of women serving and integrate a gender perspective in institutional structures. It also obliges the government to educate and contribute to gender training in the national police and the armed forces.[96]
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
The principles of WPS are mentioned in key security documents. The Institutional Policy for Gender Equality in the Justice and Public Security Sector 2018-2027 establishes lines of action to increase gender equality.[97] The Operation Manual of the Armed Forces contains sections on gender violence and gender equality.[98] These documents also note the responsibility to protect vulnerable persons (women and children). Before adopting its first WPS NAP, the El Salvadoran government passed the “2011 Special Comprehensive Law for a Life Free of Violence for Women,” guaranteeing institutional responsibility to protect.[99]
Gender in the Ranks
In July of 2021, the El Salvadoran government announced the addition of 1046 new members (857 men and 189 women) to the military forces.[100] With the 2021 addition, the army now stands at 20,100 members. The government aims for a goal of 40,000 members by 2026.[101] It is unclear whether the government has set a goal for the gender composition of this force.[102]
The gender distribution in the National Police is as follows:[103]
Women
Men
% Women
Administration
1,602
4,256
27.35
Operative
3,169
19,241
14.14
The gender distribution in rank within the National Police is as follows:
Women
Men
% Women
Commissioner
20
116
14.71
Sub Commissioner
16
116
12.12
Inspector Chief
5
93
5.10
Inspectors
14
161
8.00
Sub Inspector
52
544
8.72
Sergeant
104
1497
6.50
Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points
In 2015, the El Salvadoran armed forces created an Institutional Gender Unit (UGI) equivalent to a GENAD. The responsibilities of this unit and its Focal Points are laid out in the Operation Manual published in 2021.[104]The head of the gender unit in the El Salvador police force, Coralia Elizabeth Cuellar, received special gender training before her appointment.[105]
Training, Education, and Exercises
The education and training material of the police at the junior-, mid-, and senior levels have integrated WPS principles.[106] Police personnel receive special training on the protection of vulnerable persons from sexual violence and exploitation. Pre-deployment, they receive training on the protection of the rights of vulnerable persons, cultural awareness, gender perspective, the regards of international law, and specific gender norms in the operational area.
Anti-harassment and Abuse Policies
In terms of anti-harassment and abuse policies within the security forces, there is a code of conduct but no sexual harassment or sexual exploitation prevention program.
Work Environment
The work environment and labor rights, such as maternity leave, are regulated by legal requirements observed in labor legislation.[107] In El Salvador, a woman is entitled to 16 weeks of paid maternity leave. Men receive three days of paternity leave at 100% of regular pay.[108] There are also family leave policies for the military and human resource policies for the National Police.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
Government institutional indicators have been used for transparency and to identify areas for improvement.[109] Each institution has its transparency site that publishes constant updates, changes, and notes on the status of different task areas and ministerial documents. Likewise, civil society organizations participate in WPS reviews, including the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), working alongside the national police to evaluate the professional level of the institution, its reach, and its budget based on statistical analysis.[110]
The PNC collects sex-disaggregated data mainly for transparency, which are publicly available in the Police Management Results Report (Informe de resultados de la gestión policial).[111]
Recommendations
For the Government of El Salvador:
Engage with civil society organizations to adopt the second iteration of the national WPS NAP;
Restore adequate funding from the general budget for programs advancing gender equality and the WPS agenda;
Continue training on gender-based and WPS principles for the military and the national police;
Make results of sex-disaggregated data available to the public.
For the National Civil Police of El Salvador:
Explicitly prohibit sexual harassment, exploitation, and assault in the National Police Code of Conduct;
Ensure effective sexual harassment and abuse policies for protecting police personnel within the ranks are in place and require gender-sensitive and GBV training for all law enforcement officers;
Maintain an effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism to improve decision-making and resource allocation.
For the Armed Forces of El Salvador:
Draft and adopt a gender implementation plan and incorporate inclusive language in institutional policy, manuals, protocols, and directives;
Ensure effective sexual harassment and abuse policies for protecting police personnel within the ranks are in place and require gender-sensitive and GBV training for service members at all ranks;
Address gaps in institutional policies and practices, such as promotion policies, that can adversely affect the recruitment and retention of women in the military;
Include more information on pre-deployment training on WPS towards the military in documents made available on the government’s transparency portal.
Though lacking a WPS NAP, Grenada demonstrates a strong political commitment to the principles of gender equality. Various government policy documents, the creation and maintenance of offices that support women’s inclusion, and Grenada’s frequent participation in regional and international gender and human rights reviews are evidence of national and political will to implement WPS principles. Grenada has taken proactive measures by developing multiple strategies and plans to address these areas of improvement. Grenada published a Gender Equality Policy and Action Plan (GEPAP) 2014-2024 and the Domestic Violence Act of 2010. Grenada’s strengths are its political commitments to advancing gender equality, addressing violence against women and girls at all levels of society, identifying strategic domestic and international partners to achieve these commitments and its overall transparency and active engagement in regional and international gender and human rights assessments. Nevertheless, high levels of violence against women and charges of sexual harassment and assault in the national police force indicate that more can be done.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, Grenada is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). Grenada signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), though it has not signed the CEDAW Optional Protocol. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Grenada was one of only 45 countries that chose to participate in the Voluntary National Review process for the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (2022). The review document proposed several action plans prioritizing SDG goals, including Goal 5: Gender Equality.[112] Grenada also developed a comprehensive national review in 2019 tracking the progress of implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which highlighted priorities, achievements, and challenges in implementing gender equality fully.[113]
At the national level, the government of Grenada has also enacted several laws and regulations that promote gender equality and protect women’s rights.[114] The Gender Equality Policy and Action Plan (GEPAP) 2014-2024 is a comprehensive framework that emphasizes increasing women’s participation and leadership at all levels of decision-making, gender-sensitive training in the public and private sectors, and establishing a Gender Management System with monitoring and evaluation procedures and Gender Focal Points to coordinate and guide the process.[115] The country has also developed several concrete mechanisms in government ministries, including the Gender-based Violence Unit in the Division of Gender and Family Affairs, formerly the Domestic Violence Unit.[116]
Rates of violence against women remain high in Grenada and are of particular concern for government agencies. In the past decade, several protocols were implemented to reduce violence against women and girls, including the National Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse Protocol and the Strategic Action Plan to Reduce GBV.[117] On June 28, 2023, the Grenada government announced the establishment of a digital platform designed to collect and analyze data on gender-based violence to inform and support better decision outcomes.[118]
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
Police exercises, operations, and activities reference the principles of WPS and gender equality.[119] Grenada does not have a standing military force, though it is a member of the Regional Security System (RSS), a regional security alliance in the Caribbean. Nevertheless, the government has prioritized the strengthening of WPS principles and addressing women’s security, including combating human trafficking, addressing violence against women, and developing policies to address climate crises.[120]
Like many other countries in the Caribbean, Grenada has experienced grave impacts of climate change, particularly drastic changes in rain patterns, warming ocean temperatures, a rise in sea levels, and an intensification of hurricanes and tropical storms. These effects have impacted nearly every sector of the country, with women and girls bearing the brunt of climate crises and disasters. Grenada has taken a proactive role in examining the gendered impacts of climate change and developing gender-responsive disaster recovery.
GEPAP, the National Climate Change Policy, 2017-2021, and the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (NAP) for Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique each signal a significant shift in how Caribbean countries view the implementation of the WPS agenda.[121] These national action plans will mainstream gender in traditionally underrepresented sectors and will build the resilience of communities to disasters, assist communities in adapting to adverse impacts of climate change, and support the creation of a green economy.[122] Future iterations of national action plans in the region will likely prioritize climate change as a significant security risk rather than as a traditional security indicator.
Gender in the Ranks (Police)
The Royal Grenada Police Force currently has 940 officers, with 130 positions (13.8%) held by women—a number that has not substantially changed since 2012. Reportedly, the RGPF has 318 rank officers, which includes front-line supervisors, middle and senior managers, and executives.[123] All positions are open to women in the Royal Grenada Police Force, although women report that there are cultural and institutional limitations to service, including gender-based discrimination and harassment of female officers.[124]
Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points
The Grenada government has appointed Gender Focal Points (GFPs), and an Inter-Ministerial Council of Gender Focal Points was launched in 2019. Many of Grenada’s national gender plans and policies have created GFP positions to identify and implement gender-responsive interventions. The GEPAP provides a description of GFPs and a detailed list of responsibilities, such as promoting gender mainstreaming, providing gender analyses, and collecting, analyzing, and disseminating gender-disaggregated statistics.[125]
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
In recent years, troubling reports have emerged of sexual harassment and abuse by male police officers against women police officers in the Royal Grenada Police Force. These allegations have emerged from junior officers alleging harassment and abuse by senior or superior-ranking officers.[126] The official Police Act does require anti-harassment or abuse policies or training in the police force. However, in May 2022, the RGPF passed a new “zero-tolerance” harassment policy to address growing concerns over harassment within the RGPF.[127] The sexual harassment policy was printed in the Grenada media as a public service, which outlined what constitutes sexual harassment, the procedure for submitting complaints, and disciplinary measures as prescribed by the Police Act, among other details.[128]
Training, Education, and Exercises
According to government documents, police officers receive gender-sensitive training.[129] The 2022 sexual harassment policy states that all RGPF members will receive sexual harassment training upon entry into the police force and through annual refresher courses and that the RGPF will conduct regular data collection and monitoring and evaluation of the policy.[130]
Work Environment
Policies regarding maternity and family leave in the Grenada Royal Police Force have not been made publicly available; however, all women employees in Grenada receive a minimum three-month maternity and family leave.[131] Paternity leave is not provided.
Specific equipment, including properly fitting uniforms, is provided to women officers of the Royal Grenada Police Force, as required by the official Police Act.[132] There is no publicly available information on gender-specific facilities.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
While not specific to the WPS agenda, several monitoring and evaluation mechanisms have been developed and expanded to assess the progress of various laws, institutions, and other entities that work toward gender equality. The first and largest of these mechanisms is the National Machinery for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in the Division of Gender and Family Affairs of the Ministry of Social Development, Housing, and Community Empowerment (herein: Gender Machinery).[133] The Gender Machinery oversees the monitoring and evaluation of gender equality principles, develops plans for gender mainstreaming in all levels of society, and oversees the Inter-Ministerial Council of Gender Focal Points. This Council serves as another critical mechanism to achieve gender parity. The role of these Gender Focal Points is to promote, facilitate, and monitor gender responsiveness in their ministries, departments and statutory bodies, and the sectors in which they operate.[134]
The GEPAP provides a guide for identifying gender-responsive interventions and monitoring their implementation. Gender mainstreaming is the primary strategy for implementing the GEPAP, and to date, the Inter-Ministerial Council of Gender Focal Points has hired 30 Gender Focal Points (25 females and five males) and 23 alternates (17 females and six males) to represent various ministries, departments, and selected statutory bodies.[135] Gender will be mainstreamed in disaster management, climate change, and natural resource development.
The government works directly with civil society organizations to participate in voluntary country reviews and implement strategies to advance its various goals. According to the 2022 Voluntary Review of the SDGs, “progress towards our national goals and the SDGs require a whole-of-society approach, inclusive of Government Agencies, Civil Society, the Private Sector and the Grenadian citizens.’”[136] Moreover, Grenada’s first-ever long-term National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP) 2020-2035, was drafted with input from several civil society stakeholders and its citizens, and many of Grenada’s other NAPs offer opportunities for civil society engagement. The level of transparency demonstrated by the government of Grenada and its willingness to engage directly with civil society and regional and international bodies in promoting gender equality is commendable.
Recommendations
At the national level, Grenada demonstrates significant commitment towards achieving gender equality and including women and civil society groups in implementing the principles of the WPS agenda. It remains committed to eliminating violence against women, advancing women’s engagement in government, and understanding and mitigating the effects of climate change on women and girls. However, the Royal Grenada Police Force, with the government’s support, should improve its commitment to gender equality as part of the WPS agenda and consider gender equality as central to its mission.
For the Government of Grenada:
Adopt a WPS NAP, aligning with national plans, frameworks, and policies, and engage with key stakeholders and local communities to advance in integrating gender equality and WPS principles in Grenada and its security forces;
Direct the national police to amend its gender strategy and policies in response to existing sexual harassment charges to eliminate hostile work environment discrimination, in coordination with Gender Focal Points, the Gender Machinery, and other relevant government ministries;
Continue to review gender-sensitive policies and training designed to prevent sexual harassment, abuse, or gender discrimination;
Commit the funding and staff to support the collection of sex-disaggregated data.
For the Royal Grenada Police Force:
Collect and publish sex-disaggregated data on the number of women in the Royal Grenada Police Force and their ranks and positions;
Maintain an effective monitoring and evaluation system to ensure effective implementation of gender integration and mainstreaming policies;
Evaluate the effectiveness of sexual harassment training and ensure that annual refresher courses continue.
Guyana – Summary Report
WPS National Action Plan (NAP) Status
Guyana does not have an official WPS NAP.
Overall Assessment
In recent years, Guyana has become a nation that reflects a growing commitment to advancing gender equality and WPS principles in its institutions, policies, and practices. Efforts on several fronts have advanced the WPS agenda, including expanding the promotion, placement, hiring, and integration of women into the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and developing local and regional partnerships to ensure full implementation of the WPS agenda. Nevertheless, issues revolving around gender stereotyping and sexual harassment in security forces persist, despite regular training on the topic. Future action by security institutions should reinforce the need to respond to gender-based violence and address discrimination against women in the police and defense forces.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, Guyana is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). Guyana signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), though it has not signed the CEDAW Optional Protocol. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Through its national laws and regulations, the Guyanese government signaled its commitment to the principles of gender equality and WPS. One-third of political candidates in Guyanese elections must be women.[137] The Guyanese constitution prohibits sex- and gender-based discrimination, and women are expressly guaranteed equality under the law.[138] There is a Gender Affairs Bureau and Sexual Offenses and Domestic Violence Policy Unit under the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.[139] The Ministry also provides leadership training for women interested in participating in local or national politics through the Guyana Women’s Leadership Institute. Guyana has participated in regional organizations, such as the OAS, to strengthen women’s political leadership and implement gender equality programming.[140]
Notably, the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) has shown its commitment to the WPS agenda through the development of relationships and partnerships with regional security actors, including USSOUTHCOM, USNORTHCOM, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the U.S. Department of Defense, affirming its commitment to implementing the principles of WPS. In August 2022, Guyana hosted the inaugural Caribbean Women, Peace, and Security Conference in Georgetown, Guyana.
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
Over a decade ago, women in the GDF and the GPF faced rampant gender discrimination and barriers to recruitment and promotion. Previous GDF policies banned women from serving in the combat arm/front line units and sought to “significantly reduce [the] recruitment of women.” Additionally, women were subject to promotional repercussions if found to be pregnant or had had an abortion.[141]
However, the security landscape in Guyana is in transition. In recent years, under the guidance and leadership of GDF Chief of Staff Brigadier Godfrey Bess, the GDF has stepped forward to advocate for women’s rights and representation in the armed forces. Guyana’s leadership in implementing WPS principles can be attributed, in part, to the myriad of partnerships with local civil society organizations, regional governing and security bodies, and international agencies. These partnerships have aided the GDF’s gender mainstreaming efforts, predominantly through training and education programs. For example, Guyana co-hosted a 2021 workshop on WPS with the Florida National Guard, specifically focusing on improving operational effectiveness through gender mainstreaming and incorporating a gender perspective into peace and security efforts.[142]
Gender in the Ranks
The GDF has approximately 4,150 service members.[143] Information on the percentage of female service members was unavailable. As of 2022, the highest-ranking woman currently serving in the GDF is a Lieutenant Colonel.[144] The current GDF leadership is committed to the full integration of women in the force and has moved to open more positions to women that were previously closed to them.[145] In terms of police officers, data on women in the GPF are unavailable. As of 2022, the highest-ranking woman serving in the GPF is a police commander.[146]
Training, Education, and Exercises
The GDF signaled its commitment to gender mainstreaming by opening up previously male-only military training and exercises to women. In 2022, Brigadier Bess ordered the integration and participation of servicewomen in the “infantry rifleman course,” later renamed to “infantry soldier course.” [147] Since then, servicewomen have access to the “Platoon Commanders Course,” which includes the following areas of study: skill-at-arms, drills, minor staff duties, open and close country warfare, internal security, method of instructions, leadership studies, military law, physical training, military service, information technology, and military ethics, among others.[148]
GDF and GPF forces received gender-responsive training in collaboration with regional partners. In recent years, women from the GDF and the GPF participated in WPS workshops developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. The Guyana Gender Affairs Bureau, in collaboration with the Women and Gender Equality Commission (WGEC), created a series of gender-responsive training and hired several Inter-Ministry Gender Focal Points for gender planning and mainstreaming for all sectors of society.
The GPF lags behind the GDF in implementing the WPS agenda. However, the GPF has taken actionable steps to increase women’s representation over the past few years by integrating a gender perspective into police practices. Like the GDF, the GPF developed regional partnerships for collaboration on gender-sensitive training, including joint training conferences. In 2019, the GPF participated in the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) 57th Annual Training Conference, designed to strengthen the capacity of women in policing internationally.[149] Most recently, the Community Relations Department of the Guyana Police Force, the Diversity Committee of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Women’s Chamber of Commerce hosted an inaugural Women in Law Enforcement Summit. The conference sought to address difficulties faced by female law enforcement officers.[150]
Work Environment
The GDF and the GPF have collaborated with regional partners to improve women’s work environments and gender mainstreaming policies from the top down. For example, following the 2021 WPS conference in Guyana, the GDF improved infrastructure, including restrooms and lodging facilities, to accommodate women and reduce possible health hazards.[151] In 2022, the GDF deployed their first rotation of women in border security missions, positions that had previously been reserved for men.[152] Since this policy change, 50% of border operations have included servicewomen.[153] GDF servicewomen are also receiving training as paratroopers, positions previously reserved for their male counterparts.[154]
Additionally, GDF service women have access to childcare centers while at work, ensuring they retain their rank and remain eligible for promotions.[155] During the COVID-19 pandemic, police and army officers (among other frontline workers) received additional childcare assistance to support the financial burdens of the pandemic on families and parents. Women in Guyana are eligible for 13 weeks of maternity leave. The law does not provide for paternity leave.[156]
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
Sexual harassment and assault are illegal under Guyanese law, though a 2017 USAID report noted that “one out of every six women reporting ha[d] experienced” some form of GBV.[157] Nevertheless, there is high-level support to address this persistent problem. The head of the GDF, Brigadier Bess, stated his firm commitment to providing a safe environment for all GDF employees and to have GDF members improve their knowledge of sexual harassment and assault.
To address violence against women, the Guyanese government created a National Task Force for the Prevention of Sexual Violence (NTFPSV) in 2010, focusing on combatting GBV nationwide, including domestic violence. Last year, the GPF partnered with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Guyana’s Ministry of Human Services and Social Security to re-commence COPSQUAD2000, an initiative aimed at building the GPF’s capacity to respond adequately to GBV cases.[158] Likewise, the GDF works closely with civil society organizations to address GBV and sexual harassment both in and outside the GDF.[159]
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
The GDF and the GPF work closely with civil society organizations, regional bodies, and international actors on projects related to gender mainstreaming, which provide avenues for monitoring and evaluation.
Guyana does not report data regarding the gender makeup of the GDF or GPF.
Recommendations
For the Government of Guyana:
Engage with civil society and women’s organizations, among other stakeholders, to draft and implement a WPS NAP that enhances and supports government efforts to advance gender equality and WPS principles;
If not yet available, extend its commitment to comprehensive gender training by requiring police and defense personnel to complete regular gender sensitization/gender awareness training;
Encourage collaboration between the GDF, GPF, and the Department of Gender Affairs on policies for equitable treatment of female service members;
Publish and make publicly available all data and initiatives relating to gender representation and gender mainstreaming efforts.
For the Guyana Defense Force:
Create gender-sensitive recruitment practices that ensure equal opportunities for women regarding training, career progression, and promotion;
Appoint trained and qualified GENADs and GFPs into security forces;
Collect and publish sex-disaggregated data on women in the GDF.
For the Guyana Police Force:
Create gender-sensitive recruitment practices that ensure equal opportunities for women regarding training, career progression, and promotion;
Make available sex-disaggregated data on women in national police forces and statistics relating to the gender makeup of active-duty officers and civilian employees;
Continue existing measures to combat gender-based violence in the police force
Haiti – Summary Report
WPS National Action Plan (NAP) Status
Haiti does not have a WPS NAP.
Overall Assessment
Haiti has significant work ahead to implement the WPS agenda effectively. Despite principles of gender equality present in the Ministry for the Status of Women and Women’s Rights (MCFDF), a national gender equality plan, and an action plan on violence against women, there are considerable gaps in translating the obligations in international and regional treaties and conventions to which Haiti is a signatory to legal and institutional arrangements at the national level. The cycles of instability and violence Haiti continues to experience have stunted efforts to integrate gender equality and WPS principles into Haitian society and institutions generally and in its security forces in particular. Haitian civil society, human rights and women’s rights organizations, and the international community strive to construct the necessary frameworks to promote and protect women’s rights in conflict and post-conflict situations. Gender-based violence is both a driver and symptom of state insecurity. The Haitian government must commit the political will and resources and act to protect women, girls, and at-risk groups from all forms of violence in the current crisis.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, Haiti is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). Haiti signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), though it has yet to sign the Optional Protocol of CEDAW. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the national level, the Haitian constitution provides women with several protections, including the right to equal working conditions, high-level educational access, and equality before the law. While Haiti does not have a NAP, it has adopted a Gender Equality Policy 2014-2034 (Politique D’Égalité Femmes Hommes).[160] Central national security documents do not directly mention the WPS agenda or its principles. Goals set in the Haitian constitution include a requirement for 30% female employment across all industries, especially public service.[161] This quota remains out of reach since Haiti has restrictive laws and fewer legal provisions supporting gender equality.
The Haitian government established the Haitian Ministry for the Status of Women and Women’s Rights (MCFDF) in 1994 (post-Beijing Conference) with the goals of developing gender representation in government and countering violence against women.[162] The ministry aided in the publication of the “Politique D’Egalite” in 2014, with textual implications for a subsequent report in the future. No such report was produced at the time of writing (June 2023), and the MCFDF lacks the political commitment from Haiti’s top leadership to carry out its mandate. The “Politique D’Egalite” represents a step towards action on WPS but does not provide many avenues for concrete action thus far. The report itself notes the gap between legislated equality for women and the practiced experiences of Haitian women.[163] A ten-year National Plan to Combat Gender-Based Violence was passed in 2017, helping establish an Office to Combat Violence Against Women and Girls. Again, serious gaps remain in legislation to protect women against sexual and gender-based violence.[164]
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
The Haitian government, through the Office of National Coordination of Women’s Affairs (CNAF), created an action plan to support female police officers, who currently compose 11.78% of the police force.[165] However, the CNAF’s plan to help female police officers has not yet been implemented. A GENAD was appointed by the Directorate General and assigned to the senior national police staff. There are 24 GFPs, distributed through ten departments and one base. Training is incomplete for an unknown number of them.
The Haiti National Police (HNP) is the de facto security force in the country. It is severely understaffed and ill-equipped. Numbers of officers are in flux; resignations, dismissals, and deaths have led to varying estimates, given that the tally includes those individuals who died and who have left their posts.[167]
Regarding gender in the ranks, the HNP has failed to reach the Haitian constitutional requirement for 30% of positions on the force to be held by women, with only 11.78% of posts filled.[168] Furthermore, the ratio of women deployed to total deployment in security-related operations (92:8,500) is abnormally low relative to the number of women in the force (1,649:12,351), possibly indicating an internal reluctance to use women in security operations or a lack of training for female officers.[169] No explicit gender-based limitations on women’s participation in law enforcement exist. There is some expectation for growth in female representation in national police leadership in the coming years.[170]
The Haitian Armed Force was officially disbanded in 1995 following a period of military coups and was re-established in 2017. It plays a very limited role.[171] The army is not internationally recognized and, with no international standing, does not have official military-to-military contact with the U.S. military.
Training, Education, and Exercises
The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) assisted in integrating WPS principles into HNP training and Gender Focal Points (GFPs) appointed throughout the country.[172] Police service members receive training on protecting vulnerable populations from sexual exploitation and violence each time they conduct training. A 2022 report noted that police academy graduates received training in gender mainstreaming and gender-sensitive practices.[173] Civil society organizations, both national and international, also conduct gender training.
Work Environment
Females in the formal sector receive 12 weeks of maternity leave (which does not meet the 14-week standard of the International Labor Organization). There is no paternity leave.[174] Expanding the length of paternity leave should be considered as it may correlate with lowered maternal mortality rates.[175] Women of all ranks have expressed concern over the lack of gender-appropriate uniforms and equipment and sex-separated housing or bathrooms.[176] The HNP overlooks women in the HNP both in deployment and promotion opportunities. The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and other international partners work with the HNP to recruit and promote more women, in line with objectives set out in the 2017-21 Haitian National Police Strategic Development Plan.[177]
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
Violence against women is a severe problem. Incidents of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls continue to climb at an alarming rate. Women are regularly subjected to high levels of sexual harassment in the workplace and schools.[178] According to reports, legislative efforts to pass an anti-GBV law have failed, and a national GBV plan for 2017-2027 has not been implemented.[179] In terms of the HNP, documents used for police training purposes include notes on protecting vulnerable populations from sexual violence. There is currently a sexual abuse/exploitation/harassment program for National Police personnel provided by the CNAF.[180]
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
The Haiti National Police Force does not have a monitoring and evaluation system. The police collect sex-disaggregated data; however, the processing system runs slowly due to a lack of budget and equipment. Data is collected and recorded by hand, though not publicly reported.[181]
Recommendations
The ongoing crises in Haiti have overwhelmed the capacity of the Haitian government and security forces to control the violence and deliver essential services to its citizens. The root causes of extreme violence have deeply gendered dimensions. Data consistently show that high levels of gender inequality between men and women more than double a country’s chances of being a fragile state. It is thus of utmost importance that the Haitian government make every effort to mainstream gender perspectives and the principles of the WPS agenda outlined in its four pillars (participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery) into policies, practices, and institutions in the Haitian police force.
Recommendations
For the Government of Haiti:
Commit the political will to lead in advancing gender equality and the principles of the WPS agenda in its security force and institutions;
Increase financial support for the Haitian Ministry for the Status of Women and Women’s Rights;
Strengthen relationships with local communities, civil society, and human rights and women’s organizations to build workable and sustainable programs that support WPS principles and protect women, children, and at-risk populations.
Continue support for the CNAF’s plan to recruit and promote more female police officers;
Mandate sexual harassment and SGBV training in the Haitian National Police.
For the Haitian National Police:
Implement the CNAF’s plan to recruit and support female police officers and publish the details;
Open all positions in the HNP to women;
Complete Gender Focal Point training for GFPs who have not already completed the training;
Broaden the accessibility of training for women in the HNP and mandate gender-sensitive training (e.g., SGBV, sexual harassment prevention) for all police officers and force personnel;
Communicate a concrete goal for more equitable promotion policies and increase female representation in HNP leadership;
Encourage transparency by digitizing sex-disaggregated data on police operations and allow public access to the data outside of audits;
Provide uniforms and equipment fitted for female bodies.
Honduras – Summary Report
WPS National Action Plan (NAP) Status
Honduras has not developed a WPS NAP.
Overall Assessment
Honduras’ international commitments to the WPS agenda are reflected in national legislation and the Plan of Gender Equality 2010-2022. However, the government’s efforts toward integrating WPS principles focus predominately on the National Police, and there is not enough public information regarding the Honduran military to evaluate progress in integrating gender equality and WPS principles in its institutions, policies, and practices. In short, WPS values have not fully landed in the Honduran national security institutions.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, Honduras is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). Honduras signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), though it has yet to sign the Optional Protocol of CEDAW. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which, in part, works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the national level, support for gender equality and WPS principles is present in key national plans and documents. One plan with a focus on gender equality is the “National Women’s Policy: Gender Equality and Equity Plan of Honduras: 2010-2022” (Política Nacional de la Mujer. II Plan de Igualdad y Equidad de Género de Honduras 2010-2022).[182] A second plan is the “National Action Plan against Gender Violence 2014-2022” (Plan Nacional Contra la Violencia Hacia las Mujeres, 2014-2022).[183]It is relevant to observe that the time period in both documents expired in 2022, and no further updates have been reported at the time of writing. The National Action Plan Against Gender Violence also presents other documents and legislation related to the issue of gender equality.[184]
Additionally, Honduras established an Institute for Women (Instituto Nacional de la Mujer) as a department regarding women and gender equality.[185] Government concern regarding levels of sexual harassment influenced the decision to elevate the Institute for Women to a cabinet-level secretariat in March 2022. However, the Institute did not receive adequate funding levels, nor was there a commitment to provide adequate GBV-domestic violence training to police and other government agencies.[186]
The Gender Equality and Equity Plan references the police but does not specify the Honduras Ministry of Defense (MoD) as a principal actor. In 2016, the MoD created the Unit of Human Rights and Gender Equality and has aided in the creation of gender units for all the branches of the armed forces.[187]
In terms of the Police Forces, Honduras has the “Organic Law of the Secretary of State in the Office of Security and the National Police of Honduras” (Ley Orgánica de la Secretaríade Estado en el Despacho de Seguridad y de la Policía Nacional de Honduras), which aims to promote professional opportunities for women and bans gender discrimination.[188]
With the appointment of a gender advisor (GENAD), there has also been budget and personnel allocated towards the WPS implementation.
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
WPS principles are integrated into major directives and guidance documents and referred to within the 2017 Ley Orgánica de la Secretaría de Estado en el Despacho de Seguridad y de la Policía Nacional de Honduras,whichexpresses anti-discrimination guidelines and equal opportunities for women.[189] Insufficient public data is available to determine whether WPS principles are integrated into military operational planning processes.
In regards to a gender advisor (GENAD) appointed for the military, there is the Directorate of Human Rights and Gender Equity (Dirección de Derechos Humanos y Equidad de Género) the MoD. There is also a gender advisor (GENAD) appointed to the national police with the police gender unit.
Gender in the Ranks
Publicly available information on numbers and rank in the military and police forces is unavailable.
A 2020 study on the Honduran civilian police force reported that as of 2017, the police force had 14,950 members. No sex-disaggregated data was available, but estimates were that women constituted 20% of the police force and 24% of new recruits in 2020.[190]
There is not enough publicly available information regarding whether all of the positions in the military are open to women. For the National Police, all policing jobs are open to women, including law enforcement special operations jobs and units.[191]
In terms of troop deployment, Honduras is one of only three countries in this study to contribute troops to UN peacekeeping operations. As of May 31, 2023, 11 male and 7 female members of the Honduras armed forces are deployed.
Training, Education, and Exercises
The Secretary of Security reported the existence of learning tools, including a Training Workshop for Gender Trainers and the Workshops on Gender Equality, available for the police and the citizens.[192] The amount of personnel trained is not recorded.
Within the MoD, a relevant educational effort was observed in 2022 when the Ministry began the editorial project “Incorporating Women in the Armed Forces” to highlight the role of women in the armed forces.[193] Recognizing the role of women is vital to encourage the next generations to join the Armed Forces of every country in the world, and is encouraged by the writers of this report.
There is evidence that the cadets get training in human rights during their courses, the CAMFFAA for the soldiers, the Combat Leader Course (LICOMB), the basic course (CIBFFAA), and the intermediate course (CIMFFAA).[194] However, there is not enough publicly available information specifically about gender training in Honduras’ MoD. In the case of the Police Forces, there are legal provisions that promote professional development opportunities for female police and bans against gender discrimination.[195]
Work Environment
The national law states that there are human resource policies for the military and the national police, as well as childcare and family leave available. However, on average, maternity pay in Honduras is quite modest compared to the rest of Central America, with only 10 weeks provided; four before the due date and six after.[196]
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
In regards to monitoring and reporting, there is a monthly report (Rendición de cuentas del sector público de Honduras, Secretaria de la Defensa Nacional), in addition to an evaluation by the Tribunal Superior de Cuentas.
It is also important to mention that there is no sex-disaggregated data made available regarding the monitoring and reporting of WPS principles.
Recommendations
To further pursue WPS objectives, it is recommended that the Honduran government:
Draft and implement a WPS NAP and include specific objectives regarding gender equality in other governmental strategic plans.
Allow for more information on gender and WPS principles to be available to the public.
Mention and/or train military personnel towards the principles of WPS in important missions and pre-deployment operations.
Include women in the Armed Forces decision-making positions.
Make sure the budget goes directly towards training and education on the WPS principles, as well as the appointed GENAD.
Include mention of gender or women in the Functions of the Foreign Ministry of 2023 and the Defense Ministry as well.
Jamaica shows real progress towards gender equality and WPS goals in its security forces. The Jamaican government adopted national policy frameworks on gender equality, worked towards increasing women in its security forces, and continued to address central issues related to important institutional policies and practices that support women’s advancement in its military and police forces, such as gender-based violence and sexual harassment prevention programs and addressing better work environment conditions. However, more can be done to address ongoing concerns about harassment in the security forces and to ensure that institutional policies support the continued advancement of women in the field of peace and security.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, Jamaica is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). Jamaica signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), though it has yet to sign the Optional Protocol of CEDAW. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment and is a signatory of the American Convention on Human Rights “Pact of San José, Costa Rica” (OAS).
At the national level, national security documents contain references to WPS principles, though mainly through a focus on work against GBV and sexual abuse.[197] The Jamaican Constitution prohibits gender-based discrimination.[198] Though Jamaica has yet to adopt an official WPS NAP, it has an active 10-Year National Action Plan to Eliminate Gender-Based Violence in Jamaica (2017-2027) focused on the elimination of GBV, led by the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Justice. It adopted a National Policy for Gender Equality in March 2011.[199] The Bureau of Gender Affairs resides in the National Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport.
On October 13, 2021, the Jamaican House of Representatives approved the Sexual Harassment Prevention and Protection Act (LPPAS) (also known as the Sexual Harassment Act) 2021, which covers employment-related sexual harassment issues in the workplace, schools, and other institutions.[200] The Jamaican government hired sexual harassment investigators and offered sensitization sessions for Jamaican businesses. The government agreed to hire gender focal points for various government offices. The Sexual Harassment Act went into effect on July 3, 2023.[201]
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), founded in 1962, is one of the largest military forces in the Caribbean, consisting of an infantry Regiment, Reserve Corps, Air Wing, and Coast Guard. Its primary duties include defending against aggression and internal civil unrest, restoring law and order, search and rescue, counter-narcotics operations, and humanitarian relief.[202]
Gender in the Ranks
Apart from the Jamaica Defense Reserve Force, the Regular Force has just over 2,500 officers and soldiers. Women constitute approximately 20% of the JDF.[203] The JDF continues its commitment to increasing women in its ranks; in 2022, the JDF inducted 58 females into the regular force out of 256 new members (22.4%).[204] As of July 2023, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) comprised 12,300 officers. It continues to expand its force, with a target of 15,000 by the end of 2023. It accepted 1,300 recruits in 2021/2022 and signaled its intent to hire an additional 1,250 recruits in 2022/2023.[205] Data on the percentage of women police officers were unavailable.
GENADs and GFPs
There are established Gender Focal Points within the JDF and JCF. As part of The Sexual Harassment Act (2021), 18 Gender Focal Points were appointed to assist in mainstreaming gender in public-sector bodies.[206]
Training, Education, and Exercises
WPS principles are implemented in the training of junior-level personnel, but not in basic training.[207] The JDF has sponsored domestic violence prevention and intervention workshops for its personnel.[208] Mid-level military personnel must complete “fraternization/sexual policy” [sic] programming as part of the intermediate training.[209] Senior-level military personnel do not have to complete any WPS-adjacent training.[210] A major new outcome arising from the passage of the Sexual Harassment Act in 2021 is the development of a gender certification for the JDF, in keeping with the National Policy for Gender Equality.[211]
Work Environment
The JCF is currently in the process of undergoing significant changes to its structure. According to the Minister of National Security, these changes are part of a more substantial commitment to make necessary investments and build a strong organization. These commitments include improving the infrastructure of police precincts, providing adequate resources for recruiting and training 1,500 new applicants yearly, and training officers on how to adequately address gender-based violence, among other crimes.[212]
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
In 2019, the JDF and JCF announced the creation of sexual harassment policies for their security forces. Specific guidelines were established, and broader definitions of what constituted vulnerable groups were included.[213] The JCF sexual harassment policy was subsequently published in a Jamaican newspaper.[214]
The Jamaica Defence Force’s official policy is that “any form of sexual harassment, be it verbal or non-verbal, physical, written, visual or graphic, is unacceptable conduct, will not be tolerated, and will be punished severely.”[215] The JDF also has a policy prohibiting relationships between servicemembers (Personal Relationships and Fraternisation Policy).[216] In recent years, however, there have been numerous reports of sexual harassment and abuse by servicemen in the JDF.[217]
Family Policies
The Jamaican government provides women with three months paid maternity leave and 20 working days’ paternity and adoption leave with pay for fathers and adoptive parents.[218]
Equipment and Facilities
In 2019, the National Security Minister, Hon. Dr. Horace Chang, assured that the Government would invest in improving infrastructure at police stations to create facilities and working conditions suitable for men and women of the JCF.[219]As of 2023, the infrastructural updates, including bathrooms and barracks, have been completed.[220] The UN previously noted resource allocations for WPS implementation at the Jamaican Ministry of National Security, which has invested in policing infrastructure.[221] Regarding equipment, female JDF servicemembers receive appropriately fitted uniforms. Regarding uniform equipment, female JDF servicemembers receive appropriately fitted uniforms.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Jamaica’s National Policy for Gender Equality 2011 commits the Jamaican government to develop a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to collect and disseminate information to all stakeholders, including ministries and civil society. However, the results are not publicly available.[222]
Recommendations
For the Government of Jamaica:
Adopt a WPS NAP that complements national-level gender efforts to advance gender equality and gender mainstreaming in its security forces.
Continue to ensure that military and police personnel at every rank receive sexual harassment and abuse prevention and gender sensitivity training;
Commit to gender-responsive budgeting to track progress in training, programming, and instititonal capacity building related to gender mainstreaming goals in the security forces.
Recommendations for the Jamaica Defense Force:
Implement WPS principles into the basic training of military personnel at all ranks to improve gender mainstreaming and the integration of gender perspectives;
Assign GENADs and GFPs to senior military command level to improve gender considerations in strategic and logistical actions within the JDF;
Continue utilizing the Defense Board for the review of complaints related to sexual harassment and assault.
Commit to collecting and publishing sex-disaggregated data to guide the monitoring and evaluation process and improve decision-making and resource allocation.
Recommendations for the Jamaica Constabulary Force:
Evaluate sexual harassment and GBV programming to address ongoing concerns of sexual harassment in the JCF;
Commit to collecting and publishing sex-disaggregated data to guide the monitoring and evaluation process and improve decision-making and resource allocation;
Ensure personnel serving as Gender Focal Points are appropriately trained to support senior leadership in gender mainstreaming and advancing gender equality in the ranks.
Saint Kitts and Nevis – Summary Report
WPS National Action Plan (NAP) Status
St. Kitts and Nevis does not have a WPS NAP.
Overall Assessment
St. Kitts and Nevis shows some political will but requires a more significant commitment to progress toward achieving gender equality and the principles of the WPS agenda. Institutionalized anti-female policies reflect significant cultural barriers towards integrating a gender perspective and balance into security conversations: departmental documents and messaging signal slow integration of women into security forces. Violence against women continues to be a severe and pervasive problem. There is a need to actively commit the political will and resources to integrate a gender perspective into domestic police and military forces to ensure comprehensive considerations of gender-related issues, specifically as they relate to all forms of gender-based violence.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, St. Kitts and Nevis is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). It signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Optional Protocol of CEDAW. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the national level, some advancement is evident. The St. Kitts and Nevis National Gender Equality Policy and Action Plan (GEPAP) was launched in 2018 to provide the institutional framework to empower women and advance gender equality.[223] In early 2022, the government approved the St. Kitts and Nevis Gender Equality Policy and accompanying Action Plan.[224]
While the political will to advance policies that benefit women is evident, the requisite commitment to transform political will into actional policies is urgently needed. For example, the St. Kitts and Nevis military has made progress toward prohibiting sexual harassment, but no national-level prohibition of workplace sexual harassment exists.
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
The St. Kitts and Nevis government established the Department of Gender Affairs to advance gender equality. The Department runs several gender-based programs, including gender sensitization and mainstreaming training for children under age 12.[225] Information on what training is offered for security forces is unavailable. The most recent restructuring of domestic police policy does not mention sex or gender and only refers to women twice, and WPS principles are not integrated into military or police planning processes.[226]
Gender in the Ranks
The St. Kitts and Nevis Defense Force (SKNDF) comprises two units of approximately 300 personnel: the infantry and the Coast Guard. It works closely with the Royal St Christopher and Nevis Police Force (RSCNPF). There is no publicly available data regarding the gender composition of either force. Data regarding the gender composition of the RSCNPF were unavailable. The Central Committee of the Police Welfare Association does require that women hold three of the twelve elected member positions.[227] There are no other known gender quotas or goals regarding force integration.
As part of its move to ensure gender equity, the St. Kitts and Nevis police force announced during a meeting in August 2022 its intention to study whether women have adequate opportunities to advance in the police force. High-ranking officials admitted that the police force has few women in its higher ranks. It is unclear whether any recommendations followed.[228]
Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points
The St. Kitts and Nevis government noted in a 2018 report that it trained 116 Gender Focal Points (GFPs). However, it did not provide information about the distribution of the GFPs.[229]
Training, Education, and Exercises
The St. Kitts and Nevis Department of Gender Affairs offers gender mainstreaming and sensitization training and domestic violence workshops for many sectors of society. Thus far, security practitioners are not required to take them.[230] The Department offered training on the Domestic and Sexual Violence Complaints and Response Protocol, adopted in November 2018, to address the country’s high level of domestic violence.[231]
Work Environment
While there is no evidence that women are barred from working as practitioners in the security field, there are significant indicators of widespread barriers to women in the workplace. Legal restrictions have been put in place barring women from working in factories and specific fields, including mining and construction, water, and energy.[232] Legally banning women from these male-dominated fields perpetuates gender-based stereotypes and hampers efforts to achieve gender equality, essential for promoting peace, security, and sustainable development. Regarding maternity leave, women have 13 weeks of maternity leave paid by the government. St. Kitts and Nevis does not have paternity leave or parental leave.[233]
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
No law explicitly addresses the problem of sexual harassment. Incidents of sexual harassment and abuse fall under the jurisdiction of the Protection of Employment Act.[234] Previous statements to the United Nations indicated potential issues regarding human and/or sex trafficking in immigrant communities in the nation; no further documentation has been made available.[235] The St. Kitts and Nevis military does have a sexual harassment policy.[236] No similar policy is known to exist for the police force.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
Sex-disaggregated data for military or police operations are reported. The prime minister commissioned an upcoming review of gender equity to examine the rates of women in the police force and the barriers that prevent women from joining the force. There is currently no publication date for this report.[237]
Recommendations
St. Kitts and Nevis is the smallest sovereign state in the Americas in size and population. Its police and defense forces are small, and the country’s extensive security and defense role–illegal drug and gun trafficking, disaster relief and response, and humanitarian relief–in the Eastern Caribbean strains resources. Integrating women in security forces strengthens institutional effectiveness and achieves operational goals at the strategic, tactical, and operational goals. Developing a NAP with assistance from the UN, civil society, and women’s organizations will produce a comprehensive whole-of-government approach that will lead to sustainable policies and practices to integrate gender equality and WPS principles in its security forces.
For the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis:
Engage with civil society groups and women’s rights advocates, among other stakeholders, to draft and implement a WPS NAP to advance gender equality and WPS principles in security forces;
Prioritize the collection and publication of sex-disaggregated data in the security forces;
Finalize and publish the pending review of gender equity in the St. Kitts and Nevis police force;
Promote gender integration by increasing the funding of the Department of Gender Affairs;
Mandate gender-sensitive training and GBV/sexual harassment and assault prevention training for all police and defense forces at all ranks and grades;
Remove barriers to employment opportunities and recruit more women in the security and defense field.
For the Royal St. Kitts and Nevis Police Force:
Prioritize integrating mandatory gender-sensitive and GBV training programs at all ranks in the security forces;
Draft and publish a sexual harassment policy for the police force, if such a policy is lacking;
Collect and publicly report sex-disaggregated data to support more effective planning and integration of gender equality and WPS principles in its force;
Open all positions in the police force to women and prioritize promoting women to leadership positions;
Revise institutional policies and practices (family and maternity/paternity leave, promotion, child care) to support women in the force.
For the St. Kitts and Nevis Defense Force:
Create a gender equity review and publish the findings upon project completion;
Develop and integrate mandatory gender-sensitivity training and sexual harassment and assault prevention training for all service personnel and ranks;
Ensure
Revise institutional policies and practices (family and maternity/paternity leave, promotion, childcare) that support women in the defense force and open all positions to women.
Saint Lucia – Summary Report
WPS National Action Plan (NAP) Status
Saint Lucia does not have a WPS NAP.
Overall Assessment
St. Lucia shows some progress toward realizing the WPS agenda. Recent government-led action toward gender mainstreaming shows positive growth toward integrating gender perspectives in the police force. St. Lucia has no standing military force. However, St. Lucia has no comprehensive national gender policy nor a national action plan to respond to sexual- and gender-based violence. The St. Lucien government provides little information on the status of gender mainstreaming in the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF), nor data on gender-relevant training and sex-disaggregated data on the RSLPF and its forces. High-level commitment to the development and funding of such initiatives and to a reassessment of current institutional policies and practices is lacking. St. Lucia should consider the adoption of a WPS NAP that identifies the RSLPF as a principal partner and outlines specific strategies and measures for gender mainstreaming in the force. Current institutional policies related to recruitment and promotion should be revised and funding provided to provide needed facilities and equipment to retain women in the force.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, St. Lucia is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). St. Lucia signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), though it has not signed the CEDAW Optional Protocol. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the national level, St. Lucia shows moderate political will, such as addressing gender-based violence (GBV) and other forms of discrimination against women. The St. Lucian constitution guarantees fundamental rights regardless of sex, and sex-based discrimination is illegal.[238] St. Lucia has partnered strategically with regional partners, including the UN, OAS, and others, to advance gender-responsive initiatives in recent years. In 2020, St. Lucia became the first Caribbean nation to meet UN standards for measuring victimization, including metrics regarding GBV, strengthening capacities to respond to GBV and other forms of violence and discrimination against women.[239] However, no national strategic action plan on gender-based violence is currently in effect.[240]
Saint Lucia does not have a comprehensive national gender policy. However, there is some indication that the Department of Gender Relations is in the final stages of a National Gender Equality Policy and Strategic Plan.[241] It did develop a National Adaptation Plan 2018-2028, a ten-year process to address priority cross-sectoral adaptation measures that, according to the Plan, will integrate gender mainstreaming in all sectors.[242] Nevertheless, the lack of a chapter outlining the gender mainstreaming strategy or a detailed presentation on its implementation suggests that gender mainstreaming is not a top priority in the government’s 15-year development plan.
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
The National Adaptation Plan 2018-2028 does not reference the WPS agenda but does highlight a variety of gender considerations with the aim of “decreasing gender-based vulnerabilities, promoting gender equality in decision making and ensuring that the implementation of adaptation measures does not impose an additional burden to women in particular.”[243] The government of St. Lucia has empowered the Bureau of Gender Relations, the government ministry dedicated to gender mainstreaming and the promotion of gender perspectives, to act on these measures.[244]
According to the St. Lucia government, existing protocols such as those mentioned above (CEDAW, Beijing Platform, and the Belém do Pará Conventions) guide the RSLPF.[245] Based on reports submitted to the OAS and in national reviews of the Belém do Pará Convention, RSLPF strategy, policy, and planning documents incorporate fundamental WPS principles.”[246]
Gender in the Ranks
The RSLPF reported in 2021 that its force consisted of approximately 1,000 officers.[247] Data regarding the gender makeup of the RSLPF are not publicly available. Women are not barred from any position or promotion in the ranks. The current RSLPF police commissioner is Crusita Descartes-Pelius, the first woman to serve in that position.[248] St. Lucia has no standing military force, though it is
Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points
Reportedly, the St. Lucian government appointed Gender Focal Points to monitor and guide gender mainstreaming in their respective departments.[249]
Training, Education, and Exercises
Police complete a curriculum including GBV through the Training School. The Division of Gender Relations facilitates the domestic violence sensitization training module for police recruits.[250] Officers are required to complete gender sensitivity training if attached to a “Vulnerable Persons Team,” though it is unclear whether other officers also receive this training.”[251] The Department of Gender Relations trained public officials in gender-based analysis and gender budgeting and planning. Most recently, in September of 2022, 24 officers received training in addressing domestic and intimate partner violence perpetrated against LGBTQI+ individuals, signaling a significant shift in the representation of gender mainstreaming initiatives.[252]
Work Environment
The St. Lucia government pays for 13 weeks of maternity leave, regardless of age, nationality, or marital status. St. Lucia also provides five days of paternity leave.[253] No publicly available data regarding equipment provided to women or appropriate facilities for women are available. A 2021 study of St. Lucian policing identified institutional weaknesses in promotion procedures, insufficient resources, and effective police recruitment that harm police performance, morale, and retention.[254]
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
There is no publicly available data on anti-harassment or abuse policies within the RSLPF.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
St. Lucia’s National Adaptation Plan requires collecting and assessing gender-disaggregated data to ensure proper implementation of various targets in the plan. However, there is no requirement to make this data publicly available. While it is not published, there is internal sex-disaggregated data collected regarding police operations. However, efforts to systematically collect data are constrained by a lack of resources, qualified personnel, and sustained support from government leadership.[255]
Recommendations
For the Government of Saint Lucia:
Lead in committing the political will to adopt a WPS NAP, integrating stated national implementation goals and objectives to advance gender equality and gender mainstreaming in government institutions, policies, and practices.
Commit the necessary resources and staff to support the Bureau of Gender Relations in implementing stated gender mainstreaming goals and objectives.
Strengthen data collection efforts that contribute to better decision-making and resource allocation;
Ensure that sex-disaggregated data is collected, integrated into an effective monitoring and evaluation system, and made publicly available.
Recommendations for the RSLPF:
Revise strategies to recruit more women and address gaps in institutional policies and practices–family leave, childcare, and equal promotion opportunities–that can improve recruitment and retention rates.
Collect and publish sex-disaggregated data regarding police operations to promote transparency and ensure adequate responses to the needs of vulnerable communities;
Develop policies to prevent and address sexual and gender-based harassment and abuse;
Require gender- and LGBTQI+-sensitive training for all officers and staff.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – Summary Report
WPS National Action Plan (NAP) Status
St. Vincent and the Grenadines has not adopted a WPS NAP.
Overall Assessment
St. Vincent and the Grenadines has made progress towards achieving the key elements of WPS in the absence of an official NAP. Proportionate representation in government, various social gender mainstreaming programs, and broad maternity and family leave policies are indicators of positive progress toward WPS goals. Shortcomings in gender mainstreaming within the Royal Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF) and in the recruitment of women signal the need for improvement and future engagement. Given the recent emergence of diverse social, economic, and cultural initiatives, it is reasonable to surmise that the government recognizes the WPS agenda as a priority; consequently, the government is well-positioned to develop an official NAP and a comprehensive WPS strategy in the foreseeable future.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, St. Vincent and the Grenadines is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). Bolivia signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), though it has not signed the CEDAW Optional Protocol. It is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the national level, St. Vincent and the Grenadines has a moderate but advancing level of political will to implement the WPS agenda. Gender equality and WPS language appear in major foreign policy statements, including a 2020 statement on WPS by H.E. Inga Rhonda King, the then-permanent representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations.[256] The speech reflected the government’s public support for the principles enshrined in the WPS agenda, including greater support for women in security sector reform, tracing gender data, applying an “anti-colonial-intersectional gender analysis” to Security Council work, and eliminating sexual and gender-based violence.[257]
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
In the past decade, a majority of gender equality initiatives in the country were developed in the legislative and judicial sectors to prevent and remediate discrimination against women, ensure women’s access to judicial systems, and provide legal protections for women. The St. Vincent and Grenadines government established a Gender Affairs Division to address gender-based violence (GBV) and has partnered with civil society organizations to strengthen government accountability for ending violence against women.[258]
Evidence suggests that the Gender Affairs Division remains very active in gender mainstreaming initiatives, partnering with various government agencies, civil society organizations, private sectors, and regional organizations.[259] However, the RSVGPF is not a principal partner for the Gender Affairs Division, making it challenging to identify the institutionalization of WPS principles within the force. There is no evidence whether the RSVGPF offers anti-harassment or abuse training or policies.
Gender in the Ranks
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has no regular military forces, though it is a member of the Caribbean Regional Security System (RSS), a regional security alliance. Instead, the RSVGPF is the internal security apparatus in the country.[260] No demographic data are available regarding the makeup of the RSVGPF. Women do face hurdles in pursuing a career in the police force. It is currently unknown if women are prohibited from any posts based on sex or gender.
Training, Education, and Exercises
The RSVGPF training manual includes guidance regarding human trafficking, developed in partnership with the Gender Affairs Division.[261] Information on current training beyond existing gender mainstreaming or WPS training in the RSVGPF is unavailable.
Work Environment
The work environment for policewomen in the RSVGPF has proved challenging. Among 100 RSVGPF recruits from early 2022, up to forty-six female recruits had to resign due to a lack of childcare options.[262] Additionally, the RSVGPF has not yet built facilities to accommodate women in training centers or stations.[263] In 2022, the St. Lucian prime minister stated that the RSVPF would restrict the number of women recruits because of a lack of physical facilities at the training school that can accommodate additional women recruits but also because childcare responsibilities often interfere with female officers’ schedules.[264]
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies
Evidence points to ongoing concerns in the country about the level of gender-based violence and sexual harassment. Civil society organizations have argued that current governmental efforts to combat GBV and harassment of women are insufficient in addressing the root problems that lead to the abuse of women and girls.[265] In the past, women in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines reported having difficulty reporting incidents of domestic violence with the police, citing “contempt and hostility” by individual force members.[266] However, the U.S. Department of State’s most recent 2022 Human Rights Report noted improvement in how police forces have handled cases of reported GBV.[267]
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
There is no known reporting of sex-disaggregated data for RSVGPF operations.
Recommendations
For the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines:
Adopt a WPKS NAP and align gender mainstreaming strategies with those of the Gender Affairs Division as a top priority at all levels of society;
Establish a permanent relationship between the RSVGP and the Gender Affairs Division;
Work closely with the RSVGPF to require gender-responsive training at all levels of rank and grade to counter GBV and harassment in the security forces;
Create Gender Advisor (GENADs) and Gender Focal Points (GFPs) positions to ensure the proper implementation of gender mainstreaming initiatives;
Commit to more transparency in government by collecting sex-disaggregated data on numbers, ranks, and institutional policies and practices and making them publicly available.
For the Royal Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force:
Create gender-sensitive recruitment practices that ensure equal opportunities for women regarding training, career progression, and promotion;
Collect and report sex-disaggregated data and integrate it into an established monitoring and evaluation system to improve decision-making and resource allocation;
Expand training centers and older police stations to include facilities for female officers and ensure the availability of fitted and comfortable uniforms for female service members;
Provide childcare options to active-duty service members and civilian staff to remove boundaries for workforce integration;
Promote transparency by publishing data regarding the gender demographics of active service members.
Suriname – Summary Report
WPS National Action Plan (NAP) Status
Suriname has not developed a WPS NAP.
Overall Assessment
Suriname demonstrates a political commitment to advancing gender equality and has taken concrete action to implement the principles reflected in the WPS agenda. Though it has not yet adopted a WPS NAP, it has developed a network of national plans and strategies that show progress in addressing the security of women and girls in Suriname. The government has outlined a 15-year Gender Vision Policy Document 2021-2035 and has an active Bureau for Gender Affairs that works across government agencies and with local and international partners. Still, much can be done to move from policies to action. The government should provide sustained funding for the Bureau of Gender Affairs and recruit more women into the security forces. Training sessions on gender-related issues are available, but all security force personnel regardless of gender or rank should receive the training. Finally, the Suriname government should release public data on institutional policies and practices of the national police and defense forces to highlight its advancements in gender equality.
National Importance/Political Will
At the international level, Suriname is a signatory of important international conventions and initiatives advancing gender equality and women’s political, economic, and social advancement, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention). It signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) but has not signed the CEDAW Optional Protocol. Suriname is also a Member State of the Organization of American States (OAS), which works to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the national level, the Suriname constitution ensures equal opportunity regardless of sex and forbids sex discrimination.[268] Suriname has made real progress in the past several years. Government institutions, bureaus, and policies are in place to protect and promote women and advance gender equality, including the Bureau of Gender Affairs in the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Gender Vision Policy Document 2021-2035.[269] The government’s reasoning for passing a 15-year-long strategy was that the goals established in the policy document incorporate Suriname’s international and regional obligations to gender equality and women’s empowerment, which are better coordinated and addressed over a more extended period of time.[270]
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
Suriname’s Bureau of Gender Affairs promotes gender equality, advises the Suriname government on gender issues and rights, and monitors the implementation of policies and programs to advance gender equality in the country. The government published a Gender Plan of Action 2019 and 2020 and a Gender Vision Policy Document 2021-2035, which lays out Suriname’s gender policy over 15 years.[271] One of the identified priority areas is gender-based violence (GBV) and eliminating violence against women and girls.[272] Police material does include information on the responsibility to protect the vulnerable from sexual violence.
According to 2019 figures, the size of the Surinamese Armed Forces (SAF) stood at 2,500 and the Suriname Police Force (KPS) at 1,500.[274] Women constitute 7% of the SAF and almost 22% of its officer corps.[275] In May 2021, Lieutenant Colonel Lea Hynes-Parris became the first female Inspector General of the Armed Forces.[276] The Surinamese Minister of Defense is a woman, Krishnakoemarie Mathoera (Krishna), who served 34 years in the Suriname police force.[277] Minister Matoera signaled that progress toward gender mainstreaming and gender integration is a top priority for her ministry. Information about the percentage of women in the KPS was unavailable, although a 2016 report disclosed that men outnumbered women in the police force by a ratio of 4:1.[278] In terms of grade levels, the government reported in 2017 that women are well-represented in the KPS and in leadership positions (superintendent, department heads), but the government provided no numbers or grade levels.[279]
Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points
The Bureau of Gender Affairs established a gender management system in 2001 that consists of Gender Focal Points (GFP) serving in different ministries to assist in the monitoring of the implementation of the Gender Action Plan into the policies and programs of their respective ministries. GFPs also received training in gender equality and gender mainstreaming.[280] Data about GENADs or GFPs in the SAF and SPF were unavailable.
Training, Education, and Exercises
The Bureau of Gender Affairs previously held stakeholder-driven workshops to gather community knowledge regarding gender mainstreaming and priorities in promoting gender equality for various government offices. The KPS created training modules regarding domestic violence and a special police unit in partnership with external groups to provide GBV training.[281] Approximately 30% of police officers were trained in handling domestic violence.[282] However, the female-to-male composition in training sessions appears less representative. In 2017, the Ministry of Justice and Police offered training sessions on gender-related issues, but only 20 (13%) of the 154 participants were men.[283] Information about training modules offered in the SAF was not available.
Work Environment
All positions in the Suriname armed forces and police force are open to women. The SAF upgraded facilities to support its female servicemembers.[284] In 2019, the Suriname government revised the Adoption of the Family Employment Protection Act (2019) to provide paid maternity leave for at least 16 weeks and eight days of paternity leave.[285]
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation
In a 2019 report, the Suriname government stated that the Bureau of Gender Affairs established a project to improve the collection and management of sex-disaggregated data to capture measurable gender indicators to assess the impact of gender initiatives over time. In 2017, the Bureau collected sex-disaggregated data on violence against children and presented them to Parliament, though the findings were not publicly available.[286]
Recommendations
For the Government of Suriname:
Adopt a WPS NAP, drawing from existing national strategy and implementation plans and engaging with key stakeholders to complement and advance gender equality and the WPS agenda in the security forces;
Provide sustained financial and staff resources for the Bureau of Gender Affairs and monitor and evaluate the government’s gender strategy and policies;
Commit to more transparency in government by collecting sex-disaggregated data on numbers, ranks, and institutional policies and practices and making them publicly available;
Commit to gender-responsive budgeting for programs and initiatives to ensure sustained progress.
For the Suriname Armed Forces:
Require gender-sensitive training (e.g., sexual harassment, GBV, gender mainstreaming) for all personnel in all ranks of military and police servicemembers and personnel;
Clarify and extend institutional policies and practices (family leave, childcare, appropriate facilities and equipment, hostile work environment) that work to recruit, promote and retain women in the police and military forces;
Collect and publish sex-disaggregated data and integrate into the monitoring and evaluation process to improve decision-making and resource allocation and make them publicly available.
For the Suriname Police Force:
Improve access and require domestic violence handling training for active-duty officers to ensure the capability to act for the protection of vulnerable populations;
Gender-sensitive training (e.g., sexual harassment, GBV, gender mainstreaming, gender awareness) should be mandated for all police and military servicemembers at all ranks;
Make publicly available sex-disaggregated data and SPF policies on gender issues related to policing to ensure transparency and accountability.
[1] Antigua and Barbuda are small islands with a combined population of 85,567 people, 60% of whom live in coastal zones most likely to experience the impacts of climate crises; Rashauna Adams-Matthew, Environmental Social Safeguard and Gender Officer, Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Climate Finance in Antigua and Barbuda, https://www.thegef.org/sites/default/files/events/cop25_pavilion_20191203_1315_gender_presentation_4.pdf.
[42] “The National Women’s Commission: Belize Women’s Rights Advocacy Organization.” The National Women’s Commission, accessed June 18, 2023, https://www.nwcbelize.org/.
[62] “El 2022 será el “Año de la Revolución Cultural para la Despatriarcalización por una Vida Libre de Violencia Contra las Mujeres,” Office of the Vice-Minister for Communications, January 6, 2022, https://www.comunicacion.gob.bo/?q=20220106/33510.
[93] Instituto Salvadoreño para el Desarrollo de la Mujer, accessed June 18, 2023, https://isdemu.gob.sv/. The ISDEMU was created at the initiative of the executive branch by legislative decree on February 29, 1996.
[101] Voice of America (Voz de América), “Gobierno de El Salvador incorpora a 1.450 nuevos militares como parte de su Plan Control Territorial”, April 7, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1q9hPIB-y4
[110] Laura Andrade and Carmen Guevara, “La Policía Nacional Civil En El Salvador: Evaluando La profesionalización Del Cuerpo Policial Civil,” Investigaciones UCA 1 (1):250-51, 2020, https://doi.org/10.51378/iuca.v1i1.6905.
[112] Government of Grenada, “Grenada’s first Voluntary National Review of the Sustainable Development Goals presented to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Business and CARICOM Affairs, July 2022, p. 39, https://hlpf.un.org/sites/default/files/vnrs/2022/VNR%202022%20Grenada%20Report.pdf.
[137] “Government of the Republic of Guyana, “Guyana National Report: The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Of the Fourth World Conference On Women and Adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform For Action 1995),” accessed June 15, 2023, https://www.cepal.org/sites/default/files/comunicacion_26_guyana.pdf.
[161] “Haiti’s Constitution of 1987 with Amendments through 2012.” Constitute Project. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Haiti_2012?lang=en.
[165] WIIS “Latin America and the Caribbean WPS Assessment Tool- Haiti” Note: Haiti calculates personnel to include deaths and abandonments. The actual number may vary.
[166] Note: The National Police calculations includes members who died or abandoned post.
[167] The UN reported (April 2023) that the impact of the current violence, in terms of resignations, dismissals, and deaths, has brought the numbers down from 14,772 to around 13,200 personnel. See “As Haiti Slides into Violence, Its People ‘Cannot Wait Any Longer’ for Assistance, Foreign Minister Tells Security Council,” United Nations, press release April 26, 2023, https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15266.doc.htm.
[168] WIIS “Latin America and the Caribbean WPS Assessment Tool- Haiti.”
“National Policy for Gender Equality.” Bureau of Women’s Affairs (Gender Affairs), 2011, https://www.nlj.gov.jm/files/u8/NPGE-JA-FINALwCover21311.pdf; Chris Patterson, “10-Year Action Plan to Eliminate Gender-Based Violence Launched,” Jamaica Information Service, December 7, 2017, http
[247] Perry Stanislas, “The changing perceptions of St. Lucian policing: how St. Lucian police offices view contemporary policing,” Police Policy and Practice, vol. 22, no. 1, 2021, p. 341.
[256] “Statement by H.E. Inga Rhonda King Permanent Representative United Nations Security Council Open Debate: ‘Women and Peace and Security: Investing in Women in Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding,’” Permanent Mission of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations, October 21, 2020, http://svg-un.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Statement-2.pdf.
[257] Ibid, p. 4-5. H.E. King noted that the St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ permanent mission staff was 85% women with an all-female leadership team.
[258] “The Ministry of National Mobilization, Social Development, Local Government, Gender Affairs, Family Affairs, Housing and Informal Settlement – Gender Affairs,” The Ministry of National Mobilization, Social Development, Local Government, Gender Affairs, Family Affairs, Housing and Informal Settlement, accessed June 13, 2023, http://mobilization.gov.vc/mobilization/index.php/gender-affairs.
Dr. Karin L. Johnston, Dr. Diorella Islas, Larissa Abaunza
On October 31, 2000, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325), the first of ten Security Council resolutions that together comprise the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda to advance gender equality and women’s representation and participation in all decision-making processes in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. Its passage was the culmination of decades of international efforts to ensure women play an active role in addressing the impacts of war and conflict on their lives along the spectrum of conflict resolution, peacemaking, peacekeeping, post-conflict reconstruction, and conflict prevention. Since 2005, creating National Action Plans (NAPs) within countries worldwide has become a major vehicle for institutionalizing the WPS agenda. The focus on peacekeeping and the participation of women in security sector forces brought renewed attention to the process of integrating a gender perspective in military and national police operations. In 2020, Women In International Security (WIIS) was approached by the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) to establish a baseline of data and best practices to assist partner nations in Latin America and the Caribbean in evaluating the implementation of the WPS agenda in their respective security sector forces. WIIS reported its first findings on 14 countries (13 countries in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility (AOR) plus Mexico) in the 2020 report “Enhancing Security: Women’s Participation in Latin America and the Caribbean.” The present report continues the work that began in 2020 to study progress in implementing the WPS agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean. This second report examines the remaining 15 countries in the USSOUTHCOM AOR utilizing the research questions and methodology framing the 2020 report. Supporting the conclusions from the 2020 report, the 2023 study shows that despite many countries lacking national militaries or NAPs, all countries in the study have strong normative frameworks in place to advance gender equality at the national level. There is growing momentum in integrating gender equality in military and defense forces, police forces, and other forces responsible for public security, though the pace and scope among the countries vary. Nevertheless, the study also underscores that the gap between the rhetorical support of gender equality and the implementation of the WPS agenda persists, challenging governments to apply the necessary political will and resources to advance gender equality and the WPS agenda in the region. The findings of our assessment examining the level of integration of gender equality and the WPS agenda in security forces in Latin America and the Caribbean are outlined below:
Countries have developed a range of regional and state agencies, institutions, and agreements that reflect a commitment to greater advancement towards gender equality in security forces, even in the absence of a NAP and references to the WPS agenda;
A broad commitment to gender equality and gender integration both nationally and in security institutions has not seen consistent, transformational changes in policies and practices that can recruit, promote, and retain women in security forces;
Women’s representation in military and national police forces remains low;
Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are poorly resourced, often lacking the data collection and civil society interaction that allow decision-makers to identify problem areas in plan implementation and make needed course corrections. Based on these findings, the report proposes the following recommendations: National Level:
Adopt a WPS NAP: A WPS NAP can be a valuable tool that supports and complements a nationallevel gender mainstreaming strategy. It induces government actors to work together at the national and local levels and more closely with civil society. It also creates avenues for greater gender participation throughout the plan’s design and implementation.
Ensure Civil Society Participation: Include civil society actors from the earliest stages of plan development and throughout the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation phases.
Commit Human and Financial Resources: Using a gender-responsive budgeting process, governments should ensure gender-equitable allocation and distribution of resources and provide sufficient staff, including GENADs and GFPs, to ensure a NAP’s sustainability.
Monitor and Evaluate Progress: An effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism should be in place and appropriately funded.
Ensure Transparency: The defense forces and public security institutions should consider communication strategies to publicly share their progress and challenges in advancing their gender integration efforts. Institutional Level:
Expand Women’s Operational or Combat Positions: Efforts should expand beyond creating gendersensitive recruitment policies and material to aim for women’s unrestricted and equal access to all military, police, and security forces positions. Often, restricted operational positions are pathways for promotion to senior ranks.
Evaluate Quality of Life and Force Retention Policies: Policies that provide support and incentive for women to remain in the force should be institutionalized, e.g., providing and designing maternity and paternity leave policies and available childcare facilities, extending family leave policies, and providing equipment and facilities that serve women’s needs.
Appoint a Gender Advisory Workforce: To support the effective implementation of gender mainstreaming and WPS principles at all levels of decision-making—strategic, tactical, and operational—security institutions should appoint GENADs and GFPs who have training in WPS and gender studies.
Institutionalize WPS Training: Implementing foundational training at all military service branches and rank levels to educate and integrate the WPS agenda and gender equality should be a high priority in the military and national police forces. Regional Level:
Create an Annual WPS Summit: Representatives from the defense forces, national police agencies, and subject matter experts (SMEs) should meet regularly to share best practices and lessons learned to ensure continued advancement in gender integration.
Create Regional Training Courses: Create a joint WPS strategy training for countries considering or developing a WPS strategy or that have yet to appoint a GENAD.
Gender and Regional Climate Cooperation: As regional cooperation increases in response to growing alarm about the impact of climate on security, ensure that a gender dimension is an integral part of any resulting regional framework for preventing, mitigating, responding, and adapting to climate change and environmental disasters.
By Tahina Montoya and Joan Johnson-Freese
With passage of the 2017 Women, Peace and Security Act, the United States became the first country to mandate implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) framework. In accordance with act requirements, Congress released a report in July 2022 evaluating the progress of the four US government agencies charged with implementation—the Department of State, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and US Agency for International Development (USAID). While progress was noted across all agencies, it was inconsistent. According to the report, for example, the Department of States invested $110 million, USAID $239 million, and Department of Defense $5.5 million for execution. Setting aside the discussion of how much is the proper amount to spend to fulfill the requirements specified by Congress—a vital discussion that should continue and be informed by regular reviews of progress made by each agency—DoD is clearly lagging far behind, a fact that becomes even more apparent when considering the vastly larger budgets apportioned to it than either the Department of State or USAID. Moreover, the differences in budget allocations among the implementing organizations create and exacerbate a WPS implementation gap and hamper collaboration. They also reflect differing perspectives on WPS relevance to organizational mission success. Thus, understanding relevance is a prerequisite to successful WPS implementation and education becomes both a fiscally responsible and necessary step in moving WPS implementation forward within DoD.
In 1986, Congress passed the sweeping Goldwater-Nichols DoD Reorganization Act, designed to address issues associated with intraservice rivalries that hampered mission success during the Vietnam War, the Iran hostage crisis, and the invasion of Granada. In addition to establishing command structure changes, Goldwater-Nichols also mandated that military officers complete joint professional military education (JPME) as a prerequisite for certain joint assignments and promotion categories. Education was thereby recognized as the right means for instilling “jointness” both within and between services. Subsequently, through designations of special areas of emphasis and legislation, education has repeatedly been recognized as the right means for mainstreaming key concepts and topics relevant to the military into the forces. As the July 2022 congressional report section on professional military education (PME) states, “The Department has recognized that WPS is an important field of study and as such, must be incorporated into how the Department educates its commissioned and non-commissioned officers to think strategically and identify creative approaches to joint warfighting and sustaining momentum in the Department’s campaigns.” While the benefits of mainstreaming WPS relevance through JPME are clear, integrating WPS into JPME has been hampered by organizational silos and organizational cultures that often still see security as primarily linked to men.
The Benefits of Mainstreaming WPS Relevance Through JPME
There are multiple benefits to incorporating WPS into JPME. Doing so would not only help align DoD with its Department of States and USAID counterparts to alleviate the already widening WPS knowledge gap between the agencies, but would do so with minimal fiscal impact to the DoD budget. JPME institutions already exist, are fully staffed—many including a WPS chair or lead—and are increasingly working together on WPS implementation. Incorporation of WPS principles into the core curriculum of JPME organizations is a logical next step. Further, incorporation addresses Defense Objective 1 in the 2020 DoD WPS Strategic Framework Implementation Plan, to ensure that the DOD “exemplifies a diverse organization that allows for women’s meaningful participation across the development, management, and employment of the Joint Force,” and mandates that DoD do so through JPME. In addition to abiding by published directives, incorporating WPS principles into JPME provides the United States with a stronger voice when encouraging partner nations to do the same.
More directly, incorporating WPS principles into DoD through JPME enhances readiness. In other words, WPS enables a US military that is a more effective fighting force, one that is better equipped and more capable of fulfilling any of the broad range of mission it may be tasked with. Failure to have troops prepared in advance resulted in the United States’ initial struggle to engage and work with a key source in the Middle East, women. Rather than being ready for the fight, the United States was forced to play catch-up, driving the development of rushed, ad hoc, separate training for cultural support teams and female engagement teams, while already at war. Having WPS principles incorporated throughout JPME would ensure gender perspectives, empirically shown to be relevant to conflicts and DoD missions, are part of standard operating procedures in future engagements.
For example, during the resettlement of Afghan evacuees into the United States after the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, Operation Allies Welcome was the first time two specific roles—gender focal points (GFPs) and gender advisors (GENADs)—were part of the mission planning process, as opposed to being an afterthought. Trained gender advisors were deployed to each of the eight task forces established throughout the country to serve as a cultural bridge between Afghanistan and the United States. They were there, as stated by Northern Command, to “provide a gender perspective into decision making; build relationships and trust with female guests; ensure women had equitable access to information and were able to voice their issues, concerns and ideas; and provide English classes and education on US cultural norms and expectations.” Accounting for those considerations better situated the task forces to advance an otherwise hectic mission, enhance evacuees’ perceptions of the United States, and ultimately contribute to more positive diplomatic and national security benefits. Unfortunately, gender perspectives and considerations prevalent in Operation Allies Welcome remain operational exceptions, rather than the norm.
Additionally, mainstreaming WPS principles into DoD through JPME provides future forces, including US allies who attend JPME, with valuable threat assessment, strategy development, and force enhancement tools, like the consideration of gender, not available elsewhere. In essence, incorporating WPS in JPME will not only benefit the United States on a national level; educating international officers attending JPME (many of whom are the future leaders of their respective countries) will, undoubtedly, also benefit the United States from a diplomatic and international perspective.
On June 16, 2023, with the publication of its WPS Strategic Action Plan, the Department of the Air Force became the military department to establish how its services—the Air Force and the Space Force—would implement WPS. The plan specifically identifies training as the department’s first WPS objective. Within that objective, intermediate objectives are identified that explicitly state that the department “incorporates WPS principles and gender perspectives into all training and professional military education.” Formalizing a strategic action plan that recognizes the role PME plays in institutionalizing WPS is a step in the right direction, but DoD-wide implementation requires other services to commit to the same, and then follow through. Follow-through in this regard has been slow, at best.
Inhibitors: Educational Silos and Organizational Culture
Gender is not the first topic difficult to understand and implement through JPME. But the JPME enterprise has rightly tackled those difficult topics—topics that span multiple overlapping academic silos and are vital to US national defense—just as it must with gender.
One of those difficult topics has been jointness. Part of the rationale behind the Goldwater-Nichols JPME requirement was to promote jointness. Jointness is essentially a force enhancer, intended to improve military effectiveness, and thus is a topic overlapping all aspects of military operations. Consequently, instilling jointness required integration into multiple JPME lessons across multiple, often siloed, departments for it to become standard operating procedure and part of future operations and doctrine. In crises, military organizations execute how they train, and they train according to doctrine.
The requirement to integrate jointness throughout JPME curriculum meant that every faculty member had to understand and seamlessly integrate it into the curriculum. At times, and at some PME institutions, faculty had to be incentivized. For example, for a time, the Naval War College annual faculty ratings included considerations of how well individuals instilled jointness into their teaching. Being part of their annual ratings encouraged faculty to become familiar with and incorporate jointness into their courses. Incentivizing faculty might also need to be the case with WPS.
Space security provides another example of challenges that accompany integrating crosscutting topics into military studies. Space operations includes four mission areas: space force enhancement, space support, space control, and space force application. Within space force enhancement, space capabilities aren’t important somewhere, they are important everywhere. Space security also has highly technical aspects and classification issues, further complicating its understanding and teaching. Consequently, JPME institutions have long struggled with questions regarding how to teach its importance, uses, and limitations as those considerations require at least limited knowledge of physics, engineering, policy, law, strategy, and security considerations. DoD has worked to address these issues for decades, and became part of the impetus behind the 2019 creation of the Space Force. Creation ensured the development of a critical mass of individuals with the requisite knowledge, clearance, and access to decision-makers to make inclusion of space security considerations part of national security standard operating procedure.
The incorporation of both jointness and space security in JPME offers insights applicable to WPS. In the case of jointness, the limited technical or classification components involved eased its incorporation, which should similarly make JPME incorporation of WPS more achievable. Additionally, as with jointness, the will and faculty motivation to incorporate concepts into their classrooms is key to implementation. The space security example offers an example of how, with the creation of the Space Force, DoD looked externally, to different organizations, to attract the expertise required to successfully develop and achieve the mission. This could also be the case with WPS, at least initially. In both cases, jointness and space security were topics that encountered organizational friction in JPME integration. In the case of gender considerations, however, in addition to friction, despite presidential and congressional direction to implement WPS, there has been outright organizational resistance centered on outdated notions of whether and how gender is relevant to national security.
Though well-established empirically, the relationship between gender and security has been largely unrecognized in academic courses related to international relations or security studies in both civilian and PME academic institutions. In military commands and PME institutions, that knowledge gap inhibits WPS implementation, forcing WPS advocates to rely on individual access to senior leaders and those individual leaders’ willingness to learn about WPS. The creation of two courses, WPS 100 and WPS 200, offered through Joint Knowledge Online was intended to provide leadership an introduction to WPS, at times and in ways convenient to them, but it remains utilized predominantly by action officers—those specifically tasked with ensuring a unit or organization is fulfilling WPS requirements—rather than the broader cohort of leaders necessary to effect widespread cultural change.. WPS 100 and WPS 200 are currently prerequisites of GFP and GENAD training, training essential to building a formally trained cadre of experts that serves an entirely separate, but equally beneficial, purpose. Separate from GFP and GENAD training, broadly integrating WPS principles throughout JPME ensures all service members have a basic understanding of WPS relevance to security. One does not, and is not intended to, replace the other as both are essential to expand the understanding and relevance of gender to security and military operations within DoD.
The perspectives of authors whose works are being read, promoted on military reading lists, and included as core curriculum in JPME remain predominantly male authored. This, in itself, evidences that security is still seen as a primarily male field by leadership and JPME administrators. For context, among 2022 military reading lists, the Air Force list was the most diverse, with 8 of 21 of the recommended books authored by women; followed by the Navy, 4 of 12; the Marines, 7 of 46; and the Army, 1 of 113. Regarding core curriculum readings, based on two in-house surveys regarding articles used in JPME, women authored or coauthored only about 10 percent of students’ readings. Conversely, a quick review of articles in Foreign Affairs between May/June 2022 and May/June 2023 shows that women authored or coauthored nearly 37 percent of works published. Similarly, 55 percent of articles and editorials published by the Harvard International Review from April 2022 to April 2023 were authored by female scholars. The issue, then, is not a lack of women-authored security-related articles being available, but rather, a lack of recognition and endorsement of such work in military institutions.
Organizational cultures tied to gender stereotypes and adverse to thinking beyond those gender stereotypes are inherently skeptical of recognizing gender as a security factor tied to readiness and mission success. But, as with JMPE being effectively used to overcome service rivalries in favor of jointness, even if faculty had to be incentivized to do so, education can effectively drive the change that is required to effectively implement WPS.
Incremental Steps
It is laudable that many JPME institutions have hired WPS chairs, conducted workshops, and held conferences on WPS. But, like gender advisors and gender focal points within other commands, WPS chairs can only do as much as their personal access to amenable leaders allows. JPME offers a means to continuously reach and educate the fighting force as a whole. Further, one person (or even a handful of people) cannot integrate gender perspectives into a curriculum taught by multiple faculty members in various departments. It must be integrated by the entire faculty.
Understandably, however, many JPME faculty members are reluctant to integrate gender considerations into curriculum, as most are largely unfamiliar with the subject themselves. Ensuring integration of gender perspectives into course material requires offering faculty development opportunities to learn about WPS. Like jointness, gender is not a stand-alone topic, but one that permeates throughout security studies. Like space, gender considerations must be worked into wargaming, exercises, and doctrine. While this is beginning to happen, it is still only by exception. Development of a WPS primer outlining core elements of WPS that institutions can adapt to their circumstances, faculty, student body, and budget and that is flexible enough to be used by both domestic and international organizations is needed. This primer would provide guidance on what key topics need to be integrated into core curriculum, not how to teach it, and would facilitate WPS standardization across JPME.
Finally, but not inconsequentially, mainstreaming WPS into DoD through JPME serves as a mechanism to address the issues continually surrounding and negatively impacting the military regarding sexual assault. At a March 2023 briefing on the 28 percent rise in sexual assault and harassment reports at military service academies, a DoD official called the statistics “extremely upsetting and disappointing.” In April 2023, DoD provided Congress with its Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military for fiscal year 2022, reporting a total of 8,942 sexual assault reports throughout DoD, a 1 percent increase from the previous year. In addition to the immeasurable trauma experienced by survivors, these statistics also represent a threat to maintaining an effective workforce and readiness, making sexual assault and sexual harassment a direct threat to US national security. While DoD is taking steps to counter sexual assault in the military (addressing the issues that already exist), WPS education at JPME would contribute to preventing sexual assault (taking steps to address issues before they develop).
DOD has an opportunity build on the successes noted in the July 2022 congressional report and JPME provides the mechanism to do so effectively. Failure to consider efficient implementation of WPS in JPME will only hamper opportunities to facilitate mission readiness and ensure mission success.
Tahina Montoya is an officer and gender advisor in the Air Force Reserve and a fellow at Women in International Security.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense, or that of any organization the authors are affiliated with, including the Department of the Air Force and the Naval War College.
By Eric Rudberg
Female participation in both conflict prevention and conflict resolution enhances security interests. Studies have found that a significant inclusion of women and civil society groups in a peace negotiation makes the resulting agreement 64% less likely to fail and 35% more likely to last at least fifteen years.[1] Evidence has repeatedly illustrated that full and meaningful participation of women in peace operations broadens the perspective on conflict management, allows for more inclusive political resolutions, and, in the end, improves international peacebuilding strategies. It has also been shown that there is a direct correlation between the meaningful participation of women in peacekeeping and the performance and effectiveness of peacekeeping units.[2] This participation of uniformed women peacekeepers can be divided between the police component, justice and correction, and, finally, the military. Of the three, this paper will exclusively examine the military component in depth. It will explore the importance of meaningful participation of female peacekeepers as well as examine the current status of military women in peacekeeping operations.
Importance of Meaningful Participation of Female Peacekeepers
The increase of women’s participation in global peacekeeping operations has been shown to improve the effectiveness and stability of a mission. Missions with more women personnel are more likely to achieve their mandate and bring sustainable peace.[3] However, evidence strongly shows that it is the “meaningful” participation of women and not just numbers that matters. The Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations defines meaningful participation as “the presence and leadership of women in UN peace operations, across all ranks and functions.” According to the Elsie Initiative, women can participate meaningfully “when they contribute to, and are included in, all aspects of operational and mission planning, and decision-making processes…[and] when they hold operational command and leadership positions, and non-traditional as well as non-stereotypical roles.” Additionally, women can participate meaningfully “when they have access to the same training, promotion and career advancement opportunities as their colleagues who are men;…when they hold positions that are in line with their training, rank and area of expertise; and when their workplace is free from all forms of harassment, bullying and intimidation.”[4]
Meaningful participation of female peacekeepers improves the operation and performance of a peacekeeping force. They enhance the overall holistic approach in today’s peacekeeping operations by contributing an additional perspective to the planning and key decision-making process, especially those affecting civilians, particularly women and girls.[5] A diversity of backgrounds and experiences has been proven to enhance a unit’s performance and ability to solve problems. This female perspective enables the peacekeeping operation to successfully address the needs of the entire civilian population it is there to serve.[6] Female peacekeepers also bring a unique set of tactical skills that their male counterparts often do not possess, including the ability to physically screen/search females.[7] Knowing that peacekeepers are supposed to abide by the cultural sensitivity of not having males searching females, it is not uncommon for spoilers, also known as the opposing force, to have females carry illicit items under their clothing since the females will probably not be screened and searched.
Women peacekeepers’ access to the local population is particularly valuable when there are cultural restrictions around interaction across gender lines and in venues that are closed to men.[8] Reflecting on her service in Afghanistan, Major General Kristin Lund pointed out that, “being a female, from my recent deployment in Afghanistan, I had access to 100% of the population, not only 50%.”[9] Locals often feel more comfortable liaising and sharing information with military troops that include women peacekeepers, giving them better situational awareness of the environment they are operating in.[10] The ability to gain the trust of local populations is a vital component of any peacekeeping operation.[11] It results in good intelligence and a reduction in violence in the communities that peacekeepers seek to protect.[12]
Female peacekeepers often cultivate trust and confidence with local communities which in turn encourages these populations to work with the peacekeeping force by reporting a variety of crimes, in particular, sexual violence. Major General Lund explains, “if a woman has been gang-raped by men, she will most likely approach a woman in uniform rather than a man. And men that are raped will, I think, also approach a woman soldier rather than a man.”[13] Women’s participation is also connected with fewer misconduct complaints lodged against the peacekeeping force since these women are perceived as being more effective at de-escalating potential violence and are less threatening.[14] Finally, the inclusion of female peacekeepers has been associated with fewer allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by the peacekeeping force.[15] Studies have found that an increase in the proportion of women from zero to five percent reduces the expected count of sexual allegations by half.[16]
Current Status of Women in Peacekeeping Operations
Despite evidence that the meaningful participation of women in the military contingent of peacekeeping operations is both the right and smart thing to do, they are routinely underrepresented. For example, led by the United Nations Department of Peace Operations, there are currently twelve peacekeeping missions deployed worldwide to help countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace.[17] According to the Contribution of Uniformed Personnel to UN by Mission, Personnel Type, and Gender spreadsheet for October 2022, out of 63,310 strictly military peacekeeping troops deployed to these twelve missions, only 3,789 are female, or roughly 6.0%.[18] However, this percentage has very slowly been increasing throughout the years. In 1993, women comprised less than 1% of the uniformed personnel deployed.[19] In 2015, UN Security Council Resolution 2242 encouraged the Secretary-General, in collaboration with member states, to “double the numbers of women in military and police contingents of UN peacekeeping operations over the next five years.”[20] Regardless of this call to action, there has not been a significant increase in female participation since the end of 2009.[21] In 2018, UN member states adopted the Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy 2018-2028, which set the goal of 15% for female participation in the military contingent by 2028.[22] It also established annual targets for the Secretariat to accomplish this lofty goal. The target for 2022 was 9% but fell short by 1,909 female peacekeepers.[23]
Nevertheless, some countries have managed to deploy significantly higher percentages of female peacekeepers. As of October 2022, of the fifteen countries that deploy over 1,000 troops to peacekeeping operations, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia, and the United Republic of Tanzania exceeded the UN’s contribution target (9%) for the percentage of women deployed. Additionally, multiple countries that deploy fewer troops have done better. Nigeria, for example, has 21.5% of women in their peacekeeping forces (14/65) and Estonia is at 100% (1/1). On the opposite end of the spectrum is India, which only deploys 51 women on their missions (0.9%), despite being the second largest troop-contributing country in the world, with 5,548 troops deployed.[24] As of October 2022, the top three UN peacekeeping missions with the highest number of female troops are the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) with 781, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) with 776, and the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) with 746. In spite of those large numbers, relative to the proportion of the total force, female troops only made up 6.4% of MINUSCA, 5.9% of UNMISS, and 6.0% of MONUSCO. The top three missions with the highest proportion of female troops are the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) at 40.0% (8/20), the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) at 8.9% (66/740), and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) at 7.3% (692/9490).[25]
Although the number of female peacekeepers and the proportion of the military contingent made up of women is slowly increasing, this does not mean that meaningful participation of women is rising in UN peacekeeping missions. Often, women peacekeepers who do serve are limited to stereotypical roles such as nursing, community engagement, administration, and domestic services, which include such tasks as cooking, cleaning, and laundry, irrespective of their skills and experience.[26] Missions with a higher percentage of combat-related forces tend to have the lowest percentages of women, in part because of a reluctance to send female peacekeepers to dangerous areas of conflict, where there are higher levels of sexual exploitation and abuse or higher numbers of peacekeeping deaths. The belief that women cannot protect themselves is still prevalent among peacekeeping forces today.[27]
This tendency results in women peacekeepers being underutilized since they rarely conduct patrols or interact with locals, especially with the women and children in the community. Even though their numbers and proportions are expanding, women might not be deploying to missions evenly or where they might be most needed. Consequently, these operations lack added benefits and the potential impact that meaningful participation of females brings to a mission.[28] Ambassador Melanne Verveer bluntly explained, “Inclusion is not enough for meaningful participation, which is what matters in the end.”[29]
There are numerous barriers and challenges women must overcome in order to participate in peace operations. Females experience similar stigmas and taboos throughout their military careers regardless of their rank, nationality, or background. These stigmas and taboos create challenges at the individual and community level, within women’s national defense structures, and within UN peace operations.[30] In July 2018, the Elsie Initiative published a baseline study which was the first attempt to systematically gather, analyze, and categorize the barriers female soldiers face in their pursuit of deploying on peacekeeping operations. Fourteen different barriers that can prevent women from deploying on peacekeeping operations were identified and organized into six main categories: equal access to opportunities, deployment criteria, the working environment, family constraints, equal treatment during deployment, and career-advancement opportunities.[31] Since the baseline study was published, further research has reduced and combined these fourteen barriers into ten: eligible pool, deployment selection, deployment criteria, household constraints, top-down leadership, inadequate accommodation and equipment, negative experiences, disincentives to redeploy, stereotypical gender roles, and social exclusion.[32] Many of these barriers address cultural challenges women face in their home countries, both in society and within the military itself. Studies show that when a troop-contributing country has a better record of gender equality, it is more likely to send female peacekeepers. In other words, when a country strives to gender mainstream its own national military, it is more likely to send women to a peacekeeping mission, which, therefore, improves the gender balancing in said mission.[33] Ghana is an example of this since it was among one of the few countries globally to have started enlisting females as far back as 1958, barely a year into its independence. It is also given credit for having trained the first female officer pilots in the sub-region in 1965.[34] Thus, it is not surprising that Ghana’s contributing percentage for female peacekeepers in October 2022 was 14.1%.[35]
On October 31, 2000, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 to address women, peace, and security. This groundbreaking resolution highlighted a shift in UN policy to engage more females in peacekeeping operations.[36] It stressed “the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.”[37] In the two decades since Resolution 1325, the UN has continued to adopt numerous other resolutions and initiatives aimed to address the underrepresentation of women in UN peace operations. This includes both the Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy 2018-2028 and Resolution 2242, which, among other things, encourages troop-contributing countries to hit targeted female participation percentages. Also, in August of 2018, 152 member states of the UN committed to “ensuring full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all stages of the peace process” and “recommit[ted] to increasing the number of civilian and uniformed women in peacekeeping at all levels and in key positions” in their Declaration of Shared Commitments on UN
Peacekeeping Operation as part of the Action for Peacekeeping initiative.[38] This initiative was a call by UN Secretary-General António Guterres for a renewed collective engagement with UN peacekeeping and to mutually commit to reaching for excellence for all those involved.[39] Most recently, in August 2020, the Security Council adopted Resolution 2538 which unequivocally recognizes “the indispensable role of women in increasing the overall performance and effectiveness of peacekeeping operations.”[40] It also offers clear direction on how member states can increase the deployment of female peacekeepers. Finally, it supports the need to ensure that the working culture is gender-sensitive for women, and addresses threats and violence against them.[41] Despite all of these efforts, female military troops continue to be a rarity in UN peacekeeping operations.
Conclusion
The meaningful participation of women is not only an extremely important issue for peacekeeping but also for gender equality. The benefit they bring to a mission can be the difference between success and failure. Because of this advantage, everything possible must be done to ensure that women are an integral part of every peacekeeping operations. It is inspiring to imagine how the world will be once this is accomplished. The UN, along with all its member states, must continue to strive for this goal.
The opinions expressed here are solely the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Women In International Security or its affiliates
After graduating from the United States Military Academy, Eric served as an Army infantry officer, which included two combat tours in Iraq. Wanting to share the hard lessons he had learned, once out of the Army, he began to train and mentor future peacekeepers across Africa through the State Department’s Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI). He then returned to academia and earned both a master’s in Security Policy Studies and a graduate certificate in Global Gender Policy from The George Washington University. He now serves as the Finance and Operations Analysis for the African Team within GPOI where he works on increasing the meaningful participation of females in peacekeeping operations.
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Pulliam, Jennifer. “Women in Peacekeeping: A Key to Peace – and a U.S. Priority.” DipNote: Military and Security (blog), May 29, 2020. https://www.state.gov/women-in-peacekeeping-a-key-to-peace-̶-and-a-u-s-priority/.
“Reducing Barriers for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations: DCAF’s Contribution to the Elsie Initiative.” Geneva, Switzerland: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance. Accessed February 9, 2023. https://www.dcaf.ch/sites/default/files/publications/documents/Elsie_Gender_Factsheet_2019_GSD_0.pdf.
“Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).” New York, NY: United Nations Security Council, October 31, 2000. https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N00/720/18/PDF/N0072018.pdf?OpenElement.
“Security Council Resolution 2242 (2015).” New York, NY: United Nations Security Council, October 13, 2015. https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N15/311/09/PDF/N1531109.pdf?OpenElement.
“Security Council Resolution 2538 (2020).” New York, NY: United Nations Security Council, August 28, 2020. https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/S/RES/2538(2020).
Torres, Daniel de. “The UN Wants to Deploy More Women in Peacekeeping, so Why Are There so Few?” Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (blog), September 10, 2018. /un-wants-deploy-more-women-peacekeeping-so-why-are-there-so-few.
“Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy 2018-2028.” New York: Department of Peace Operations, January 2019. https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/uniformed-gender-parity-2018-2028.pdf.
Vermeij, Lotte. “Addressing Taboos and Stigmas Military Women in UN Peace Operations Experience.” IPI Global Observatory (blog), February 9, 2023. https://theglobalobservatory.org/2020/10/addressing-taboos-stigmas-military-women-un-peace-operations-experience/.
Verveer, Melanne. “Championing Gender – Sensitive Security Sector Reform.” Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, October 13, 2020. https://giwps.georgetown.edu/event/championing-gender-sensitive-security-sector-reform/.
United Nations Peacekeeping. “Where We Operate.” Accessed February 9, 2023. https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/where-we-operate.
United Nations Peacekeeping. “Women in Peacekeeping.” Accessed February 9, 2023. https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/women-peacekeeping.
“Women Peacekeepers: Gender Imbalance.” United Nations Peacekeeping, October 2022. https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/operational_effect_and_women_peacekeepers_october_2022.pdf.
[1] Jamille Bigio and Rachel B. Vogelstein, “How Women’s Participation in Conflict Prevention and Resolution
Advances U.S. Interests” (Council on Foreign Relations Press, October 2016), 1, https://cdn.cfr.org/sites/default/files/pdf/2016/10/Discussion_Paper_Bigio_Vogelstein_Women%20in%20CPR_OR .pdf.
[2] Jennifer Pulliam, “Women in Peacekeeping: A Key to Peace – and a U.S. Priority,” DipNote: Military and Security (blog), May 29, 2020, https://www.state.gov/women-in-peacekeeping-a-key-to-peace-̶-and-a-u-s-priority/.
[3] Charles Kenny, “The Elsie Fund: Good News for UN Peacekeeping,” Center For Global Development (blog), March 28, 2019, https://www.cgdev.org/blog/elsie-fund-good-news-un-peacekeeping.
[4] “Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations,” Government of Canada, February 21, 2017, https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/gender_equality-egalite_des_genres/elsie_initiative-initiative_elsie.aspx?lang=eng.
[5] “Female Military,” United Nations Peacekeeping, accessed February 9, 2023, https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/female-military.
[6] Renee Coulouris, “Why We Need More Women in Peacekeeping,” Foreign Policy Rising (blog), March 27, 2019, https://foreignpolicyrising.com/2019/03/27/why-we-need-more-women-in-peacekeeping/.
[8] Kacie Candela, “Women’s Roles as UN Peacekeepers: A Status Report,” PassBlue, August 7, 2018, https://www.passblue.com/2018/08/07/womens-roles-as-un-peacekeepers-a-status-report/.
[9] Alexandria Ivanovic, “Why the United Nations Needs More Female Peacekeepers” (United Nations University, July 9, 2014), https://unu.edu/publications/articles/why-un-needs-more-female-peacekeepers.html. 11 “Female Military.”
[11] Ivanovic, “Why the United Nations Needs More Female Peacekeepers.”
[12] Arabella Phillimore, “We Need More Female Peacekeepers in War Zones,” Financial Times, October 16, 2019, https://www.ft.com/content/87e2c5cc-4ef1-11e9-8f44-fe4a86c48b33.
[14] Jamille Bigio and Rachel B. Vogelstein, “Increasing Female Participation in Peacekeeping Operations,” Council on Foreign Relations, September 26, 2018, https://www.cfr.org/report/increasing-female-participation-peacekeeping-operations.
[15] Jamille Bigio and Rachel B. Vogelstein, “CFR Policy Innovation Memorandum Advocates for More Female Peacekeepers,” Council on Foreign Relations (blog), September 27, 2018, https://www.cfr.org/blog/cfr-policy-innovation-memorandum-advocates-more-female-peacekeepers.
[16] Charles Kenny, “Wanted: More Women Peacekeepers,” Center For Global Development (blog), October 11, 2016, https://www.cgdev.org/blog/wanted-more-women-peacekeepers.
[17] “Where We Operate,” United Nations Peacekeeping, accessed February 9, 2023, https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/where-we-operate.
[18] “Contribution of Uniformed Personnel to UN by Mission, Personnel Type, and Gender” (United Nations Peacekeeping, 31 Oct 22), https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/07_gender_statistics_55_october_2022.pdf.
[19] Kleopatra Moditsi and Aditi Gorur, “Overcoming Hurdles for Women Peacekeepers in the Field,” Stimson Center (blog), May 29, 2020, https://www.stimson.org/2020/overcoming-hurdles-for-women-peacekeepers-in-the-field/.
[20] “Security Council Resolution 2242 (2015)” (New York, NY: United Nations Security Council, October 13, 2015), 5, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N15/311/09/PDF/N1531109.pdf?OpenElement.
[21] Daniel de Torres, “The UN Wants to Deploy More Women in Peacekeeping, so Why Are There so Few?,” Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (blog), September 10, 2018, /un-wants-deploy-more-women-peacekeepingso-why-are-there-so-few.
[22] “Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy 2018-2028” (New York: Department of Peace Operations, January 2019), 4, https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/uniformed-gender-parity-2018-2028.pdf.
[23] “Contribution of Uniformed Personnel to UN by Mission, Personnel Type, and Gender.”
[25] “Contribution of Uniformed Personnel to UN by Mission, Personnel Type, and Gender.”
[26] “Reducing Barriers for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations: DCAF’s Contribution to the Elsie Initiative” (Geneva, Switzerland: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance), 5, accessed February 9, 2023, https://www.dcaf.ch/sites/default/files/publications/documents/Elsie_Gender_Factsheet_2019_GSD_0.pdf.
[28] Caron E. Gentry, Laura J. Shepherd, and Laura Sjoberg, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Security (London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019), 342.
[29] Melanne Verveer, “Championing Gender – Sensitive Security Sector Reform” (Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, October 13, 2020), https://giwps.georgetown.edu/event/championing-gender-sensitive-security-sector-reform/.
[30] Lotte Vermeij, “Addressing Taboos and Stigmas Military Women in UN Peace Operations Experience,” IPI Global Observatory (blog), February 9, 2023, https://theglobalobservatory.org/2020/10/addressing-taboos-stigmas-military-women-un-peace-operations-experience/.
[31] Marta Ghittoni, Léa Lehouck, and Callum Watson, “Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations: Baseline Study” (Geneva, Switzerland: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, July 2018), 47, https://www.dcaf.ch/sites/default/files/publications/documents/Elsie_GenderReport_2018_Final.pdf.
[32] Solene Brabant, “Assessing Barriers and Opportunities for Women’s Participation in Peacekeeping,” A Propos 162 (September 2019): 16, https://www.swisspeace.ch/apropos/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/september-2019.pdf .
[33] Gentry, Shepherd, and Sjoberg, The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Security, 342.
[34] “Ghana Attains UN Target of Women Deployment in Peacekeeping Missions,” Ghana Web, October 13, 2020, https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Ghana-attains-UN-target-of-women-deployment-in-Peacekeeping-Missions-1083970.
[36] Ivanovic, “Why the United Nations Needs More Female Peacekeepers.”
[37] “Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000)” (New York, NY: United Nations Security Council, October 31, 2000), 1, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N00/720/18/PDF/N0072018.pdf?OpenElement.
[38] “Declaration of Shared Commitments on UN Peacekeeping Operations,” August 16, 2018, 1, https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/a4p-declaration-en.pdf.
[39] “Action for Peacekeeping (A4P),” United Nations Peacekeeping, accessed February 9, 2023, https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/action-for-peacekeeping-a4p.
[40] “Security Council Resolution 2538 (2020)” (New York, NY: United Nations Security Council, August 28, 2020), 1, https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/S/RES/2538(2020).
[41] “New Security Council Resolution on Women and Peacekeeping Announced,” Security Women, September 7, 2020, https://www.securitywomen.org/post/new-security-council-resolution-on-women-and-peacekeepingannounced.
Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, Ellen Haring, Diorella Islas, Ana Laura Velasco
Executive Summary
The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, launched by UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) adopted in October 2000, brought renewed attention to the importance of the integration of a gender perspective for the effectiveness of military and police operations. It also pointed to the importance of increasing the participation of women in security (military and police) forces.[1]
This report examines to what extent the WPS agenda, and more generally the principles of gender equality, have been integrated in the security sector (military and national police) in 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The research was commissioned by the Women, Peace and Security Program at the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), with the objective: (a) to establish a baseline of data and best practices with regard to the integration of the WPS agenda in security forces in Latin America and the Caribbean; and (b) to provide a framework for future partnerships between US SOUTHCOM and security forces in the region. While US SOUTHCOM commissioned the research, the authors bear sole responsibility for the content of this report and any errors or omissions.
Our research draws on an assessment tool developed by Women In International Security (WIIS) that examines how countries have integrated the principles of gender equality and the WPS agenda in security institutions and operations.[2] More specifically, the tool defines indicators that measure: (1) the level of political commitment to gender equality and the WPS agenda; (2) how that commitment is translated into practice; and (3) what accountability measures have been adopted—that is, how well policy and practice are monitored and evaluated.
This report is based on desk and literature research in Washington, DC and field research conducted by 14 volunteer country research teams composed of active and retired members of the police and the military, academics, government officials, policymakers, and members from civil society organizations.
The findings of our assessment examining the level of integration of the principles of gender equality and the WPS agenda in the security forces in Latin America and the Caribbean are outlined below.
Overall Regional Assessment
The overall integration of the principles of gender equality and the WPS agenda in security forces in the region (all countries combined) is robust, with an average score of 64.6 (on a scale of 1-100).
Many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have strong normative frameworks for gender equality in place, are party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and have professed support to the WPS agenda. It provides a strong backdrop for the integration of the gender equality and WPS agenda in the security sector. That said, in most countries political rhetoric is often not matched by consistent implementation. In addition, most countries lack systematic monitoring and evaluation mechanisms (see Figure 1).
Figure 4: Overall
Average Regional
Scores
Of the 14 countries examined for this report, four countries scored above the average regional score.
Four countries scored around the regional average, and six countries fell below the regional average. What is common to the countries that scored high is that they have strong scores across all 3 categories of assessment. (See Table 1)
For many police and military organizations in the region, gender equality and the integration of the WPS agenda is focused on the number of women in the forces. That said, gender mainstreaming and the integration of the WPS agenda in military and national police forces requires more than just adding women; it also requires the integration of a gender perspective in operations and addressing gender norms and gender stereotypes in the organizations themselves. Military and police organizations are highly gendered—masculine—constructs. Introducing gender perspectives and increasing the number of women does not come naturally to these institutions. Change only comes about with strong leadership from the top and continuous and systematic attention at all levels of military and police organizations.
Country
Political Will
Policy & Practice Monitoring Reporting & Evaluation
Total Score
Argentina
98
90
68
90
Brazil
44
51
48
49
Chile
85
75
64
76
Colombia
51
47
68
50
Costa Rica
80
88
100
87
Dominican Republic
63
58
48
58
Ecuador
72
56
60
60
Guatemala
78
52
36
55
Mexico
60
59
40
58
Panama
62
63
60
66
Paraguay
67
68
44
66
Peru
58
57
60
57
Trinidad & Tobago
55
64
36
60
Uruguay
78
70
76
72
Region Average
68
64
57.70
64.60
Table 1: Average
National Scores by
Category
Main Findings by Category
All countries were assessed using simple sets of indicators that measure political will, the institutionalization of WPS principles in policy and practice, and, whether monitoring and evaluation mechanisms have been put in place.
Political Will
The most important measure of political will is whether countries have adopted WPS National Action Plans (NAPs).
Of the 14 countries surveyed in our report, five have developed WPS National Action Plans and five are in the process of developing a WPS NAP.
In most countries the WPS agenda and WPS NAPs are seen in the context of external engagements, most notably UN peacekeeping operations. While most countries see the WPS agenda as applicable only to armed conflict, some countries in the region have integrated human security challenges, such as human trafficking (Argentina) or rights of refugees (Brazil).
Institutionalization (Policy and Practice)
NAPs are most effective when they are accompanied by detailed implementation plans.
Most countries lack specific implementation plans with clearly defined goals and resources for implementation.
In all countries in the region, women remain under-represented in the military and the police. Even fewer women reach senior ranks. Many security forces have policies that exclude or limit (through the imposition of caps) women’s participation in the police or military. Few countries have welldefined recruitment strategies or set targets to increase women’s participation in the security forces.
The prevention of sexual harassment and abuse is critical to create a women-friendly work place, but few countries have programs to address harassment or abuse in the ranks.
Knowledge about the WPS agenda remains limited, and training on gender and the WPS agenda is ad-hoc and unsystematic.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring and reporting are critical for learning and identifying progress. Monitoring and evaluation practices must be an integral part of any NAP and implementation plan and include all stakeholders, including civil society organizations in the planning and implementation stages.
Few countries in the region have robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms that involve civil society.
Sex-disaggregated data about women in the military and police are not systematically collected or published.
Main Recommendations
The report concludes with two sets of recommendations. One is for governments in the region and their military and police forces. The other is for the region as a whole and identifies specific actions countries in the region and the US government (including US DoD and US SOUTHCOM) can take to advance the WPS agenda and solidify partnerships in the region.
National Actions:
All countries in the region have strong normative gender equality frameworks in place. This should provide a solid basis for governments in the region to apply the political will necessary to develop WPS NAPs. The most effective NAPs are whole-of-government efforts that engage all governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders and cover the entire range of security challenges, including human security and non-military security challenges.
All government agencies, including military and police forces, should develop implementation plans with clear goals and benchmarks for measuring progress.
Governments must back up their commitment to NAPs and implementation plans by pledging the necessary resources—personnel and financial—to ensure effective implementation.
Legislatures must become actively involved in the development of WPS NAPs. They should require the executive to present NAP updates at regular intervals and pass budgets with dedicated funding streams for NAPs and implementation plans.
Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms should be transparent and include members of civil society. Civil society actors are critical to ensuring transparency and providing expertise in the effective implementation of WPS NAPs.
The increase of the number of women in police and military organizations and the integration of gender perspectives in operations require actions at different levels.
Military and police organizations should develop organization-specific WPS implementation plans. This can be accomplished even in the absence of a nation-wide WPS NAP. Countries, such as Argentina and Colombia, have developed and effectively implemented military implementation plans before NAPs were developed.
In terms of gender balance, the military and police should remove all exclusions and caps that limit women’s full participation in the security forces. They should also develop recruitment programs and establish targets to increase the number of women in the ranks. Military and police should regularly collect and publish sex-disaggregated data on women in the ranks.
In terms of integrating gender perspectives in operations, and more generally the development of a gender mainstreaming strategy, the military and police should appoint Gender Advisors (GENADs). GENADs help with the development of organizational gender mainstreaming strategies, make sure that police and military exercises and operations have integrated a gender analysis, and advise on the education and training of soldiers and officers with regard to the WPS agenda. To be effective, GENADs should be located at the highest command level. In addition to GENADs, military and police organizations should appoint Gender Focal Points (GFPs) at lower levels of the organization.
GFPs are key to ensuring that implementation takes place at all levels.
International and Regional Actions:
There is a great deal of expertise in Latin America and the Caribbean that should be capitalized on for the good of the entire region. Unfortunately, the exchange and learning among security forces in the region is ad-hoc, uneven, and non-systematic. Countries in the region, including the United States government (US DoD and US SOUTHCOM), should create a WPS Center of Excellence for security forces (military and police) that can support the integration of the WPS agenda throughout the region. The Center—a multilateral governmental venture—should seek to actively engage non-governmental stakeholders. The Center would function as a regional hub to support military and police forces in the region. Areas of responsibilities would include:
Research: encourage national and regional collaborative research efforts and focus on topics supporting the integration of the WPS agenda into security forces, such as measures to eliminate barriers for women’s participation in military and police forces, monitoring and evaluation practices, collecting and publishing sex-disaggregated data on gender balances in the forces;
Education and Training: facilitate the development and delivery of WPS and gender curriculum and training for the military and police;
Convening of stakeholders: exchange best practices;
Technical support: for the development of WPS NAPs and implementation plans, particularly implementation plans for the military and police.
More specifically, the US government (US DoD and US SOUTHCOM) should embed WPS discussions in all engagements, including in all security and military senior leader engagements. They should also incentivize women’s participation in any externally funded training programs they provide to regional partners by requiring that a certain percentage of military and police women participate in the training.
Preface
The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda launched in October 2000 by the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 has been a key instrument in advancing the role of women in the peace and security arena.
The United States, including the US Department of Defense, has been engaged with the WPS agenda since 2011, when President Barack Obama launched the first National Action Plan (NAP) on WPS.[3] The US Congress adopted the WPS Act in 2017, which directed the US government to develop a national WPS Strategy.[4] The US WPS Strategy was released in 2019.[5] Subsequently, in mid-2020, the US Department of State, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the US Department of Homeland Security, and the US Department of Defense published agency-specific implementation plans.
In its 2020 Implementation Plan, the US Department of Defense outlined the following lines of effort:
Seek and support the preparation and meaningful participation of women around the world in decision-making processes related to conflict and crises;
Promote the protection of women and girls’ human rights, their access to humanitarian assistance, and their safety from violence, abuse, and exploitation around the world;
Adjust US international programs to improve outcomes in equality for, and the empowerment of, women; and
Encourage partner governments to adopt policies, plans, and capacity to improve the meaningful participation of women in processes connected to peace and security and decision-making institutions.[6]
The advancement of the WPS agenda is a key objective of US military partnerships, including in the Southern Hemisphere.[7] Yet there is very little data on how military and police forces in Latin America and the Caribbean have integrated women and gender perspectives in their operations and activities. As a result, the exchange and learning among security forces in the Western Hemisphere on how best to integrate gender perspectives in operations and activities is ad-hoc and non-systematic.
In the summer of 2020, WIIS was approached by the Gender Advisor of US SOUTHCOM, Lt. Col. (USAF) Duila M. Turner, to develop a tool that would provide baseline data on where security forces in the region stand with respect to the integration of the WPS agenda. The idea was to develop a tool that could structure and frame discussions on these issues with partner nations.
In consultation with the US SOUTHCOM Gender Advisor, we defined three main objectives for the WPS assessment tool:
Learning: Numerous studies show that there is still little awareness and understanding of the WPS framework. While there is an increasing awareness within security establishments that conflict affects men and women differently, military and police establishments have a hard time determining what this reality means for them in terms of operations and how to convey this to their security forces. By collecting data and examining best practices, the assessment tool should become a powerful analytical and hence educational and learning tool that helps develop a greater understanding of gender mainstreaming within military and police structures.
Partnerships: Many security challenges require regional and international cooperation. The development of military partnerships is a key objective of the US Combatant Commands. For states to work well together they need to share common standards. By exchanging data and best practices on gender mainstreaming, states will be able to work together in a more efficient and effective way across the region.
Monitoring and evaluation: The assessment tool should encompass a simple set of indicators that will allow states to evaluate how well they are implementing the principles of gender equality and the WPS agenda in their security structures and operations.
To develop the assessment tool, WIIS drew on its experience with the 1325 NATO Scorecard project.[8] WIIS adapted the tool from the NATO project to reflect the reality in Latin America and the Caribbean. Given the broad tasks of the military and the police in most countries in the region, and the fact that police in the region are sent to UN peacekeeping operations, we decided to include the police—that is, police that work at the national level and may be called upon to respond to cases of civil unrest, to protect the borders, or deal with in-country humanitarian emergencies.[9]
We organized three workshops between August and November 2020. The objectives of the workshops were threefold:
Identify people in the region interested in the integration of the WPS agenda in national security forces;
Create volunteer research country teams; and
Review progress, identify gaps, and develop national and regional recommendations for how best to advance the WPS agenda in security forces.
Our initial invitation to join this project and our first workshop led to the development of a diverse list of over 100 participants from government (military, police, defense, foreign affairs, women’s and gender equality ministries), academia, and civil society from 16 countries and the creation of 14 country research teams.
In total, over 90 people from 16 countries have participated in this project at various points. Initial findings were presented at the third workshop in November 2020. At this workshop, Ambassador Jean Manes, Foreign Policy Advisor and the Civilian Deputy to the US Southern Command Commander, made remarks. In her remarks, she signaled the strong commitment of US SOUTHCOM to this effort.
Over the course of the project, WIIS created a listserv for people involved and interested in the project. The listserv was formalized into a WIIS WPS Latin America and Caribbean network at the end of the third workshop.[10] For more information or to become a member of the network, visit: https://www. surveymonkey.com/r/GLSS6S8.
As societies and nations across the world face unprecedented challenges to gender equality, human security, and lasting peace, implementation of the WPS agenda is more important than ever. Indeed, research shows that societies are more peaceful and prosperous when women and men enjoy the same rights, liberties, dignities, and access to resources.[11]
Policymakers around the world have made gender equality a top policy priority. This WPS assessment report highlights steps Latin American and Caribbean countries have taken to implement the WPS agenda and ensure gender equality. The need is to expand these efforts in the face of growing evidence of the strategic and operational advantages such an agenda presents to military and police forces in a country. However, the report also shows that while there is much rhetoric, there is little follow-though in implementation. The time to match rhetoric to action is now.
Acknowledgements
This project would not have seen the light of day without the support and help of many people. The project directors would like to thank key people whose support has been critical for the success of this project. First, we would like to thank Lieutenant Colonel (USAF) Duilia M. Turner, the Gender Advisor for US Southern Command, who first came to WIIS with the idea of this project and provided us with support to carry it out.
We would also like to thank all the participants in our three workshops. Over 90 participants from
16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean brought an array of perspectives from government (military, police, defense, foreign affairs, women’s and gender equality ministries), academia, and civil society. A very special thanks goes out to those who actively participated in the 14 research country teams. They were generous in sharing their expertise, time, and resources. This project would not have been possible without the dedicated support of these volunteers. They used their considerable government and non-government contacts to gather much of the data for this report. (See Annex I)
Special thanks is also due to Dr. Paula Drumond, Assistant Professor at the Pontificia Universidade
Catolica do Rio de Janeiro; Dr. Renata Giannini, Senior Researcher at the Igarapé Institute in Rio de
Janeiro; Dr. Fabiana Sofia Perera, Assistant Professor at the William J Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, DC; Dr. Tamya Rebelo, Professor at the Escola Superior de Popaganda e Marketing and the Centro Universitario Belas Artes de Sao Paulo, and Dr. Cristina Rodriguez-Acosta, Assistant Director of the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University, for their advice and support. We also thank Patricia Cepero of the Jack D. Gordon Institute for helping to navigate the administrative part of the project.
At WIIS, thanks is due to WIIS Fellows Dr. Diorella Islas and Ana Velasco. Many thanks also to Program Manager Kayla McGill and Program Assistants Allyn Anderson and Madison Beltz for their valuable research support. Lastly, thanks to WIIS member and retired Colonel Cornelia Weiss and Dr. Karin Johnston, Senior Fellow at WIIS, for their invaluable editorial support.
While this report is the product of a collective effort, we, the authors of this report, are responsible for any errors and omissions.
Dr. Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, President, WIIS
Dr. Ellen Haring, Senior Fellow and Project Director
Washington, DC, USA
November 2020
Introduction
Gender equality has been recognized as a core principle of human rights in foundational international, regional, and national legal texts. The UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) set human rights standards that explicitly apply to every human being “without distinction of any kind, such as (…) sex.” [12] Latin American diplomats, legal scholars, and activists have been at the forefront of the development of these global human rights frameworks.[13]
These legal instruments, as well as the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the 1994 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Belem do Para Convention), have been the basis for the economic, social and political empowerment of women, including their entry in national security forces—defined here as constituting the military and the police.[14]
Support for the increased participation of women in the security sector received an important boost in 2000 when the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325). The resolution called on all UN member states to:
Increase the representation and participation of women in conflict prevention and conflict resolution processes, including in security institutions (military and police);
Integrate gender perspectives in the analysis of peace and security issues; and
Adopt special measures to protect women and girls from all forms of sexual and gender-based violence in conflict settings.
Since 2000, the UN Security Council has adopted nine more resolutions that have reinforced and refined what is now known as the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda.[15]
Regional and security organizations as diverse as the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU), and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have developed organizationwide policies and action plans to incorporate guidance from the WPS agenda into their deliberations and actions.[16] The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was an early adopter of the WPS agenda and issued Action Plans and Strategic Directives that committed to the WPS agenda.[17] For the Americas, the Organization of American States (OAS) has not yet formally adopted the WPS framework. However, the Inter-American Commission of Women has worked on all aspects of the WPS agenda, most notably the participation of women in political life, women’s human rights and gender violence, women’s economic empowerment, and a gendered approach to human or citizen security.[18]
At the national level, some 86 countries have developed National Action Plans (NAPs) and legislation to implement and advance the WPS agenda. In Latin America and the Caribbean, six countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Paraguay) have developed NAPs.[19] Chile was an early adopter and global leader when it published one of the world’s first NAPs in 2009 and a second NAP in 2015. Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay are in the process of developing a NAP.
Military and police security forces are important partners in the implementation of these NAPs. Indeed, the spread of NAPs in Latin America and the Caribbean has been spurred by increasing participation of countries in the region in UN Peace Operations.[20] Many countries and military leaders, particularly those who have been deployed in UN missions, have recognized that a more diverse force in terms of gender and gender perspectives increases operational effectiveness and readiness.[21] For many countries in the region, the adoption of the WPS framework has also meant greater attention to the role of women in their own security forces from both an operational and a rights points of view. In addition, many civil society organizations have advocated for NAPs that reflect a more inward-looking approach. This is particularly important in a region that no longer has traditional armed conflicts, yet faces high rates of violence, particularly against women and girls.[22]
Gender Balance, Gender Perspectives and Gender Mainstreaming
When considering gender equality and the WPS agenda within the security sector, three issues are key:
First, gender balance—that is, the equal representation of women within the force. Research has shown that more diverse organizations are more effective organizations.12 Military organizations are no different.[23] Yet, women remain grossly under-represented in security forces around the globe, including in Latin America and the Caribbean. The United Nations has repeatedly lamented the lack of women soldiers and police in its peacekeeping operations.[24] It is important to recognize the cultural and institutional barriers women may face in military and police forces.
Second, gender perspectives—that is, overlaying a lens that reveals gender differences when planning, executing, or evaluating military and police security force activities. The integration of a gender perspective involves the systematic and continuous process of assessing gender-based differences of men and women as reflected in their social roles and interactions. As explained by a commanding officer in the multi-national force deployed in Afghanistan, “a gender perspective is much more than female members in the team. It is about having and using knowledge about the gender roles and situation of both men and women in all activities of the mission.”[25] A good gender analysis before activities start will greatly enhance situational awareness that, in turn, will enhance operational effectiveness.
Third, gender mainstreaming—that is, an integrated strategy by which organizations implement the concepts of gender balancing and gender perspectives across their organizations and operations. NATO, for example, has defined gender mainstreaming as “a strategy to achieve gender equality by assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies and programs in all areas and at all levels.”[26] In other words, “gender mainstreaming is a set of specific, strategic approaches as well as technical and institutional processes adopted to achieve the goal of gender equality.”[27]
The Latin American and Caribbean WPS assessment tool helps to measure how security forces are doing along those three axes. More specifically, it measures gender balance, gender perspectives, and gender mainstreaming at two different levels: the political level and the institutional and operational level. Lastly, it measures to what extent practices of good governance—that is, monitoring and evaluation—have been integrated.
The Latin American And Caribbean WPS Assessment Tool
The Latin America and Caribbean WPS assessment tool measures progress along three main levels: political will, institutional policy and practice, and monitoring and evaluation. For each we defined a limited set of key indicators.
The political level is a necessary first step. Is there political will and commitment to integrate the principles of the WPS agenda in the security forces—that is, is there political will to advance gender equality and gender perspectives in military and police forces? Political will can be measured in several ways. A first indicator is whether principles of gender equality have been incorporated in a country’s laws and regulations. In addition, we can measure to what extent political leaders refer to the principles of gender equality and the WPS agenda in their speeches. For the purposes of our project, a critical indicator of political will is whether a country has adopted a WPS NAP and whether implementation plans for the security sector have been drafted. From our research on the integration of WPS principles in NATO countries, we know that countries that mention the defense department as a principal actor and those who outline clear lines of responsibility through an action or implementation plan generally score higher on implementation than countries whose plans fail to specifically call out the military as an implementing agency. Lastly, we examine whether any resources have been allocated. Indeed, the allocation of resources is often a good measure of political intent.
The operational level is about gender mainstreaming and institutionalization, that is, how gender equality and WPS principles are integrated in institutional and bureaucratic processes. Institutionalization is critical, in that it safeguards gender equality and WPS initiatives from political turn-over and turmoil.[28] Gender mainstreaming is about gender balance and gender perspectives. To what extent is women’s equal participation and integration in military and police forces a priority, and to what extent are institutional processes in place that are conducive to the integration of women in the military and police? This requires collecting baseline data about gender in the ranks. It also means examining measures taken to address gender imbalances, including the lifting of structural barriers and barriers related to the work environment. Three types of indicators are particularly important in this respect: first, whether all jobs are open to women; second, the existence of policies that deal with family issues (in particular, pregnancies and child care); and third, the existence of policies that deal with harassment and abuse. To what extent gender perspectives are integrated in operational policies and plans can be measured by examining strategic operational documents, field manuals, and other similar publications. The appointment of Gender Advisors (GENADs), as well as their standing and position in the force, is an important indicator for institutional support for gender mainstreaming. From our research on gender mainstreaming in NATO militaries, we know that a Gender Advisor is a commander’s best resource for ensuring the integration of gender perspectives into the planning, execution, and evaluation of military operations.[29] Lastly, gender mainstreaming requires attention to training and education. Are soldiers and senior leaders being taught how to do a gender analysis, and are they aware of the national and international legal frameworks?
The last step in ensuring institutionalization of gender equality and WPS initiatives is monitoring and evaluating progress over time. The WPS assessment tool measures to what extent policies and operations are subject to monitoring and evaluation processes. Monitoring and evaluation are key to capturing best practices, establishing realistic benchmarks, identifying gaps in resources and structural challenges, framing strategic planning efforts, and supporting accountability measures. Two key indicators include the systematic collection of sex-disaggregated data and to what extent outside actors, including civil society organizations, are involved in assessment efforts.
The WPS assessment tool, by examining military and police forces from the political to the operational and from the strategic to the tactical levels, measures the progress of military and police organizations comprehensively. Assessments like these work best when they become part of iterative processes that allow for dialogue and learning among countries in the region.
Methodology
In early August 2020, WIIS held its first Latin America and Caribbean WPS research workshop to assess interest in applying the assessment tool to countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The workshop also allowed us to review the draft assessment tool. Over 70 people from the region joined the workshop and eventually formed 14 volunteer research country teams. These research teams were composed of active and retired members of the security forces (military and police), government officials (foreign affairs, defense ministries, women’s agencies), the legislative branch, academics, and civil society. Each team elected a team coordinator who served as the main point of contact with WIIS.
As a result of the discussions at the workshop, the WIIS team further refined and adjusted the indicators of the assessment tool. (See Figure 1 and Annex 1) The revised assessment tool, containing 51 indicators, was subsequently sent to each of the country teams.
WPS Assessment Tool for Security Forces In Latin America and the Caribbean
Category Indicators I: National Importance and Political Will 11 II: Institutional Policies and Practice A. Strategy, Plans and Policy 14 B. Gender in the Ranks 6 C. Training, Education and Exercises 6 D. Work Environment 8 III: Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation 6
Figure 1: WPS Assessment
Tool for Security Forces in Latin
America and the
Caribbean
By the end of September 2020, we had received data from 14 country teams. With that data, we were able to generate a scorecard for each country. That is, responses to the questions on the assessment tool received a predetermined numerical value following a scoring protocol.[30] These scores were then used to evaluate the relative importance attached to certain issue areas and to establish regional and national averages.
In addition to the quantitative assessment, we also prepared a qualitative assessment for each country. The qualitative assessment allowed us to contextualize the collected information. It also offers an overall assessment of where the country stands with regard to implementation of the gender equality and WPS agenda. Lastly, the qualitative reports contain a set of country specific recommendations detailing how the country and its security sector might move forward. The elaboration of quantitative and qualitative reports included many follow-up interviews with the country teams to ensure that we were accurately interpreting the data they provided. All country teams reviewed final country quantitative and qualitative reports.[31]
Figure 2: Sample Quantitative Assessment Tool
Figure 3: Sample Qualitative Report
Colombia – Summary ReportWPS National Action Plan (NAP) Status: Colombia has not developed a NAP. That said, the November 24, 2016 peace agreement includes many gender provisions. Additionally, in 2018 the Ministry of Defense (MoD) published its own transversal (intersectional) gender implementation plan for uniformed personnel in Colombia. Overall Assessment: Colombia has a robust civil society network dedicated to advancing the WPS agenda, and many are lobbying the Colombian government to adopt a WPS NAP.1 Although the national government has made statements in support of gender equality and the MoD recognizes UNSCR 1325 and the WPS agenda, no NAP has been developed. National Importance/Political Will: Gender equality is enshrined in the Colombian Constitution (See Articles 40 and 43).2 Colombia also has a Presidential Council for Women’s Equity, which collects and analyzes information related to the situation of women in Colombia. Gender equality, women’s rights, and the empowerment of women are also referred to in the 2018-2022 National Development Plan, an allinclusive policy document that addresses foreign and domestic security policies.3 In Colombia, the army, the air force, the navy, and the national police all fall under the authority of the (MoD). The MoD guidelines and policies apply to all four services. Its 2018 report, Public Policy for a Cross-Gender Approach for the Uniformed Personnel of the Public Force, explicitly refers to UNSCR 1325 and its related resolutions.4 The report, developed as a requirement of the 2016 peace agreement, is referred to as the military’s WPS implementation plan, and it includes the police under the umbrella term “public force.” It calls on the military and the police to make sure that women have equal access and opportunities. It also sets up Gender Observatories at the level of the MoD and General Command, as well as inside each military branch and the police. See Humanas Colombia, 20 Años Exigiendo que el Gobierno Colombiano se conecte con la Paz y la Seguridad de las Mujeres, Pronunciamiento (Bogotá, Colombia: Humanas, July 2020), at https://www.humanas.org.co/alfa/dat_particular/arch_contenidos/i_e_73153_q_PRONUNCIAMIENTO_R1325.pdf; Also from Humanas Colombia, see Observatorio Mujeres, Paz y Seguridad (a group actively lobbying for a WPS NAP), Cumplimiento del Estado Colombiano con la Resolución 1325 de 2000: Informe de monitoreo del año 2017 y primer semestre de 2018, (Bogotá, Colombia: Humanas, December 2018), at https://www.humanas.org.co/alfa/dat_particular/ar/ar_9042_q_R1325informe.pdf.. See Corte Constitucional, Constitución Política de Colombia 1991, Actualizada con los Actos Legislativos a 2016, (Bogota: Corte Constitutional), at https://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/inicio/Constitucion%20politica%20de%20Colombia.pdf See Departamento Nacional de Planeación (DNP), Colombia en la Escena Global: Política Exterior Responsable, Innovadora y Constructiva, (Bogotá: DNP, May 2019) at https://www.dnp.gov.co/DNPN/Plan-Nacional-deDesarrollo/Paginas/Pilares-del-PND/Legalidad/Colombia-en-la-escena-global.aspx; and also from DNP, PlanNacional de Desarrollo 2018-2022 at https://www.dnp.gov.co/DNPN/Paginas/Plan-Nacional-de-Desarrollo.aspx Ministerio de Defensa, Política Pública Sectorial de Transversalizacion del Enfoque de Genero para el Personal Uniformado de la Fuerza Pública 2018-2027, (Bogotá: MinDefensa 2018), at https://www.justiciamilitar.gov.co/irj/go/km/docs/Mindefensa/Documentos/descargas/Prensa/Documentos/politica_ genero.pdf 1
WPS In Latin American And Caribbean Security Forces:
Main Findings
In terms of the overall implementation of gender equality and WPS principles in the security forces, the region (all countries combined) had an average score of 64.6 (on a scale of 1-100). This robust showing is not surprising given the region’s strong adherence to international and regional legal human right instruments, such as CEDAW and the Belem do Para convention. The region has also been a strong supporter of the Beijing Platform of Action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Particularly important in this regard is the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda within the Sustainable Development Framework by 2030, adopted in 2016 by countries of the region.[32] In the last five years, countries in the region have also prioritized access to political participation. Most countries in the region have instituted political quotas, which has increased women’s participation in decision-making institutions throughout the government.[33] Lastly, many countries in the region have established women’s or gender equality government agencies; in some cases, these agencies function at the ministerial level.
Despite a relatively strong score overall, many challenges remain. Indeed, this is a region where “patriarchal, discriminatory and violent cultural patterns remain in place, with gender stereotypes persisting in the education system, the media and political and cultural institutions.”[34] The security sector is, of course, not devoid of these stereotypes. As Ellen Haring has noted in a recent publication, “national military organization are quintessentially masculine constructs that rely on notions of men as warrior-protectors and women as the protected. (…) National militaries are set up to optimize men’s participation and rely on patriarchal social structures where women perform traditional family duties centered around caregiving while men go to war.”[35] Nicole Jenne and Fiorella Ulloa Bisshopp, in their study on the effectiveness of Chile’s efforts to promote a gender perspective in the military, emphasize how “resilient” gender stereotypes are in military organizations. For example, Chilean forces deployed in the UN peacekeeping operation in Haiti had a fair number of women. That said, the tasks these women were assigned hewed closely to traditional gender stereotypes: “Instead of performing the full range of peacekeeping tasks, women were often delegated to deal with issues concerning women and children and prevented from joining activities that were deemed to involve security risks.”[36] Gender mainstreaming in security forces requires more than just adding women; it also requires cultural and organizational change.[37]
When we examine the average performance of the region as a whole at the different levels of our assessment tool, the region scores highest at the political commitment level, with a score of 68. The score drops at the implementation level to 64 and at the monitoring and evaluation level to 57.7.
(See Figure 4)
Figure 4: Overall
Average Regional
Scores
Figure 5: Overall
49
76
50
58 60 58
66 66
72 4.4
55
57 60
6
Average National Argentina 90
Scores Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica 87 Dominican Republic
Ecuador Guatemala
Mexico Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Trinidad & Tobago
Uruguay
Average
When we examine the overall performance of individual countries in the region, four countries scored above the average regional score. Four countries scored around the regional average, and six countries fell below the regional average. On the high side, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay significantly outperformed other countries. What is common to these countries is that they have strong scores across all levels. (See Table 1)
Country Political Will Policy & Practice Monitoring Reporting Total Score & Evaluation
Lastly, it may be noted that our results closely align with the scores of these countries in other gender equality indexes, such as the Women, Peace and Security Index published by the Georgetown University Institute on Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) and the Fighting Inequality in the Time of
Covid-19: The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2020, published by Oxfam and Development
41 Trinidad & Tobago 16 45 Costa Rica 3 48 Argentina 2 49 Ecuador 8 55 Chile 1 58 Uruguay 11 68 Paraguay 15 69 Peru 18 70 Panama 22 74 Dominican Republic 23 98 Brazil 13 103 Mexico 14 104 Colombia 10 106 Guatemala 24
Table 2:GIWPS and Oxfam Rankings
In sum, while there is broad regional commitment to the principles and ideas of the WPS agenda, commitment to actual implementation and monitoring and evaluation is considerably less robust. Rhetoric, generally, does not match action.
National Importance/Political Will
National importance and political will measures three main issues: (1) whether gender equality is recognized in a country’s main laws and regulations; (2) whether a country has adopted a WPS NAP; and (3) whether political leaders in their statements provide strong support to the principles of gender equality and the WPS agenda.
All countries in the region have enshrined gender equality in their constitutions, and many have also established gender equality and women’s empowerment agencies. That said, an important indicator of political commitment is whether a country has adopted a WPS NAP. (See Table 3)
Countries with NAPs Countries with NAPs Countries without NAPs under development
Argentina Costa Rica Colombia Brazil Ecuador Dominican Republic Chile Mexico Panama Guatemala Trinidad & Tobago Peru Paraguay Uruguay
Table 3: National
Action Plans –
Status
Argentina and Chile—both with top scores overall and at this level—have developed and implemented WPS NAPs. However, the presence or absence of a NAP is not necessary or sufficient to score high. For example, Costa Rica, despite not having a NAP, scored high overall due to the government’s strong political commitment to advancing gender equality across the country and within its institutions.[39]On the other hand, Brazil fell below the regional average. Indeed, in the case of Brazil, a change in national level political leadership in 2019 resulted in diminished political will and commitment to gender equality and the WPS agenda.
The NAPs of the countries in the region have many similarities, but also significant differences. For most countries in the region, the WPS agenda is an external, rather than an internal, agenda. In most cases, the ministries of foreign affairs have lead responsibilities for the implementation of a NAP.[40] The extensive gender equality machinery established under CEDAW, the SDGs, or regional gender equality commitments is often seen as distinct from the WPS agenda. Guatemala is the exception and has adopted a whole-of-government approach. In Guatemala, the Women’s Ministry plays an important role in the development of a new NAP. In Costa Rica, the development of a NAP involves many government agencies, not just in the security sector, but also in the legislature. In addition, its National Institute for Women works at a ministerial level and has taken innovative steps to tackle structural gender inequalities at home, including machismo culture.
Most civil society organizations in the region advocate for whole-of-government efforts as well as a broadening of the agenda beyond traditional armed conflict.[41] They argue that the region grapples with many “gendered consequences of non-conventional armed violence,” and they point to high rates of femicide in the region.32 While several Latin American NAPs have integrated demands for a broader agenda, most remain very externally focused. Paula Drumond and Tamya Rebelo note that the Paraguayan NAP stands out with ambitious and long-term goals. The Paraguayan NAP defines one of its goals as “the elimination of cultural barriers that hinder the full participation of women in all areas of human society.”[42] The Argentinian NAP includes issues related to human trafficking. The Brazilian NAP includes gender-sensitive initiatives focused on the rights of refugees and refugee seekers in the country. The Chilean NAP expanded the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to include the protection of women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence.[43] The Argentinian, Brazilian, and Chilean NAPs all define protection as meaning not just physical security but also access to sexual and reproductive health.
Another positive driver for gender equality and the WPS agenda, including the development of a WPS NAP, is the extent of global—UN—engagements a country has. The participation in peacekeeping operations is particularly important in this regard. (See Table 4) For example, the Brazilian NAP expired at the end of 2018. Gender equality and the WPS agenda were not a priority for the new Brazilian administration that came to power in January 2019. Yet the administration decided to extend the NAP (developed under the previous administration) in March of 2019 for four years. Indeed, Brazil’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations was considered important and, in that context, the continuation of a NAP became significant.[44]Table 4: Participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations by Countries from Latin America and the Caribbean-Military and Police Combined – August 2020
However, while UN peacekeeping involvement is positively impacting the military, it does not appear to have a similar impact on the national police. Indeed, the police generally scored lower in most countries than did the military regarding implementation of the WPS agenda.
The engagement of international actors in the Colombia peace agreements has also been an important factor in pushing forward a gender equality and WPS agenda. For example, the 2018 Colombian Ministry of Defense’s report Public Policy for a Cross-Gender Approach for the Uniformed Personnel of the Public Force was developed as a requirement of the 2016 peace agreement. It is considered the military’s WPS implementation plan. It calls on the military and the police to make sure that women have equal access and opportunities. It also sets up Gender Observatories at the level of the Ministry of Defense and General Command, as well as inside each military branch and the police.
Other examples of international engagements and commitments that advance a gender equality and WPS agenda at home include: Uruguay, which co-chairs, with Canada, the United Nations GFP Network and is currently working on a WPS NAP; the Dominican Republic, which during 2020, together with Germany, co-chaired the UN Security Council Informal Expert Group (IEG) on WPS; or Mexico, which, since 2019, co-chairs with France the Generation Equality Forum—a global civil society-centered gathering for gender equality. Its work on the Generation Equality Forum, and the fact that Mexico launched a Feminist Foreign Policy in January 2020 and is currently developing a WPS NAP, are certainly not unrelated. High-level international engagements also help civil society organizations at home to press their governments to progress on the gender equality and WPS agendas.
Policy and Practice
Policy and practice examines how political commitment to gender equality and WPS principles is translated into practical action in the security sector. We distinguish four main areas: (1) policy, planning, and staffing, in particular the appointment of GENADs and GFPs; (2) women’s participation in the security forces (gender in the ranks); (3) policies and programs that support women’s participation in the security forces; and (4) training and education on WPS principles.
Policy, Planning and Staffing
Although national level commitment is critical in advancing the WPS agenda, it is not sufficient to realizing better outcomes in terms of gender mainstreaming. Even in countries that have published NAPs, these NAPs do not always require the participating ministries and departments to develop detailed implementation plans. Without such plans, including bureaucratic procedures and processes that mainstream gender in security institutions, change will be fleeting and easily reversible with changing political leadership.
Our analysis found that countries that developed military implementation plans even before or in the absence of a NAP have generally made significant progress in terms of gender mainstreaming. For example, in 2008 the Argentine Ministry of Defense adopted a WPS Action Plan (long before their 2015 NAP was published). It was developed in response to Argentina’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations and led to many “policy reforms in the field of defense and the armed forces.”[45] Participation in UN peacekeeping operations helped to strengthen pre-deployment training on gender issues. It also required the military to establish GENADs and GFPs.37
Indeed, a major indicator of progress with regard to the integration of gender equality and WPS principles is the appointment of GENADs and GFPs. They are critical in helping to mainstream the principles of the WPS agenda in all aspects of the operations of security forces. The role of a GENAD is to provide guidance and advice to senior level commanders on how to integrate gender perspectives into operations and missions, crisis and conflict analysis, concepts, doctrine, procedures, and education and training. GFPs are similarly trained but work at lower levels in the organization to mainstream the WPS agenda across occupational positions.[46]
Only a few countries in the region are systematically appointing, training and employing GENADs and GFPs. (See Table 5) Argentina has a robust GENAD and GFP program. It also provides gender training through its regional peacekeeping center—trainings that are open to other countries in the region as well. Uruguay, a top regional UN troop contributor, co-hosts, with Canada, the UN GFP network. It has appointed GFPs in both the military and the police, but these GENADs are all double-hatted—that is, they have other responsibilities as well. Neither the military nor the police have appointed full-time GENADS. In some countries, for example in Mexico and Peru, the security institutions have established gender equality institutions that have certain GENAD functions. However, most often these institutions work more in the human resources sphere, rather than the policy and planning spheres. Most often, they do not report directly to the highest command levels.
Gender in the Ranks: Women’s Participation in the Security Forces
All countries in our survey have low women’s participation rates in their military and police forces. (See Table 6) The promotion rates for women are even lower. In general, women have made greater inroads in the police than in the military. In the national police forces, all positions are officially open to women. That said, some of our investigators also reported that the practice does not always align with the formal rules. In some countries, women are not assigned to work “on the streets.” In addition, as women have made inroads within the police, some countries have begun to impose caps, thereby limiting women’s access. Such is the case in Trinidad and Tobago, where no more than 30% of the force is allowed to be women. There is also a waiting list for women who want to join the police.
In four out of 14 countries, women continue to be officially barred from some military occupations. (See Table 7) In addition, even if in theory all positions are open, women often face restrictions in practice, particularly in terms of where they are utilized. Many teams reported that data on military deployments reveal that women are far less likely to be deployed on operational missions.
Country The country The country GENADs are The country has appointed has appointed assigned for has gender Gender Advisors gender focal pecific equality (GENAD). points (GFP). missions. offices/units.
Argentina Yes Yes Yes Brazil Yes Chile Yes Yes Yes Colombia Yes Costa Rica Yes Dominican Republic Yes Yes Ecuador Yes Guatemala Yes Mexico Yes Panama Yes Paraguay Yes Peru Yes Trinidad and Tobago Yes Uruguay Yes Yes Yes
Table 5: Gender Advisors and
Gender Equity
Offices
Country Military Percent of Senior Police Senior Women Military Police Deployed Women Women
Argentina 17.3% 8% nd nd nd Brazil 7.6% 8% nd 9% nd Chile 10% 10% nd 34% 15% Colombia 6% 1.5% 1% 9% 2% Costa Rica na na na 18.7% di Dominican Republic 20.8% 5.1%-8% 4% 15% 4.7% Ecuador 2.7% di nd 15% di Guatemala nd 8% nd 16% nd Panama na na na 16.2% 14.9% Peru 10% di .5% 18% .4% Paraguay nd 10% nd Nd nd Mexico 12.4% 1-3% 2.5% 10% 19% Trinidad & Tobago 14.3% na nd 29% nd Uruguay 11% 7% 1.7% 25.6% 3% nd=no data (data not provided or data not available) na=not applicable (these countries have no military forces or they do not deploy) di=data incomplete (not enough data to calculate percentage)
Table 6: Women’s
Participation as a Percentage of the
Total Force
Working on “the streets” and military deployments are generally career enhancing assignments; the restrictions women face in this regard likely contributes to them being less competitive for promotions. These restrictions may explain why few women are represented at the highest levels in the military or police.
Lastly, in terms of long-term policy and planning, we found that only four countries have active recruitment programs or set targets to raise the number of women in the force.
Table 7: Policy and Practice
Country Are all Are there Do they How much Is WPS Is positions recruitment provide paid gender Monitoring open to targets? uniforms & maternity/ training & Evaluation women (military/ equipment paternity provided ? conducted? in the police) adapted to leave military? women? is provided?
Argentina Yes Yes/UNK Yes 90 days/10 days Yes Yes Brazil No No. There are some caps/No. There are local caps No 180 days/5 days Yes No Chile No No/No Yes 126 days/UNK Yes Yes Colombia No No/No Yes 126 days/8 days Yes Yes Costa Rica Yes NA/No Yes 120 days/2 days Yes Yes Dominican Republic Yes Yes/Yes, but there are local caps No 98 days/7 days Yes Yes Ecuador Yes No/No No 80 days/15 days Yes Yes Guatemala Yes No/No No 84 days/UNK Yes No Mexico Yes Yes/No No 90 days/10 days No No Panama Yes NA/ No Yes 98 days/3 days Yes Yes Paraguay No No/No Yes 126 days/UNK Yes Yes Peru Yes No/No No 98 days/UNK No Yes Trinidad and Tobago Yes No, there is a 30% cap Yes 90 days/3 days Yes No Uruguay Yes Yes/Yes No 91 days/10 days Yes Yes NA=not applicable because they have no military forces UNK=unknown-data was not provided during data collection
More generally, it must be noted that data on women’s participation and promotion rates were elusive in many countries. Either the data are not being collected and tracked over time, or the country refuses to publish the data. One country indicated that data on women in the military were considered confidential and not publicly releasable.
Many organizations that track numbers and the composition of armed forces around the world, such as the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, generally do not collect sexdisaggregated data. The only known detailed survey of women in the armed forces and the police dates from 2010 and was carried out by the Argentine think tank RESDAL.[47]
Women-Friendly Policies and Programs
To increase women’s participation in the security forces, it is also important to have policies and programs that make military and police service possible on a personal level. Women tend to leave the military and police at higher rates than men when they have children or encounter a hostile work environment. Therefore, it is imperative that the military and police implement policies that make it possible for women to have a fulfilling career by ensuring that their organizations are inclusive, free of harassment, and accommodate family needs for women who often remain primary caregivers.
In all countries reviewed, both the military and police provide paid maternity leave for women, although the length of time varies greatly—from 80 days to 18 weeks. Many countries also provide a few days of paid paternity leave. Some countries offer varying levels of childcare and family leave, while others offer none.
A healthy and productive work environment also requires that sexual harassment and abuse is not tolerated, that it is strictly monitored, and that offenders are prosecuted. Most countries, particularly those involved in peacekeeping, provide basic human rights training, with a portion of the training directed specifically toward preventing sexual and gender-based violence in the areas of operations. However, the same level of training and attention is not being given to eradicating sexual harassment and abuse within a country’s own ranks. Data from countries that track and address harassment, including the US, Canada and Australia, show that sexual harassment and abuse of women in the ranks is pervasive in military organizations around the world.[48] Therefore, it is critical that military and police organizations address this behavior if they want to keep women in their organizations.
Finally, uniforms, equipment, and facilities must be adapted to accommodate women to optimize women’s performance and retention. Only half of the countries in our survey provide women-specific equipment. (Table 7 above). Requiring women to perform in uniforms and equipment designed by and for men degrades women’s performance, causes injuries, and can result in safety hazards. Furthermore, failing to provide bathrooms and safe billets also drives women out of military and police organizations.
In sum, security forces seeking to increase women’s participation must ensure that there are familyfriendly programs available to support women’s long-term participation, address sexual harassment and abuse within the ranks, and provide uniforms, equipment, and billets for women. While countries in the region score well in terms of maternity and paternity leave policies, much work remains to be accomplished in the other areas.
WPS Training and Education
Applying a gender lens to military and police organizations and operations requires training and education. It is not an intuitive process. The countries that participate in UN peacekeeping operations receive human rights and WPS training during pre-deployment training. Indeed, when countries engage with the UN, particularly in the context of contributing troops to UN peacekeeping operations, they are expected to meet certain UN WPS training requirements. However, for many countries, gender and WPS training ends with UN missions.
Some countries have more systematically integrated gender training into their entry, mid- and senior-level training and education programs. That said, this training is more likely to be found in the military than the police. Police training generally focuses on responding to and preventing domestic, sexual, and genderbased violence.
GENADs and GFPs require specialized training. Such training remains limited. A few countries like Argentina provide WPS training for the military. Costa Rica has mainstreamed gender throughout police training programs. Costa Rica is unique in the region for creating a gender training program that addresses masculinity and machismo culture.
Figure 6:
Masculinity Flyer
Eleven countries in the region host peacekeeping training centers. Many of these centers have not integrated gender and the WPS agenda in their curriculum in a systematic manner.[49] Helping these centers build up their WPS and gender equality curriculum and provide specialized courses for GENADs would be an obvious first step towards more robust training on WPS and gender equality in the region.
Monitoring, Reporting, and Evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation are critical for learning and understanding whether progress is being made in implementing the WPS agenda. Monitoring and evaluation also had the lowest average scores. There are three main reasons for the low scores. First, even when countries have developed NAPs, strategies or implementation plans, they are often written without clearly defined and measurable goals and benchmarks. Second, countries generally do not appoint or support independent oversight bodies. Most governments are wary of such bodies and/or the involvement of civil society in the oversight of policies. Third, there is a dearth of sex-disaggregated data being collected or made available for evaluation.
The best monitoring and evaluation programs are independent, transparent, and involve civil society. Some country teams reported that monitoring and evaluation does occur, but the reports and data produced by entities in these countries can only be accessed by requesting them through government transparency programs, or they may not be available at all.
Costa Rica has the most robust monitoring and evaluating systems in the region. They are provided by Costa Rica’s National Institute for Women, which functions as a ministry. This ministry-level Institute has a national council responsible for decision-making at the national level. Furthermore, the Institute provides advice and has oversight over gender mainstreaming in all of the government ministries, including the Ministry of Public Security.
Some countries have robust independent civil society networks that provide some external monitoring and evaluation functions and keep pressure on governments to advance gender equality and the WPS agenda. For example, Colombia has a robust civil society network with 57 distinct organizations that promote the principles of UNSCR 1325 and the WPS agenda. It also has a Women Peace and Security Observatory, a coalition of civil society organizations that is actively lobbying the government to adopt a WPS NAP.[50] In some countries, the think tank and academic community are important players. For example, in Brazil, the Igarapé Institute has a considerable amount of expertise with regard to the WPS agenda and women in the military. Similarly, in Argentina, RESDAL has undertaken important work in this regard. The analysis by these institutions are important in collecting best practices and advancing the WPS agenda in the region. More generally, the Gender Division of the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC or CEPAL in Spanish) plays an important role in gender mainstreaming in the region and collecting data.
Recommendations and Concluding Remarks
To advance the gender equality and WPS agenda in the security forces in the region, the following actions should be taken at the national and regional levels.
National Actions
All countries in the region have strong normative gender equality frameworks in place. This should provide a solid basis for governments in the region to apply the political will necessary to develop WPS NAPs. The most effective NAPs are whole-of-government efforts that engage all governmental and non-governmental stakeholders and cover the entire range of security challenges, including human security and non-military security challenges. More specifically:
All government agencies, including military and police forces, should develop implementation plans with clear goals and benchmarks for measuring progress;
Governments must back up their commitment to NAPs and implementation plans by pledging the necessary resources—personnel and financial—to ensure effective implementation;
Legislatures must become actively involved in the development of WPS NAPs. They should require the executive to present NAP updates at regular intervals and pass budgets with dedicated funding streams for NAPs and implementation plans;
Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms should be transparent and include members of civil society. Civil society actors are critical to ensuring transparency and providing expertise in the effective implementation of WPS NAPs.
The increase of the number of women in police and military organizations and the integration of gender perspectives in operations require actions at different levels.
Military and police organizations should develop organization-specific WPS implementation plans. This can be accomplished even in the absence of a nation-wide WPS NAP. Countries, such as Argentina and Colombia, have developed and effectively implemented military implementation plans before NAPs were developed.
In terms of gender balance, the military and police should remove all exclusions and caps that limit women’s full participation in the security forces. They should also develop recruitment programs and establish targets to increase the number of women in the ranks. Military and police should regularly collect and publish sex-disaggregated data on women in the ranks.
In terms of integrating gender perspectives in operations and more generally the development of a gender mainstreaming strategy, the military and police should appoint Gender Advisors (GENADs). GENADs help with the development of organizational gender mainstreaming strategies, make sure that police and military exercises and operations have integrated a gender analysis, and advise on the education and training of soldiers and officers with regard to the WPS agenda. To be effective GENADs should be located at the highest command level. In addition to GENADs, military and police organizations should appoint Gender Focal Points (GFPs) at lower levels of the organization.
GFPs are key to ensuring that implementation takes place at all levels.
International and Regional Actions
There is a great deal of expertise in Latin America and the Caribbean that should be capitalized on for the good of the entire region. Unfortunately, the exchange and learning among security forces in the region is ad-hoc, uneven, and non-systematic. Countries in the region, including the United States government (US DoD and US SOUTHCOM), should create a WPS Center of Excellence for military and police security forces that can support the integration of the WPS agenda throughout the region. The Center—a multilateral governmental venture—should seek to actively engage non-governmental stakeholders. The Center would function as a regional hub to support military and police forces in the region. Areas of responsibilities would include:
Research: encourage national and regional collaborative research efforts and focus on topics supporting the integration of the WPS agenda into security forces, such as measures to eliminate barriers for women’s participation in military and police forces, monitoring and evaluation practices, collecting and publishing sex-disaggregated data on gender balances in the forces.
Education and Training: facilitate the development and delivery of WPS and gender curriculum and training for the military and police.
Convening of stakeholders:exchange best practices.
Technical support: for the development of WPS NAPs and implementation plans, particularly implementation plans for the military and police.
More specifically, the US Government (US DoD and US SOUTHCOM) should embed WPS discussions in all engagements, including in all security and military senior leader engagements. They should also incentivize women’s participation in any externally funded training programs they provide to regional partners by requiring that a certain percentage of military and police women participate in the training.
Concluding Remarks
It has been twenty years since UNSCR 1325 was unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council.
In the subsequent years, there has been slow but steady progress in realizing the purpose and intent of 1325. Many nations around the world, and six in Latin America and the Caribbean, have adopted WPS National Action Plans.
The concepts and terms gender balance, gender perspective and gender mainstreaming are better understood and becoming embedded within the operational activities of security institutions. Nations that are further along with gender mainstreaming have begun to realize the value of adopting a gender perspective to achieve better security outcomes. That said, normative thinking and behavior on complex social issues is slow to change, but change does happen. It requires concerted, continuous and systematic efforts by all.
Lastly, the success of gender mainstreaming efforts is closely related to the involvement of civil society. Global studies have shown that the most successful WPS NAPs are those that have the active involvement of civil society organization at every step of the way. This finding is not surprising, since gender mainstreaming is ultimately about debunking regressive gender stereotypes that exist within our societies.
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Dr. Chantal de Jonge Oudraat is President of Women In International Security (WIIS) since February 2013. She has held senior positions at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
North America; the US Institute of Peace; Center for Transatlantic Relations, Paul H. Nitze School of
Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC; and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva. Dr. de Jonge Oudraat has published extensively on a wide array of international security issues. She is co-editor with Dr. Michael E. Brown of The Gender and Security Agenda: Strategies for the 21st Century (London: Routledge, July 2020). De Jonge Oudraat received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Paris II (Panthéon).
Dr. Ellen Haring is a Senior Fellow at Women In International Security where she directs the Combat Integration Initiative. She is the former CEO of the Service Women’s Action Network. Haring’s research and work focuses on women and gender in the military. She is a West Point graduate and a retired US Army colonel. She holds a PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University, and she has taught at the US Army Command and General Staff College, the US Army War College and Georgetown University. Haring has published numerous articles and papers on a wide array of military and security-related topics. She guest lectures, has testified before Congress as a subject matter expert, and has been a guest speaker on foreign and domestic news shows.
Dr. Diorella IslasLimiñana is a Fellow at Women In International Security and an independent security consultant on intelligence, transnational criminal organizations and national security policies. She is Adjunct Faculty member in the Countering Transnational Organized Crime (CTOC) program at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. She has worked as a consultant for the Royal United Service Institute in London, and as a security analyst at the Center for Information and National Security in Mexico City. She holds a PhD in Politics, Languages and International Studies from the University of Bath and a MA and a BA from Tec de
Monterrey, Mexico City Campus. She has taught at the Bader International Study Center of Queens University and delivered guest lectures at different universities and organizations around the world.
Ana Velasco is a Fellow at Women In International Security and a Researcher at Observatorio Nacional Ciudadano, a leading Mexican NGO focused on issues of security and justice. Previously, she worked as an international news reporter in Mexico, and she has held a diplomatic position for the Mexican Secretariat of Economy in Germany. Velasco is the winner of the “1325 and Beyond” international essay competition organized by WIIS and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. She recently finished a MA in Gender, Violence and Conflict at the University of Sussex with Distinction, and she is about to start her PhD in International Relations at the same institution.
Project Participants*
Aguirre, Johanna (Panama)
Almeida, Katherine (Dominican Republic)
Aquino, Massiel (Dominican Republic)
Arboleda, Naomi (Dominican Republic)
Argueta, Ann Marie (Guatemala)
Arias, Jeannette (Costa Rica)
Baez Racalde, Maria Gloria (Paraguay)
Baires, Emily (Guatemala)
Balcazar, Mauel (Mexico)
Barriga Abarca, Lourdes Aurelia (Peru)
Barrios, Silvana (Argentina)
Beltran Del Portillo, Maria Fernanda (Colombia)
Broce, Rosa (Panama)
Canto, Maria Belen (Argentina)
Capellan, Belgica (Dominican Republic)
Cardenas Hidalgo, Maria Andrea (Ecuador)
Cerdas, Loreley (Costa Rica)
Chaves, Andrea (Argentina)
Colon, Victor (USA)
Cordon, Mireya (Colombia)
Dantas, Stela (Brazil)
Davila Calderon, Martha Jenneth (Colombia)
De Anda Martinez, Erika (USA)
Depaz, Leidy (Peru)
Donadio, Marela (Argentina)
Drumond, Paula (Brazil)
Espaillat, José Rafael (Dominican Republic)
Ferreira Costa, Ivana Mara (Brazil)
Ferreto, Yorleny (Costa Rica)
Fischer, Andrea (Chile)
Flores, Nancy (Guatemala)
Fundora, Cristobal (Panama)
Galan Paniagua, Sonia Maria (Guatemala)
Giannini, Renata (Brazil)
Gil Rosado, Maria Teresa (Dominican Republic)
Gonzalez, Pedro (Chile)
Henandez, Francia (Dominican Republic)
Hernandez, Brianna (USA)
Hormazábal, Javiera (Chile)
Ignacio, Mercedes (Dominican Republic)
Islas, Diorella (México)
Jarpa, Carolina (Chile)
Jeremias da Silva, Jessika Kelly (Brazil) Jiménez Morales, Karen (Costa Rica)
Jorge, Ramon (Dominican Republic) Justynski,
Ashley (USA)
Lancaster-Ellis, Karen (USA)
Layman, Matthew (USA)
Lopez Portillo, Ernesto (Mexico)
Made, Dominga (Dominican Republic) Manes,
Amb. Jean (USA)
Marcial, Cynthia (Argentina)
Marulanda Castano, Diana Marcela (Brazil)
McCann, Elizabeth (USA)
Méndez, Elvira (Panama)
Mendoza Cortes, Paloma (Mexico)
Miranda Vargas, Inaraquel (USA)
Montenegro, Nadia (Panama)
Ortiz, Nereyda (USA)
Otto, Fomina (Chile)
Pacheco, Gloria (Costa Rica)
Pagtakhan, Elisabet (USA)
Paredes Escobar, Byron Gabriel (Ecuador)
Parra, Veronica (Chile)
Pena, Elisama (Dominican Republic)
Perera, Fabiana (USA)
Placencia Almonte, Albania (Dominican Republic)
Porras, Silvia (Costa Rica)
Ramirez Herrera, Carolina (Dominican Republic)
Rebelo, Tamya (Brazil)
Rey Pinto, Eva María (Colombia)
Reynoso Barrera, Jonas (Dominican Republic)
Rivas, Reina Margarita (Colombia)
Rodriguez-Acosta, Cristina (USA)
Rogers, Rhea (Belize)
Rojas, Valeska (Chile)
Rojas Ballestero, Fiorella Andrea (Costa Rica)
Sahid Garnica, German (Colombia)
Salguero, Miguel (Argentina)
Sanabria, Diana (Ecuador)
Sancho, Carolina (Chile)
Sanjines, Karen (Jamaica)
Santolalla, Guillermo (USA)
Santos, Maria Dolores (Ecuador)
Seron, Christian (Chile)
Silva Freire, Maria Eduarda Laryssa (Brazil)
Sprinkle, Abby (USA)
Suarez, Hilda (Argentina)
Summers, Becky (USA)
Talamoni, Ana Florencia (Argentina)
Turner, Duilia (USA)
Typrowicz, Jennifer (USA)
Russ, Sarah (USA)
Velasco-Ugalde, Ana (Mexico)
Villalba, Laura (USA)
Volia, Zoila (Costa Rica) Weiss, Cornelia (USA)
Williams, Dianna (USA)
* Project participants includes those who participated in at least one of our workshops and/or our country research teams.
[1] In this project we are examining military forces and national police forces (police that operate at the national level not at the local or municipal level).
[2] The methodology was developed by Women In International Security (WIIS) in the context of a NATO sponsored project that sought to assess how well NATO member and partner states had integrated the principles of gender equality and the WPS agenda in their military institutions and operations. See Chantal de Jonge Oudraat et al., Gender Mainstreaming: Indicators for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 and its Related Resolutions- the 1325 Scorecard: Preliminary Findings (Brussels: NATO, 2015).
[3] See Executive Order, Instituting a National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (Washington, DC: The White House, December 19, 2011). This Plan was subsequently updated in June 2016.
[4] See Women, Peace and Security Act of 2017, Public Law 115-68-October 6, 2017 (Washington, DC: GPO, 2017).
[5] See US Strategy on Women, Peace and Security (Washington, DC: White House, 2019).
[6] See US DOD, Women, Peace, and Security: Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan (Washington, DC: US DoD, June 2020), p.7.
[8] See Chantal de Jonge Oudraat et al., Gender Mainstreaming: Indicators for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 and its Related Resolutions – The 1325 Scorecard: Preliminary Findings (Brussels: NATO, 2015). For a description of the NATO project and our country scorecard reports, see: https://www.wiisglobal.org/programs/unscr-1325-nato/.
[9] The term “police” in this tool does not include local or municipal police. The police agencies that are included are those police agencies that also send police officers to UN peacekeeping operations.
[11] This is a statement that has also been recognized and subscribed to by the US Department of Defense. See US DOD, Women, Peace and Security (2020), p.10.
[12] In the Southern Hemisphere the legal framework for human rights even predates the UDHR. The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, (adopted in May 1948 in Bogota, Columbia) was the first human rights instrument that recognized equal rights for all people. It was followed in 1969 by the American Convention on Human Rights. The 1969 American Convention on Human Rights requires states to adopt domestic legislation to give effect to these rights.
[13] They were particularly important in integrating Human Rights in the UN Charter and the UDHR.
[14] For more see Marcela Donadio et al., Women in The Armed and Police Forces: Resolution 1325 and Peace Operations in Latin America (Buenos Aires: RESDAL, 2010). More generally see also Ellen Haring, “Gender and Military Organizations” in Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and Michael E. Brown, eds., The Gender and Security Agenda: Strategies for the 21st Century (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 90 – 112.
[15] In October 2015, the UN Security Council, in Resolution 2242, called for the doubling of the number of female peacekeepers (military and police) within five years. In August 2020, the UN Security Council also adopted Resolution 2538 which recognized “the indispensable role of women in increasing the overall performance and effectiveness of peacekeeping operations.” It also stressed the need to increase the participation of uniformed women in peacekeeping operations.
[16] In 2013, CEDAW adopted General Recommendation 30 on women in conflict prevention, conflict, and post-conflict situations. This strengthened the links between the WPS agenda and CEDAW.
[17] NATO/EAPC Women, Peace and Security Policy and Action Plan, 2018. NATO committed to the three “I”s: Integration: making sure that gender equality is considered as an integral part of NATO policies, programs, and projects guided by effective gender mainstreaming practices; Inclusiveness: promoting an increased representation of women across NATO and in national forces to enhance operational effectiveness and success; and Integrity: enhancing accountability with the intent to increase awareness and implementation of the WPS agenda in accordance with international frameworks.”
[18] See Mary K. Meyer Mcaleese, “WPS and the Organization of American States,” in Sara E. Davies and Jacqui True, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace and Security (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), pp. 413 – 427.
[19] See, for example, Paula Drumond and Tamya Rebelo, “Global Pathways or Local Spins? National Action Plans in South America,” International Feminist Journal of Politics, Vol. 22, No. 4 (2020), pp. 462 – 484; See also Donadio, Women in the Armed and Police Forces (2010). In 2019 Brazilian Navy Lieutenant Commander Marcia Braga received the UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year award for her work in the UN operation in the Central African Republic.
[20] See Drumond and Rebelo, Global Pathways or Local Spins?
[21] See for example, Fabiana Sofia Perera and Lieutenant Colonel Duilia Mora Turner, eds., Twenty Years, Twenty Stories: Women, Peace and Security in the Western Hemisphere (Washington, DC: William J. Perry Center for Hemsipheric Defense Studies, 2020). See also Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations, Whose Security? Practical Examples of Gender Perspectives in Military Operations (Stockholm: Nordic Centre for Military Operations, 2015).
[22] See Renata Avelar Giannini et al., A agenda sobre mulheres, paz e segurança no contexto latino-americano: desafios e oportunidades,Hemisphere (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Instituto Igarapé, March 2018). 12 See, for example, studies by the McKinsey Institute and the World Economic Forum.
[23] For many practical examples see Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations, Whose Security? Practical Examples of Gender Perspectives in Military Operations (Stockholm: Nordic Centre for Military Operations, 2015).
[24] The UN’s 2028 target for women in military contingents is 15% and 25% for military observers and staff officers. The 2028 target for women serving in formed police units is 20% and 30% for individual police officers. In 2020, women constitute 4.8% of military contingents and 10.9 % of formed police units in UN peacekeeping missions. See Peackeeping.un.org.
[25] Cited in Chantal de Jonge Oudraat et al., Gender Mainstreaming: Indicators for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 and its Related Resolutions – The 1325 Scorecard: Preliminary Findings (Brussels: NATO, 2015), p. 7.
[26] This definition is based on the UN ECOSOC definition of 1997. See also Helene Lackenbauer and Richard Langlais, eds., Review of the Practical Implications of UNSCR 1325 for the Conduct of NATO-led Operations and Missions (Stockholm: Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOA), 2013), p. 55.
[27] See UN Women website unwomen.org “Gender Mainstreaming.”
[28] For example, in the United States and Brazil, the WPS agenda and gender equality efforts were not supported by the Donald J. Trump and Jair Bolsonaro administrations. Yet in both cases, the WPS agenda had gained some champions within the foreign affairs and defense establishments. These establishments had also put in place certain processes to integrate gender perspectives. Together, the champions and the institutional processes were able to safeguard some of the efforts that had been started before the advent of the new administrations. In addition, in the United States the US Congress had adopted the WPS Act in 2017, which had broad bi-partisan support. It was a big factor in safeguarding some of the WPS capacities that had been developed earlier. The Act also allowed the expansion of WPS activities in the military with regard to training and the appointment of GENADs in the Combatant Commands. The US Congress even set aside some money for the latter.
[29] See de Jonge Oudraat et al, Gender Mainstreaming (2015), p. 10-11.
[30] See scorecard template in Annex 2 and the scoring protocol in Annex 3.
[31] See country scorecards and narrative reports at the WIIS website (provide link here).
[32] See ECLAC, Regional Report on the Review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in Latin America and Caribbean countries, 25 years on, LC/CRM.14.4 (Santiago: United Nations, 2019).
[33] See IDEA, Gender Quotas Database (Stockholm: IDEA @idea.int).
[34] See ECLAC, Regional Report on the Review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in Latin America and Caribbean countries, 25 years on, LC/CRM.14.4 (Santiago: United Nations, 2019), p. 17.
[35] See Ellen Haring, “Gender and Military Organizations” in Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and Michael E. Brown, The Gender and Security Agenda: Strategies for the 21st Century (London: Routledge, 2020), p. 90.
[36] Nicole Jenne and Fiorella Ulloa Bisshopp, “Female Peacekeepers: UNSC Resolution 1325 and the Persistence of Gender Stereotypes in the Chilean Armed Forces,” International Peacekeeping, (October 14, 2020), p. 21.
[37] For strategies to increase women’s participation in national military organizations, see Haring, “Gender and Military Organizations.”
[38] See Georgetown Institute for Women Peace and Security and the Peace Research Institute Oslo, The WPS Index 2020 (Washington, DC: GIWPS, 2020); Oxfam and Development Finance International, Fighting Inequality in the Time of Covid-19:
The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2020 (Oxford: Oxfam, 2020).
[39] Costa Rica is unique in the region as one of only a few countries with no military. It was assessed based on the security provided by the national police.
[40] See Paula Drumond and Tamya Rebelo, “Global Pathways or Local Spins? National Action Plans in South America,” International Feminist Journal of Politics, Vol. 22, No. 4 (2020), pp. 462 – 484.
[41] For more general analysis of NAPs globally see Caitlin Hamilton, Nyibeny Naam and Laura J. Shepherd, Twenty Years of Women, Peace and Security National Action Plans: Analysis and Lessons Learned (Sydney: Sydney University, March 2020). 32 Drumond and Rebelo, “Global Pathways or Local Spins?” p. 1. See also Paula Drumond and Tamya Rebelo, 1325 and Beyond:
Moving Forward the WPS Agenda in Latin America, WIIS Policy Brief (July 2020); and
Ana Laura Velasco Ugalde, UNSCR1325 and the WPS Agenda: A Feminist Response to Authoritarianism, WIIS Policy Brief (June 2020), p. 1. Velasco notes the Covid-19 crisis and the call for staying at home has exposed the violence at home.
[42] Cited in Drumond and Rebelo, Global Pathways or Local Spins? p. 12. See also Paula Drumond and Tamya Rebelo, 1325 and Beyond: Moving Forward the WPS Agenda in Latin America, WIIS Policy Brief (July 2020).
[44] For more on Brazil’s NAP see Renata Avelar Giannini and Perola Abrue Pereira, Building Brazil’s National Action Plan: Lessons
Learned and Opportunities (London: LSE, March 3, 2020 – blog); Paula Drumond and Tamya Rebelo, Implementing the “Women,
Peace and Security” Agenda in Brazil: An Assessment of the National Action Plan, Strategic Paper 31 (Rio de Janeiro: Igarape Institute, August 2019). See also https://igarape.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2019-07-31_AE-31_Women-Peace-andSecurity-National-Action-Plan.pdf.
[46] See UN Secretary General, Departmental Focal Points for Women in the Secretariat, ST/SGB?2008/12 (New York: United Nations, August 1, 2008). See also UN Women, Gender Focal Points and Focal Points for Women @ unwomen.org; and United Nations, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Policy: Gender Responsive United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (New York: United Nations, February 1, 2018).
[47] RESDAL obtained much of its data through freedom of information mechanisms. See Marcela Donadio et al., Women in the
Armed Forces and Police in Latin America: Agender Approach to Peace Operations (Buenos Aires: RESDAL, 2010). See Renata Avilar Giannini, Maiara Folly and Mariana Fonseca Lima, Situacoes extraordinarias a entrada de mulheres na linha de frente das Forcas Armadas brasileiras (Rio de Janieri: Igarapé Institute: 2017). We do not know to what extent the US government is collecting data on the number of women in military forces around the world and how it applies that data to its International Military Training and Education (IMET) programs.
[48] The US DoD tracks the incidence rate of sexual harassment and assault in the ranks and publishes annual reports on their Sexual and Prevention Website. This is a Congressionally mandated annual requirement. https://www.sapr.mil/. See also Government of Canada, 2019 Sexual Misconduct Incident Tracking Report https://www.canada.ca/en/department-nationaldefence/corporate/reports-publications/sexual-misconduct-tracking-report.html. In Australia, the Chief of the Army came out strongly against sexual harassment and abuse. See Australia’s Chief of the Army addresses to soldiers on sexual assault in the ranks. https://vimeo.com/71028162.
[49] Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. See Adriana Erthal Abdenur, Enhancing Peacekeeping Training Through Cooperation: Lessons from Latin America, Policy Brief (Rio de Janeiro: Igarape Institute, June 2018).
Argentina adopted a NAP in 2015 for a three-year period. A new NAP is reportedly in development.
Overall Assessment:
Argentina demonstrates a strong commitment to the WPS agenda, a commitment that is expressed in many national documents.Argentina’s NAP, published in 2015, is currently being updated.
National Importance/Political Will:
Gender equality is enshrined in the Argentine constitution and related laws, which are enforced by the police and the courts.[1] There are explicit references made to WPS/UNSCR 1325 in top national foreign policy[2] and national security documents.[3]
In 2008, the Argentine Ministry of Defense adopted a WPS Action Plan for gender mainstreaming in international peacekeeping operations. [4] This was developed in response to Argentina’s participation in UN operations. It led to many “policy reforms in the field of defense and the armed forces.”[5] For example, it strengthened pre-deployment training on gender issues and established a requirement for Gender Focal Points in the military.
Argentina adopted a WPS NAP in 2015 for a three-year period.[6] A new NAP is currently under development. The NAP explicitly references the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Ministry of Security (which oversees public safety and security, the federal police, and the gendarmerie), as principal actors in the implementation of the WPS agenda and assigns specific tasks to them. Resources and positions have been allocated for NAP and WPS agenda implementation. For example, there is the MoD Directorate of Gender Policies, with Gender Offices distributed among the armed forces. The national police have plans for meeting NAP/WPS objectives, and they are monitored and evaluated for progress by the Gender Policy Council.[7]
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, and Policies
WPS has been integrated into strategy, plans, policy, and other doctrinal documents at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels.[8]
In the military, prevention of sexual violence is explicitly mentioned in strategy, plans, and policy documents at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels as well as in field manuals and handbooks.[9] It is also explicitly identified as a hazard to operational effectiveness. WPS principles, gender analyses, and gender perspectives are integrated into police strategy, plans, policy, and doctrinal documents as well as in some field manuals and handbooks of the police forces.[10]
A full-time Military Gender Advisor (GENAD) has been appointed at the strategic and operational levels of the military forces and has been assigned as a member of the senior military commander’s staff. GENADs receive certified training at the Argentine Center for Joint Training in Peacekeeping Operations (CAECOPAZ) as part of established practice.[11]
In the police forces, a GENAD is part of the Human Resources staff and other staffs, but not at the highest level.[12] The Directorate of Gender Policies and Gender Offices focusing on Gender Focal Points (GFPs) exists in the armed forces and police forces, where GFPs are appointed throughout various police organizations.[13]
Nevertheless, information on NAP implementation by police forces is lacking, and the integration of WPS principles do not seem as advanced in the police as in the military.
Women have been allowed to occupy all positions in the military, including combat positions, since 2013. All positions in the police are open to women.
Although all military positions are open to women, few women have reached senior ranks, and none are in the senior ranks of combat occupations (in part because they were only recently opened to women).
In 2008, the Ministry of Defense set a target goal of 25-40% women in the ranks.[15] Despite that one of the NAP’s first objectives is to increase the presence of women in peacekeeping, in humanitarian operations and in decision-making bodies, only 8% of deployed personnel are women. No data was obtained on women serving in the national police.
Work Environment
Family Policies: The implementation of WPS principles in work environments is governed by the human resource guidelines for the military and police. Military and police personnel receive 90 days of paid maternity leave and 10 days of paid paternity leave.[16] Childcare, including kindergarten and family leave policies that support members of the military, are available and widely used.[17]
Protection Policies: Both the military and police have programs to prevent sexual harassment and assault of military and police personnel. The programs are both transparent and effective. The programs provide support to victims, and they ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted and punished.[18] Moreover, there is a sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse prevention program to address issues of military and police personnel as perpetrators of violence against civilians. If a member of the military commits an act of serious misconduct, they are sanctioned at the military disciplinary level and prosecuted in civil courts.[19]
Equipment and Facilities: There are gender-specific individual equipment within the military and police forces, including uniforms and personal protective equipment designed for and issued to all women. Facilities, including bathrooms and billets, are available for women in military and police quarters, and they are provided during deployments as required by the United Nations Standards Operations Procedures (SOP).[20]
Training, Education, and Exercises
GENADs facilitate consistent education on gender awareness and WPS as part of entry-level training for both military and police personnel. Similarly, WPS principles for military and police forces are introduced and integrated into the education and training of personnel at the mid-grade and senior level. Personnel are also trained in the prevention of, and in response to, sexual violence, sexual exploitation, and abuse. The training is focused both internally (within the organization) and externally (civilian populations outside the organization).[21]
Further, the military pre-deployment training course, provided by the Argentine Joint Peacekeeping Training Center (certified by the United Nations), is responsible for the delivery of mandatory pre-deployment training, which includes the following areas: the importance of the protection, rights and needs of women, men, girls, and boys; information on how to engage with, and increase, the participation of local women as well as how to exchange information with women; cultural awareness training based on an analysis of gender relations in the area of operations; information on how integrating a gender perspective can serve as a force enabler and increase operational effectiveness of the mission; and creating an understanding of measures with respect to international law regarding the rights and protection of women and girls, especially civilians during armed conflict.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
Military: Argentina has specific monitoring and evaluation requirements for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and WPS principles in the military. It is overseen by the MoD’s Observatory Office, which was created within the National Directorate of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law. The Observatory Office is tasked with monitoring and evaluating the full inclusion of women in the military. Sex-disaggregated data and lessons learned are collected and analyzed within the MoD for use in military operations to improve security outcomes for women, men, girls, and boys. Additionally, while formal involvement of several civil society organizations and groups in the WPS/NAP review exists, only the military and police forces can make data publicly available.[22]
Police: Despite explicit mention in the NAP of the importance of gathering sex-disaggregated data, data for the national police forces are lacking.
Although Argentina expresses public commitment to the principles of WPS, monitoring and assessments are only carried out for the military, not the police.
Recommendations:
The new NAP must fully include all police forces in the country. Resources and monitoring and evaluation for implementation in the police must be clearly outlined. Specifically, the police must be required to collect and publish sex-disaggregated data on women in their areas of operations and within the force.
Report Contributors:
Ana Florencia Talamoni.
María Belén Canto, Ministry of Defense, Advisor.
Lic. Silvana Lorena Barrios, Ministry of Defense, Advisor
Dr. Cristina A.Rodriguez-Acosta, Florida International University
Brazil published a NAP in 2017 with a two-year duration period (2017 – 2018).[23] In March 2019, the 2017 NAP was extended for a four-year period.[24]
Overall Assessment:
Brazil has made limited progress in advancing the WPS agenda. The NAP (initially developed under a previous administration and extended in 2019 by the current government) has not been a priority for the government and is mostly considered in the context of Brazil’s engagement with UN peace operations. Women continue to serve in very limited numbers in the security forces (military and police), lower than in most countries in the region.. Data collection and monitoring and evaluation is limited and not publicly available.
National Importance/Political Will:
Like many other countries in the Western Hemisphere, Brazil has a solid legal framework that recognizes gender equality. The 1988 Brazilian Constitution establishes the principles of gender equality, non-discrimination, and the protection of the rights of women.[25] In addition, the government has approved several laws related to gender equality, gender mainstreaming, and the protection of women, including a law criminalizing femicide and a decree that provided assistance for victims of sexual violence.[26] Brazil has also ratified the Convention Eliminating All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In the early 2000s, the government launched new policy initiatives to further mainstream human rights and gender equality in the country.[27] In 2018, the government created additional political instruments to advance gender equality domestically, including a National Plan to Combat Domestic Violence.[28]
In January 2019, with the ascent of a new administration under the leadership of President Jair Bolsonaro, gender equality became less of a priority, The new administration championed conservative ideologies that focused on traditional family values and on women as mothers and caregivers. The lack of focus on gender equality and the individual empowerment of women could also be seen when in 2019, the Ministry of Human Rights became the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights.[29]
Initial NAP Development
Discussions and development of a NAP started in 2015 when Pandiá Calógeras, an independent think tank within the Ministry of Defense (MoD, carried out research about the possibility for the development of a Brazilian NAP. Around this time, the Brazilian MoD also created a Gender Commission tasked with advancing gender equality and the integration of women in the armed forces and participation in NAP discussions.[30]
The actual drafting of a NAP was carried out by an Interinstitutional Working Group.[31] It brought together officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Justice and Public Security, Ministry of Human Rights, as well as representatives of UN Women and the Igarapé Institute as the only representatives of civil society. Throughout 2016, the Working Group organized a series of meetings and defined NAP priorities.
Consultations were hampered by the political turmoil in the country, including President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment and removal from office in 2016. Despite these difficulties, the Brazilian Government published a NAP in March 2017.[32] Discussions on a new NAP were to start at the end of 2018. However, the end of 2018 also coincided with general elections that brought Jair Bolsonaro to power. While the WPS agenda and gender equality was not known to be a priority for the Bolsonaro administration, the MoD announced in April 2019, at a Ministerial Peacekeeping meeting in New York, that Brazil had extended the 2017 NAP for a four-year period.[33]
The extension of the NAP was a welcome development for many civil society organizations, including many mid-level public servants who had been engaged in the process early on. Yet the lack of political will at the highest levels has meant that little progress has been made to implement the NAP and make it a more robust instrument for the integration of gender in military operations.[34] The Brazilian NAP is also an outward looking NAP and thus seen by many officials as mostly relevant within the context of Brazil’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations.[35]
In sum, for past and current Brazilian administrations the WPS NAPs are mainly outward-looking plans and foreign policy instruments rather than inward-looking plans that could further gender perspectives within the country, particularly within the security sector.[36] More generally, the NAP and the WPS agenda are not regularly referred to in foreign policy documents or documents of the MoD.
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
The NAP lists the MoD as one of the main actors charged with increasing the participation of women in the security sector, and it lays out a series of activities to fulfill this objective. For example, it states that the MoD should:
(1) assess the main challenges faced by women in relation to the application of the WPS agenda;
(2) promote the deployment of women military police officers; and
(3) exchange best practices regarding the participation of women in the military with other countries.
That said, the MoD has not developed specific implementation plans, and follow up is unclear.
For example, although the White Papers of each of the three branches of the armed forces mention the importance of the participation of women, they do not present specific actions for increasing the number of women in the armed forces.[37] Similarly, the National Defense Strategy and the National Defense Policy do not contain any mention of the WPS agenda or gender equality.[38]
The police are mentioned in the NAP, but not given any specific tasks.[39]
Gender in the Ranks (Military and Police), 2016[40]
*all commissioned officers from lieutenant to general.
As a percentage of the force, women serve in very low numbers in the military and police. Many military positions were closed to women until recently. In 2012, the Army announced that women could attend the Military Academy Agulhas Negras and serve in combat positions. In 2018, 33 women were admitted to the Military Academy Agulhas Negras, where they can choose logistics and weapons specialists roles in support of combat roles.[42] Infantry, artillery, cavalry, communications, and engineering remains closed to women. In the Air Force, logistics was opened to women in 1996, and combat pilot positions were opened to women in 2003. In 2014, women were allowed to serve in logistics positions in the Navy; all Navy positions were opened to women in 2019.[43]
All police positions are open to women. However, in some states there is a ceiling on the number of women permitted to serve. In addition, women police officers report that there are subjective and cultural challenges in the force, and many are not allowed to work “on the streets.”
Work Environment
Family Policies: In 2015, the right to six months of maternity leave was extended to the military forces. It also allows fathers to receive five paid days after the birth of a baby.[44] Interviews with female military officers showed that there is no childcare available in military organizations.[45]
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies: Sexual exploitation and abuse do not constitute a crime under the Brazilian Military Penal Code. According to WPS experts, this situation inhibits reporting, prosecuting, and collecting information about such misconduct.[46]
Equipment and Facilities: The police and the armed forces provide gender specific facilities for women. In terms of equipment, in some cases there are uniforms tailored for women, though this is not generally the case. It is known that the training uniform used by the female soldiers is the same as the one used by the men without any modification for women’s bodies.[47] Furthermore, there is no women-specific personal protective equipment.
Training, Education, and Exercises
Peacekeeping training centers offer modules on sexual violence, exploitation, and abuse. Those who are deployed to UN missions receive pre-deployment training, which includes training about international humanitarian law and the rights and protection of civilians, including women and girls during armed conflict. The focus of most of the trainings is on the prevention and response to sexual violence and sexual exploitation as it relates to civilians in the area of operations. Training on gender is not widely included in the normal training of soldiers. Only peacekeeping training centers have gender focal points.[48] Gender Advisors are appointed for specific missions.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
There is no monitoring and evaluation mechanism for the Brazilian NAP. However, the ministries that are parties to the NAP meet once a year to discuss developments and challenges. In 2019, each institution was tasked with the responsibility of elaborating indicators. Only the Ministry of External Relations, the coordinator of the NAP implementation, developed such indicators. The Gender Commission also has responsibilities in this regard. However, the Gender Commission is not known to have met in recent years. In addition, there is no public evidence that sex-disaggregated data and lessons learned are collected and analyzed by the military.
The Igarapé Institute published an evaluation of the development and content of the Brazilian NAP.[49] To date, it is the only civil society actor in Brazil actively engaged on the WPS agenda. The Centro de Apoio Operacional das Promotorias de Justiça dos Direitos Humanos also monitors and reports on governmental actions related to gender equality, but not necessarily on the WPS NAP.[50]
Recommendations:
The WPS NAP should be approved by the Congress and become law.
The National Defense Strategy and the National Defense Policy should take advantage of the NAP and add specific strategies and actions to include gender provisions and support national efforts to increase the participation of women..
Future NAPs would benefit from the participation of civil society in the drafting, implementation, and evaluation processes. The inclusion of civil society would increase transparency and improve the overall outcome.
Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms should be put in place as well as specific action plans for each governmental institution that signed the NAP.
A dedicated budget for the NAP implementation should be allocated.
Issues concerning Brazilian women challenges in areas of undeclared armed conflicts could benefit from being included in the NAP. For this purpose, other ministries could take part in a future NAP.
All limitations on women’s military and police service should be removed immediately. Women must have access to all training programs and be employed on the streets and during deployments.
In addition, the Brazilian MoD should mainstream gender training across the force and not limit it to forces deploying during peacekeeping operations.
Finally, the military must immediately criminalize sexual harassment and sexual abuse in the Military Penal Code and start collecting data regarding harassment and discrimination cases.
Report Contributors:
Dr. Paula Drumond, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio); Global South Unit of Mediation (GSUM).
Dr. Renata Giannini, Senior Researcher, Igarapé Institute and Coordinator of the Brazilian WPS Network.
Dr. Tamya Rebelo, Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing and Centro Universitário Belas Artes, São Paulo, Brazil.
In 2009, Chile became the first country in Latin America to adopt a NAP. The second iteration was published in 2015, covering the period 2015-2018. In view of the 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325, several Chilean ministers expressed support for the development of a third NAP. It would be a third-generation document with emphasis on deployment for disaster relief.
Overall Assessment:
Chile has taken positive steps towards the implementation of the WPS agenda that go beyond the political realm. Concrete actions to implement a gender perspective in the duties of the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Investigations Police of Chile (PDI for its acronym in Spanish) were noted.[51] However, there are still areas for improvement; not all commitments have been fully realized.
National Importance/Political Will:
Gender equality is recognized in Chile’s constitution. It is likely that the new constitution will go even further. The Constitutional Convention is required to have gender parity. This means that Chile’s new constitution will be the first one in the world drafted by an equal number of women and men.[52]
The national importance of the WPS agenda in Chile is evident since the adoption of the first NAP during the first presidential term of (former president) Michelle Bachelet. The second version of the NAP was not only a continuation of the country’s commitment, but also an improvement upon the first NAP that integrated many lessons learned. For example, the second NAP established specific monitoring, auditing, and accountability processes. It also emphasized the importance of mainstreaming efforts in different ministries.
An Inter-ministerial Committee for the Implementation of the NAP meets regularly and includes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Women Affairs and Gender Equity, and the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security (which includes the Chilean police). Chile has also joined the Network of Women Mediators of the Southern Cone to promote sustainable peace in the region. The network is promoted by Argentina and UN Women of Latin America and the Caribbean and also includes Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.[53]
UNSCR 1325 and WPS principles are explicitly mentioned in key foreign policy and national security documents, and they put forth specific political commitments. In the 2017 Book of Chile’s National Defense, the section called “Resolution 1325” highlights Chile’s commitment to the WPS agenda.[54] In addition, in the Sectoral Policy in the Field of Military Policy chapter, the section “Gender Policy” explicitly refers to Resolution 1325, the NAP, and the commitments of the MoD, which include: increasing the participation of women in the armed forces; promoting women’s participation in peacekeeping operations; integrating a gender perspective in the training cycle; and strengthening the institutional framework for the inclusion of gender policies in the defense sector.
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
The MoD integrates a gender perspective in its planning as it is a national policy requirement for all ministries. In May 2018, the MoD signed an agreement with the Ministry of Women Affairs and Gender Equality on the rights of women in the armed forces, the objective of which is to “strengthen equal opportunities, in addition to ensuring and protecting full respect for the rights of women.”[55] Accordingly, the three services of the military (army, navy and air force) have appointed gender delegates whose duties are similar to those of a gender focal point (GFP). In turn, the Joint Staff also has a gender delegate. The gender delegates are tasked with promoting the agreement and disseminating related protocols.[56] Among them is the protocol for complaints related to sexual and labor harassment adopted in March 2019.[57] However, the gender delegates are not always full-time and often have double-hatted functions. In addition, they do not function at the operational and tactical levels, where there are no GFPs or Gender Advisors. More generally, it may be noted that despite the work of the gender delegates, what the adoption of a gender perspective by the armed forces means lacks widespread understanding.
The police participated in the preparation of the first and second NAPs. Through the Joint Staff, they also participate in peacekeeping missions and therefore are part of certain actions of the NAPs.
The police have incorporated gender equality and WPS principles in parts of their operations, as exemplified by the Department of Organizational Development, Equity and Equal Opportunities and the Human Rights and Gender Equity Department, both at the PDI. The police also have Gender Advisors and GFPs who are deployed in all regions of the country. Their main tasks include: participation in inter-ministerial and institutional commissions; advising the High Command in strategic institutional planning; observing and analyzing procedures and claims; and providing workshops, classes, and training.
Despite the military’s commitment to gender equality and the WPS Agenda, not all combat positions are open to women. The army lifted all restrictions for women’s access to the different combat positions, including armored cavalry and infantry positions, in 2016.[61] All positions in the air force are open as well. In the navy, some positions are still closed to women, such as the Marine Corps and the Submarine Service.[62] The military does not have a specific recruitment goal for increasing women’s participation. All police positions are open to women and, although they do not have any recruiting goals, nearly 50% of new recruits are women.[63]
Work Environment
Family policies: For military and police personnel, the paid maternity, paternity, and family life measures are the same as for the rest of the workers in Chile. Women receive 18 weeks of paid maternity leave, and childcare is also available.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies: The armed forces have adopted a sexual harassment and sexual abuse program for protection of military personnel.[64] Nonetheless, interviews conducted for this research with experts in Chile showed that transparency and protection is not equally developed in the three branches of the military and, thus, some victims might be discouraged from coming forward.
The police have also adopted specific policies to deal with sexual harassment and abuse. The information is managed by the Analysis and Monitoring of Misconduct Department and, while it is not published, the information can be requested through government transparency mechanisms.
Equipment and facilities: Both the military and the police provide gender specific equipment, including uniforms and facilities for women in the areas where they are permitted to serve.
Training, Education, and Exercises
The principles of WPS/UNSCR 1325 are not consistently integrated into the education and training of military personnel. Personnel who participate in UN missions consistently receive training on the principles of WPS before deployment and during operations. The courses of the Chilean Joint Peacekeeping Operation Center (CECOPAC) are conducted following UN guidelines on training for peacekeeping operations and use the material provided by the organization for such purposes. Nonetheless, the rest of the military does not provide such training consistently for junior and mid-levels. Each year there are specialized WPS courses available to senior-level personnel from CECOPAC, and they are also available for civilians. Both the military and the police receive training on the prevention and response to sexual violence and sexual abuse. The police incorporate a gender perspective in all its training levels.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
Although Chile’s second NAP addressed monitoring and reporting and included indicators, there are still gaps. For instance, as part of the second NAP, Chile launched the Observatory on Women, Peace and Security in 2018, which integrates the portfolios of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Women and Gender Equity, Interior, and Public Security. Its purpose is to: a) publicize progress in the implementation of the 2nd NAP; and b) integrate civil society into the process of monitoring and evaluation. Available information indicates that the Observatory is not currently working. A confirmation of the involvement of civil society in the preparation of the new NAP is absent. Despite these issues, Chile has a robust transparency law framework, and sex-disaggregated data, collected by the military and the police, is available.
Recommendations:
A third NAP would be an opportunity to deepen and consolidate the advancement of gender in the military and the police. Both institutions should be considered as main actors and, most importantly, they should be assigned specific tasks with clear goals and outcomes. In particular, the Gender Advisors should receive clear mandates with authority and resources. Importantly, it is essential that gender perspectives are consistently integrated into the education and training of all military personnel and not just those engaged in UN peacekeeping operations.
A third NAP should also emphasize and provide clearer guidelines for the inclusion of civil society, not only in the drafting of the document, but also in its implementation and monitoring. Finally, all military positions should be opened to qualified women immediately.
Report Contributors:
Andrea Fischer, Master in International Relations
Carolina del Pilar
Carolina Jarpa
Christian Serón, Police Attaché at the Chilean Embassy in the United States, Washington D.C.
Valeska Rojas, Educational Advisor in the Chilean Army, Master in Education specialist in Gender
Colombia has not developed a NAP. That said, the November 24, 2016 peace agreement includes many gender provisions. Additionally, in 2018 the Ministry of Defense (MoD) published its own transversal (intersectional) gender implementation plan for uniformed personnel in Colombia.
Overall Assessment: Colombia has a robust civil society network dedicated to advancing the WPS agenda, and many are lobbying the Colombian government to adopt a WPS NAP.[65] Although the national government has made statements in support of gender equality and the MoD recognizes UNSCR 1325 and the WPS agenda, no NAP has been developed.
National Importance/Political Will:
Gender equality is enshrined in the Colombian Constitution (See Articles 40 and 43).[66] Colombia also has a Presidential Council for Women’s Equity, which collects and analyzes information related to the situation of women in Colombia. Gender equality, women’s rights, and the empowerment of women are also referred to in the 2018-2022 National Development Plan, an all-inclusive policy document that addresses foreign and domestic security policies.[67]
In Colombia, the army, the air force, the navy, and the national police all fall under the authority of the (MoD). The MoD guidelines and policies apply to all four services. Its 2018 report, Public Policy for a Cross-Gender Approach for the Uniformed Personnel of the Public Force, explicitly refers to UNSCR 1325 and its related resolutions.[68] The report, developed as a requirement of the 2016 peace agreement, is referred to as the military’s WPS implementation plan, and it includes the police under the umbrella term “public force.” It calls on the military and the police to make sure that women have equal access and opportunities. It also sets up Gender Observatories at the level of the MoD and General Command, as well as inside each military branch and the police.
While the political commitments toward gender equality are important, there is no overall monitoring mechanism for the uniformed services to examine how measures are applied. In addition, no additional resources or positions have been made available to ensure that the principles of the WPS agenda are implemented within the security forces.
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
WPS principles, and the importance of gender analyses and gender perspectives, are mentioned on an ad-hoc basis in military and police strategies, operational plans, and policy documents. They are not systematically applied. For example, it is recognized by the security services that a gender perspective must be included in the investigation of transnational organized criminal activities, but there are no public documents to corroborate that it occurs in other operational situations.
The prevention of sexual violence and the protection of women and children from sexual violence during the conduct of police and military operations is mentioned in many strategic and policy documents as an important objective in operations. That said, interviews with members of the military and the police, as well as civil society actors, seem to indicate that the implementation of this objective is not systematic.
The military has an official gender office with gender advisors, but we do not know how many people staff this office and what training they receive.
Gender in the Ranks (Military and Police)
Service
Men
Women
Percent Women
Army
39,892
1,512
3.7%
Army Senior Women
1.5%
Navy
10,351
899
7.9%
Navy Senior Women
1.8%
Air Force
5,604
1,243
18.2%
Air Force Senior Women
1.7%
National Police
131,784
13,142
9.1%
National Police Senior Women
1.9%
Women Deployed
Less than 1%
Data provided by MoD personnel.
Few women serve in Colombia’s military and police—less than 4% in the army and a little over 9% in the national police. In addition, women are not promoted to the highest ranks at rates equal to the percentage that they serve in the forces.
Women serve mostly in the support branches and remain prohibited from serving in some ground combat occupations and units. Colombia has not set any targets for increasing women’s participation in the security forces.
Work Environment
Family Policies: Women in the Colombian military and police receive 18 weeks of paid maternity leave. Men receive 8 days of paid paternity leave. Neither men nor women receive any paid family leave, and there is no childcare assistance for military members who have children.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies: There are no programs for the prevention or treatment of sexual harassment and sexual exploitation within the ranks, and the security institutions do not publicly report on the incidence rate of such behavior.
Equipment and Facilities: Women do receive equipment and uniforms designed for women, and they are supported with women-specific facilities including bathrooms and billets.[69]
Training, Education, and Exercises
Entry and mid-level military and police personnel are introduced to the concepts of the WPS agenda, but the training is basic and not systematic. Senior level leaders receive no training in the principles of WPS. Civilian staff personnel occasionally receive training on the principles of WPS within the organization and during operations.
The military and police receive training on protection and prevention of sexual violence and sexual exploitation and abuse of civilians in an area of operations. Despite this training, there are many complaints of sexual violence perpetrated by the military, and particularly by the national police.[70]
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
There are some monitoring and reporting requirements at some agencies, but it is not a formal national level effort. The MoD does have a monitoring and evaluation program.[71] An objective for the Gender Observatories in the military and the police is to ensure the monitoring and follow-up of efforts to integrate gender perspectives. The Observatories are supervised by the Sectorial Committee for Mainstreaming the Gender Approach in the Defense Sector.
Both the military and police collect some sex-disaggregated data, but most are not made public. That said, Colombia has a robust civil society that promotes and advances the UNSCR 1325 and the WPS agenda.[72] The Women Peace and Security Observatory, a coalition of organizations, is actively lobbying the government to adopt a WPS NAP.[73]
Recommendations:
At the national level, Colombia should deepen and codify its commitment to the principles of the WPS agenda by developing and publishing a NAP. The national government should ask their robust civil society groups to assist in writing the NAP and in overseeing its implementation. The military and police should be given specific goals for advancing the agenda as well as resources to realize established goals. Both the military and the police must look internally at how women are treated within the ranks. In particular, the national government should address barriers for women to enter the security forces and how to increase the low numbers. It must also address sexual harassment issues within the ranks.
Costa Rica is actively developing a NAP. The National Institute for Women is in the lead, but the Ministry of Public Security is actively participating in the development of the NAP.
Overall Assessment: Although Costa Rica does not have a WPS NAP, it has made great strides in addressing women’s inequality and insecurity in the country. It has an active and well-established ministry-level National Institute for Women that provides advice and has oversight over gender mainstreaming in all other ministries.Costa Rica is one of a few nations that has no standing military. Citizen security is provided by the Ministry of Public Security. The government, including the Ministry of Public Security, is committed to gender equality in all communities across the nation. Costa Rica has creative and progressive programs to address gender inequality, including programs that challenge “machismo” culture through education and outreach to men in rural communities.
National Importance/Political Will:
Costa Rica has a National Institute for Women that functions as a ministry. This ministry-level Institute is responsible for gender issues. The Institute has a National Council responsible for decision-making at the national level. Furthermore, the Institute provides advice and has oversight over gender mainstreaming in all of the government ministries, including the Ministry of Public Security.
Costa Rica does not have a Ministry of Defense; instead, it has a Ministry of Public Security responsible for ensuring border security, citizen safety, and law enforcement. The Ministry of Public Security was consulted for this report. The Ministry of Public Security has adopted a Gender Equality and Equity Policy.[74] The objective of the policy is to create an organizational environment and culture that requires the provision of inclusive citizen security, the development of police actions and procedures in partnership with communities and the general public, and the promotion of gender equity and gender equality and the promotion of human rights in all institutional work. This policy has its own action plan that was developed in recent years.[75]
The General Directorate of the Public Force, which falls under the Ministry of Public Security, is made up of Regional Directorates, which have specific functions on the subject of gender. They receive support from the Office of Gender Equality and Equity located in the Ministry of Public Security and from the Directorate of Preventive Police Programs. The Directorate of Preventative Police Programs provides information and training across the country on the importance of women’s inclusion in public life and their need for security. Similarly, at the Ministry of Public Security, there is an annual operational plan in which actions are established according to the work of each department that focuses on the issue of gender and implementing a gender perspective. Additionally, the police have a violence against women program to address the prevention of violence against women as well as protection of women.[76] This plan was made official through an internal decree that all employees received.
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
Police force documents have integrated gender equality principles, gender analyses, and gender perspectives into some strategy, plans, and policy and other doctrinal documents at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels.[77] These principles are also mentioned in field manuals and handbooks. The principles of gender equality/WPS are integrated into police exercises, operations, and other police activities, as evidenced in documents like the Operational Plan of the Office for Gender Equality and Equity.[78] The police also have manuals and protocols on how to handle gender-based violence, including domestic violence, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and toxic masculinities.[79] The Office for Gender Equality and Equity serves as a gender advisory office for the police and falls under the Vice-Ministry of Special Units. It does not operate at the highest level and functions more in a human resources capacity. Each police delegation has personnel who are specially trained on gender perspectives, violence against women, and domestic violence It also provides training for civilian groups that make up community security committees and youth groups.
Women serve in all positions and all ranks in the Ministry of Public Security. There is no numerical goal to increase women’s participation, but there are incentive policies to increase women’s participation. The institution has a strong non-discrimination policy, and women are targeted in recruitment advertising.[81]
Work Environment
Family Policies: In accordance with national laws, women receive 120 days of paid maternity leave, including one month before delivery and three months after delivery. Men receive 2 days of paternity leave after the birth of a baby. There are some family leave programs, including a program that allows for leave in the event that a minor child is hospitalized. Costa Rica has national childcare programs that are available to police personnel.[82]
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies: Women in the Department of Public Security are protected by a number of provisions that address sexual harassment and abuse.[83] The sexual harassment and abuse prevention program is actively utilized, and it is transparent. The curriculum of the National Police Academy includes prevention of sexual harassment and abuse (they are considered serious offenses).
Equipment and Uniforms: Women receive equipment and uniforms specifically designed for them. Specifically, after women objected to being issued unisex bullet proof vest that didn’t fit them, women-specific body armor was procured and issued to women. Women also receive maternity uniforms as required.
Facilities: Infrastructure with billets and bathrooms for the exclusive use of women is provided. Despite the limitations in police infrastructure, there has been effort to modify facilities to accommodate women.
Training, Education, and Exercises
The principles of WPS are present in all levels of training through thematic content in the subjects of human rights, intrafamily violence, commercial sexual exploitation, and appropriate police behavior.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
There are monitoring and reporting mechanisms in place for all departments. The public is invited to comment via a website link, but civil society groups do not participate in monitoring and evaluation. Sex-disaggregated data are collected and published annually, and data are tracked over time.[84]
Recommendations:
At the national level, Costa Rica should deepen and codify its commitment to the principles of the WPS agenda by expeditiously publishing a comprehensive NAP. The police should be given specific goals for advancing the agenda. Monitoring and evaluation should include the systematic use of civil society groups, and all reports should be made publicly available.
Report Contributors:
Zoila Volio Pacheco, Member of Parliament
Silvia Porras Jiménez
Gloriana Pacheco
Fiorella Rojas Ballestero, Departamento de Ciencias Forenses, Organismo de Investigación Judicial, Poder Judicial
WPS National Action Plan (NAP) Status: The Dominican Republic has not developed a WPS NAP.
Overall Assessment: The Dominican Republic demonstrates strong political commitment to the principles of gender equality, as can be seen in policy documents and offices that support women’s inclusion. That said, the implementation of actions is uneven and the number of women who serve in the security and defense forces remains low. Furthermore, only a fractional minority of those who serve are promoted to the highest ranks.
National Importance/Political Will:
Gender equality is mentioned in the Dominican Republic Constitution (Article 39) and is supported by other laws and rules.[85] Additionally, the 2030 National Development Strategy and the 2015-2020 Foreign Policy Strategic Plan prioritize gender equality and the provision of equal opportunities and rights for all citizens.[86] Moreover, the main national security documents include provisions to protect and advance gender equality[87].
In 2000, the government created the Ministry of the Woman as a way to implement the commitments established in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action.[88] The Ministry of the Woman is responsible for preparing the Plan of Egalitarianism and Gender Equality and monitoring its progress. The latest National Plan of Egalitarianism and Gender Equality III 2018-2030 was presented in 2018.[89] The plan evaluates the advances in terms of gender equality and presents recommendations and observations for the future. It presents the context, priorities, objectives, and lines of actions in seven issue areas: education, health, economic autonomy, social and political participation, the environment, violence, and digital technologies. The plan serves as guide for all governmental offices.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is relevant to the WPS agenda because it oversees all the international commitments of the Dominican Republic, including the ones related to UNSCR1325. In its New Policy of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers gender equality, human rights, and social inclusion as key components of their foreign policy.
In the Dominican Republic, the national police is part of the Interior and Police Ministry, while the Ministry of Defense (MoD) has authority over the army navy and air force.[90] The MoD has a Strategic Plan (Jan 2017-Dec 2020) that presents the strategic objectives, the lines of action, and goals for the different services.[91] The Strategic Plan is in alignment with the national constitution and the different laws to achieve gender equality.
Article 11 of the Strategic Plan states that the armed forces employ a gender perspective (gender approach), as called for in the legal framework of the country, with an objective to increase gender equality and decrease gender discrimination. Article 12 of the MoD Strategic Plan requires that “all the plans, programs, projects and public policies should incorporate a gender approach, to identify discriminatory situations between men and women and to take actions to guarantee egalitarianism and gender equality.”[92]
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
The principles of WPS/gender equality are sometimes integrated into military and police exercises, operations, and activities, as evidenced by documents to include exercise directives, operations orders, etc. The MoD has a Directorate of Gender Equality and Development that is headed by a colonel who is responsible for gender equality workshops and education programs.[93] This office serves as the MoD’s and military’s full-time gender advisor. Additionally, the army, navy and air force each have their own Office for Gender Affairs. Similarly, the national police have an Office of Gender Equality and Development.
Gender in the Ranks (Military and Police)
Service
Men
Women
Percent Women
Army
24,133
4,420
15.5
Army Senior Women
4
Navy
9,465
2,540
21.2
Navy Senior Women
2.3
Air Force
13,277
5,349
28.7
Air Force Senior Women
4.4
National Police
31,977
6,729
21.04%
National Police Senior Women
8.6
Women Deployed
5.1-8
All positions are open to women in the military and police forces, although women report that there are cultural and institutional limitations. For example, policewomen report that there are ceilings on the number of women who may serve in some states, and that many women are not put to work “on the streets.” Promotions across the institutions are equally offered, but few women have reached senior ranks. The national police, the army, the navy and the air force all have their own strategic and operational plans, and each one of them carries out different actions in terms of gender equality.
The national police have specific objectives and allocation of resources to tackle different aspects of gender equality.[94] For example, Goal 1.1.3 of the Operative Plan 2020 of the Office for Gender Equality and Development establishes a coordination mechanism with other institutions to follow up on the actions and training measures regarding gender equality. At the same time, objective 1.1.5 includes activities such as: 1) training personnel in the different aspects of gender equality; 2) elaborating a didactic guide to support the gender perspectives; 3) incentivizing decision makers to include women in senior positions; and 4) creating a work plan to track the network of focal points.
As to the military, although the army had the objective of strengthening the Department of Gender Equality in its Strategic Plan, the Operative Plan 2019 and 2020 show no extra allocation of financial resources for this objective.[95] The only gender-related activity considered in the operative plan was a single conference to advance gender equality in senior ranks. Similarly, the Strategic Plan 2017-2020 of the air force does not present any specific actions to increase and advance gender equality. [96] The only reference in the air force Plan 2020 to gender equality is about planned “talks about gender equality.” [97] In the case of the navy, no information was available on its official website at the time of writing this report.
Work Environment
Family Policies: The Labor Law of the Dominican Republic grants 14 weeks of paid maternity leave and seven paid days of paternity leave.[98] The employees of the MoD and the national police have access to the same social benefits as other governmental ministries, including childcare stays.[99]
Equipment and Facilities: The MoD Strategic Plan 2012-2020 and the National Police Strategic Plan 2017-2020 specifies that one of the lines of action to improve physical infrastructure is to be more inclusive of women. Such actions would include dormitories, bathrooms, sport facilities, lactation rooms, and childcare stays.[100] However, even when the Strategic Plan notes the improvement of the facilities to accommodate women, the goal has only partially been achieved.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies: Documentation related to programs that seek to prevent, protect and respond to sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and abuse is part of the internal rules and procedures of each institution. At the national level, sexual harassment and sexual violence are established as criminal offences in the Law 29-97 of the Penal Code.[101]
Training, Education, and Exercises
Training in gender affairs and gender perspectives are conducted at entry and mid-level positions. Senior level personnel also receive training in gender and updates in institutional and inter-agencies actions. In addition to standard training, there are multiple educational actions through the year conducted at the armed forces academies and police academy. Other institutions also provide specialty topics in their education programs, such as the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Right Graduates School.[102] Similarly, the national police consistently provides gender training to its personnel at the entry, mid- and senior levels, following the National Police Annual Operative Plan 2020 that states that the Office of Gender Equality and Development should offer related trainings to its personnel.[103]
Military and police personnel consistently receive training on the prevention and response to sexual violence and sexual exploitation and abuse. Military pre-deployment training includes: the importance of protection, rights and needs of women, men, girls and boys; how integrating a gender perspective can serve as a force enabler and how it increases operational effectiveness; and specific information on gender norms in areas of operations.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
Efforts for monitoring the performance of the public sector, including the military and police, are outlined under the Presidential Goals System.[104] Both the military and police collect sex-disaggregated data, which can be easily accessed at each of theirs transparency offices.[105] However, there is a challenge to presenting a general picture of the security institutions due to the existence of multiple decentralized agencies. Although each agency collects its own information, there is a need to create one national report that integrates and presents the data from the different security and defense agencies. There are very few NGOs that consistently monitor the security sector. At this point, the latest report monitoring actions regarding gender equality was presented by Pax Christi International.[106]
Recommendations:
At the national level, the Dominican Republic shows real commitment towards achieving gender equality. The activities of the Ministry of the Women and the National Plan of Egalitarianism and Gender Equality are a guide and a tool for all governmental institutions. However, it is advisable that the country creates a WPS NAP. The MoD makes it clear that gender equality is a priority for the ministry; however, the MoD’s prioritization differs from the actions reported in the operational plans of the three military branches. Therefore, we recommend the following measures:
The offices for Gender Affairs of the army, of the air force and of the navy should increase their efforts towards gender equality and define specific activities and measurement tools to achieve gender equality objectives. For example, the army and the air force could organize more workshops that educate, promote and encourage people in all ranks about gender perspectives.
MoD’s gender advisor office functions at the directorate level; however, we recommend that the army, the air force and navy gender offices appoint senior personnel to oversee and lead these offices. Furthermore, these offices should report directly to the senior leadership of each military service.
In addition, it is advised that the MoD commission a study to determine why so few women are reaching senior ranks and how each armed service is applying the gender equality objectives.
The MoD should establish an action plan for the services to be accomplished by the army, the navy and the air force. Such plan should have measurement tools and reviews to ensure the accomplishment of all objectives.
Although the army, the navy and the air force have their own strategic and operational plans, each one of them carries out different actions in terms of gender equality. The MoD should establish minimum standards to be accomplished by each service branch.
Finally, the principles of the WPS agenda should be included in the next strategic plan for the armed forces.
The National Police, including its de-centralized agencies, should consider gender equality as a priority. To further their efforts in this regard, the recommendations are as follows:
The National Police should establish coherency and coordination between the Strategic Plan and the Operative Plan.
The National Police should communicate the gender policy across departments, with awareness as a goal.
The Ministry of Interior, including the National Police, must coordinate joint actions to further gender equality at all levels and to create awareness of the WPS principles.
Observing the efforts carried out by the Ministry of Interior and the National Police on gender issues within the operative plans, it is advised that the efforts extend to the creation of the Dominican Republic’s WPS National Action Plan.
As a UN member state, the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MIREX) should:
Increase awareness about the UNSCR1325 and the WPS principles within all national institutions and facilitate efforts for the creation of a NAP.
Create a collaborative network between international actors and the national institutions to further the actions related to gender equality.
Given that all members of the diplomatic and consular offices are trained by the Instituto de Educación Superior, Diplomática y Consular “Eduardo Latorre” (INESDYC), [107] it is advised that INESDYC is considered a tool within the Dominican Republic’s future NAP, and that it develops specialized courses and trainings regarding the WPS agenda.
Report Contributors:
Couns. Katherine Almeida Ramos, Interamerican Defense and Security
Carolina Ramirez, Security International Consultant
Ecuador has not published a NAP, but it is currently developing one.
Overall Assessment:
Ecuador’s efforts to implement the principles of UNSCR 1325 are significant but unevenly distributed within the military and the police. Although the national government has expressed a strong commitment to gender equality, the issue has not filtered down completely to the armed forces. While the police rank better in this regard, transparency and channels of communication with civil society are currently lacking.
National Importance/Political Will:
Despite not having adopted a NAP, Ecuador has shown significant political commitment to the principles of gender equality, which are embraced in major foreign policy documents such as the Foreign Policy Agenda 2017-2021 and the Policy for Gender Equality.[108] The Specific Plan of Foreign Relations and Human Mobility calls attention to UNSCR 1325 and states that a NAP is being developed.[109] Ecuador also has a solid gender equality national agenda. A relevant document is the National Agenda for Women and LGBTI People 2018-2021, which sets specific tasks for different ministerial actors, such as the police.[110] The document was created, and is implemented, under the supervision of the Gender Equality Council. This is an inter-ministerial body in charge of mainstreaming gender equality at the national level in all institutions, including the military. Resources dedicated to these tasks are difficult to track since budget reporting tends to vary each year.
Major national security documents, like the Policy of National Defense of Ecuador and the Defense Sector Plan, refer to gender equality as a principle, but they do not make specific references to UNSCR 1325. [111] The national police is an example of how, despite not having adopted a NAP, security institutions can adhere to WPS values. The National Plan for Human Security and Peaceful Social Coexistence does not refer specifically to the WPS agenda, but it includes a comprehensive argument about the importance of gender and intersectional perspectives in security issues, a review of gender-based violence in Ecuador, and references highlighting the contributions of women in the police.[112]
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
At the organizational level, the MoD has taken steps to include WPS principles. The Gender Policy of the Armed Forces of Ecuador, published in 2013, explicitly recognizes UNSCR 1325 and call on states to implement it. The policy states four general objectives to mainstream gender within the ranks, including: ensuring equality of opportunities; improving the work environment; applying a gender perspective in training; and preventing discrimination.[113] Another relevant policy document is the Institutional Strategic Plan of the Armed Forces, which also refers to UNSCR 1325, although it limits the application of UNSCR 1325 to including women’s participation in UN missions.[114] Despite these limitations, it was noted during interviews that the gender equality agenda’s visibility depends on the leadership in the MoD. Ecuador has named two women as Ministers of Defense, and gender mainstreaming was more prominent under their leadership.
There is not a specific directive to include gender perspectives in operational planning. The MoD has a Human Rights, Gender Issues and Humanitarian International Law Unit that functions as a full-time GENAD, but it does not work directly with the Joint Command of the three branches of the military.[115] The Joint Command has a Human Rights unit of its own, but the Director of the unit is not a senior staff officer and, only on occasion, are there officers specialized in gender issues. The armed forces have human rights advisors, but they are not specialized in gender matters.
Police doctrine makes a more comprehensive inclusion of gender equality principles. The Strategic Plan for the National Police 2017-2021 provides guidelines for operational planning, mentioning that policemen and policewomen are to be involved in all operations.[116] There is a full-time GENAD at the police focused solely on this task. Neither the military nor the police have Gender Focal Points.
The presence of women in the military in Ecuador remains low. Although all positions are officially open to them, they are not represented in every occupation. Data regarding promotion to senior ranks was not available, though it is believed to be less than 1%. In the police, all positions are open to women. The police have some women serving in the senior ranks. Neither the military nor the police have defined specific goals to increase women’s participation in their ranks.
Work Environment
The military has made efforts to improve the working environment for service members. A relevant publication in this matter is the Gender Book, which aims to present applicable legislation related to gender in a concise and educational fashion.[120]
Family Policies: Military and police personnel are both granted 80 calendar days of paid maternity leave, and 10 to 15 days of paternity leave. Childcare is available to both military and police personnel.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies: There is no specific program in place to protect military personnel who are victims of harassment or abuse; when it occurs, it is handled by the civilian justice system and the civilian penal code. Depending on the verdict, administrative action can be taken against perpetrators. It is unclear if the gender policy for the military has had an impact on these cases. In the case of the police, the process for prosecution is similar. Police doctrine emphasizes human rights and the responsibility not to abuse power, but it is mostly an outward rather than inward perspective.
Equipment and facilities: For daily operations, there are women-specific uniforms, including maternity uniforms, but there is no specific personal protective equipment. Bases and units are prepared to have both women and men, but some operational environments are still not equipped for women, and they do not serve in such positions.
Training, Education, and Exercises
Gender topics are part of the curriculum during junior and mid-level military education and fall within human rights studies. Learning about gender issues remains at a very abstract and theoretical level. For senior level officers, gender training is sometimes provided. The training tends to be optional and sporadic and depends on the particular profile of the personnel teaching, rather than as an institutionalized topic. That said, particular training on UNSCR 1325 is offered.[121] The police receive training in this matter, since part of their duties includes the protection and prevention of violence against vulnerable people. The Gender Equality Council, in particular, provides training for the police in implementing a gender perspective.[122] The military also receives training pertaining to protection of vulnerable persons within the framework of international humanitarian law, but it is not clear if the training includes an internal focus to prevent this violence within its own ranks.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
There is some monitoring and reporting associated with the indicators developed in the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. For example, there is a specific indicator that measures the percentage of women police officers.[123] The Gender Equality Council collaborates with civil society to monitor the advancements of the National Agenda for Women and LGBTI People and thus oversees commitments related to the police. Civil society does not participate in any monitoring of the military. It is also unclear if civil society is involved in the current drafting of the NAP. Sex-disaggregated data is collected both by the military and the police, but it is not always publicly accessible. That said, these figures can be obtained through public policy transparency mechanisms.
Recommendations: Ecuador should deepen its commitment to the principle of WPS by expeditiously publishing a robust NAP that outlines clear goals and objectives for the military and police, identifies resources for implementation, and provides independent mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation. Civil society groups should immediately be consulted for the NAP currently under development. Training about gender perspectives should be conducted on a regular basis at the highest level. Specific steps must be taken to allow more women to access all positions in the military and to reach the highest positions. Sex-disaggregated data for the military and police should be published annually. Protocols to prevent abuse and harassment should be strengthened. Lastly, GENADs should be appointed for all branches of the military; they should assume operational roles and not be placed in administrative positions.
Report Contributors:
Mgs. Byron Gabriel Paredes Escobar
Mgs. Diana Carolina Sanabria Salinas
Mgs. Marco Antonio Criollo Asimbaya
Lic. María Andrea Cárdenas H.
Ing. María Dolores Santos Vidal, President of AFCEA International Ecuador Chapter
Guatemala adopted a NAP in 2017, but it did not have a specific time frame for its implementation or expiration.
Overall Assessment:
Guatemala is an active supporter of the WPS agenda, and the NAP has paved the way for the inclusion of the WPS principles in its security and defense institutions. However, implementation of the NAP is hard to measure given the lack of a monitoring and assessment mechanism to evaluate progress or determine impact. Guatemala has low representation of women in the military and police, with few to no women serving in the senior ranks.
National Importance/Political Will:
Guatemala is a signatory of key international legal frameworks on gender equality. Guatemalan women took a leading role in ending the recent civil war, which lasted from 1960 until 1996, but they were subsequently underrepresented in the formal peace processes and negotiations.[124] Most institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women’s rights in the country are derived from the Peace Accords (signed at different stages after the civil war ended). The most relevant of these is the creation of the Women’s Secretariat. Gender equality is also enshrined in Article 4 of the Constitution, and there are other laws, such as the Law of Dignification of the Integral Promotion of Women.[125] Among the most relevant strategies for women’s equality is the National Policy for the Promotion and Integral Development of Women and Equal Opportunities Plan 2008-2023 that is implemented by the Secretariat.[126] Although it does not make a direct reference to UNSCR 1325, it directs the police to take specific actions. For example, they are directed to create programs that prevent discrimination within the institution and to acknowledge the multiethnic facet of Guatemala. This is not a minor feature, since more than 80% of the victims in the civil war were indigenous people, including many women who were victims of sexual assault[127] and forced domestic slavery.[128] The Ministry of National Defense (MoND) is not mentioned in this document.
Guatemala’s NAP was developed by the Inter-Agency Roundtable on Women, Peace and Security (MIMPAZ). This roundtable was created in 2012 with the purpose of promoting and facilitating the implementation of the WPS agenda. Both the MoND and the national civil police are members of MIMPAZ. Nonetheless, the principles of WPS are not explicitly mentioned in the most important security documents, such as the Framework Law of the National Security System[129], the Pact for Security, Justice and Peace,[130] or the National Defense Book.[131]
Institutional Policy and Practice
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
The NAP outlines a set of operational actions to create and implement gender equality policies in the national security system, including the national civil police and the Ministry of National Defense. It calls for: 1) the full participation of women at all decision-making levels; 2) measures to prevent violence against women; and 3) the commitment to ensure work-life balance for women serving in the ranks.[132] Nonetheless, the WPS principles are absent in strategy, policy or planning documents, and in any field manuals, both from the military and the police. They are also not integrated into military or police operational policy planning processes. The MoND, through Government Agreement No. 30-2016, created the Department of Gender, General Directorate of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law[133]. The NAP was co-designed by this department, which also serves as a GENAD. However, this position is not part of the General Staff of National Defense. In the case of the police, a GENAD is part the Gender Unit of the General Sub-directorate for Violence Prevention. GENADs have received training from the Presidential Secretariat of Women. No GFPs have been assigned to the military or the police.
The police have a Department for Gender Equality that is part of the General Sub-directorate for Crime Prevention. The Comprehensive Community Security Police Model does mention gender equality as a priority for the institution, but it is not linked to operational practices.[134] The policy document closer to the WPS agenda is the Police Didactic Manual for the Prevention of Cases of Violence Against Women.[135]
All positions in the military and police are technically open to women. However, women serve in extremely low numbers and at the lowest ranks. Women comprise less than 8%[137] of the armed forces and 16% of the police. To date, no women have been promoted beyond the rank of colonel in the military, and there are no target goals to increase the percentage of women in the ranks. In the police, some women have reached senior ranks. Although the NAP calls for the full participation of women at all decision-making levels, there has been little progress on this front.[138]
Work Environment
Family Policies: Women receive 84 days of paid maternity leave in both the military and the police. Childcare is also available.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies: Programs against sexual harassment and sexual abuse to protect personnel within the military and the police exist, but they are not transparent. Every year, personnel participate in conferences, workshops, and preventive talks related to sexual harassment and sexual abuse, but it is not possible to assess their impact or effectiveness. There is also a prevention program to address issues of military and police personnel as perpetrators of violence against civilians.
Equipment and Facilities: There is some equipment and uniforms specifically designed for women in the military and the police, as well as facilities for women in both institutions in the areas where they serve.
Training, Education, and Exercises
Guatemala has a specialized training center for personnel who participate in UN missions. The Regional Training Command of Peacekeeping Operations (CREOMPAZ) includes courses on how to employ a gender perspective.[139] The principles of WPS are integrated into the education and training of military and police personnel at every level of the hierarchy. This training is also available for the staff. Nonetheless, there is no information on the frequency of this training or who provides it. Personnel consistently receive training on the prevention and response to sexual violence and sexual exploitation and abuse. The training is both internally (within the organization) and externally (UN missions) focused.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
Information published by MIMPAZ this year indicates that a Monitoring and Evaluation System of the NAP has been presented by UN Women Guatemala, but no further report was located.[140] This is relevant since there are no national or agency level requirements to monitor or to report on progress in meeting the WPS agenda, despite this being a requirement of the NAP. The involvement of civil society is mentioned in the NAP, but no specific information is available about their current involvement in monitoring and reporting. The police and the military collect sex-disaggregated data, but it is not made publicly available.
Recommendations: Guatemala has the opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to the WPS agenda by publishing a second NAP that builds upon the successes and limitations of the first version. A new NAP must clearly identify responsible agencies in both the military and police, provide resources, identify goals, set a time frame for implementation, and provide clear indicators to measure advancement. In this regard, it would be valuable to include the Technical Secretariat of the National Security Council, as they coordinate the institutions of the national security system. Additionally, there must be independent and transparent monitoring and evaluation that include civil society organizations. The military and police should solicit input from women in the field with operational experience. Military and police leadership must take specific steps to guarantee the participation of women in their ranks, particularly as flag and general officers, and must mainstream a gender perspective in the institution, for example, by implementing a transparent permanent program to prevent and punish sexual harassment and assault within the ranks.
Report Contributors:
1. Female staff of the Technical Secretariat of the National Security Council
2. Emily Rubí Baires Martínez – National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED)
In January 2020, Mexico announced the adoption of a feminist foreign policy. Mexico is also developing its first 1325/WPS NAP.
Overall Assessment:
In 2019, the government of Mexico restructured the security and defense apparatus extensively.[141] The reforms created a new National Guard, which functions as a national police force. While this is a civilian force under civilian direction, its leadership and the majority of its personnel come from the armed forces. In addition, in May 2020, the Mexican President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (also known as AMLO), issued an executive decree that formalized and expanded the role of the military to participate in public security tasks.[142] In both the military and police, the number of women serving is low, and they often serve at the lowest ranks. Until recently, civil society has not been much involved in the integration of women in the security forces.
National Importance/Political Will:
The Mexican Constitution, national laws and a number of national policy documents and statements recognize and support the notion of gender equality and women’s rights, but these laws and regulations are not systematically enforced by the police and the courts.[143] For example, the National Development Plan mentions both the police and military as principal actors, but it does assign specific actions to the police or military, and there are no goals or benchmarks to measure progress.
National support for the WPS agenda in Mexico has been weak, but there are some signs of support under the new AMLO administration. A WPS NAP was set to be released in October 2020. It is worth noting that this did not occur, and the authorities are expected to launch it before the end of 2020. The Mexican security forces have reportedly participated in the development of the plan. (See the Report of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection).[144]
In January 2020, Mexico announced that it had adopted a feminist foreign policy focused on reducing structural differences, gender gaps and inequalities at home and abroad. Recent foreign policy documents make repeated references to gender equality, women’s rights, and women’s empowerment as major foreign policy aims.[145] These are presumably also the stated aims of the feminist foreign policy. That said, the government has not yet published a detailed implementation plan how gender equality and women’s rights will be advanced in the foreign policy context.
The National Peace and Security Plan (2018-2024) that introduced reforms to the security forces, including the creation of a National Guard, does not address the protection and prevention of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence against women, nor does it address the need for the increased participation of women in peace and security activities.[146]
On the other hand, the National Defense Sector Program 2020-2024 considers the promotion of equality and inclusion as a priority strategy. It includes as tasks: to consolidate the culture of respect and equality among women and men to avoid gender violence, harassment, discrimination, as well as sexual abuse; and to strengthen the professional development of military women.[147] The Navy Sector Program 2020-2024 has as a priority strategy the task of promoting respect for human rights, gender equality, and interculturality.[148]
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
The Mexican military has integrated some gender equality/WPS principles into their strategies, plans, and policy documents. The most notable commitment by the military (army and air force) is the establishment in 2011 of the Observatory for Equality between Women and Men. The military reports that this Observatory functions as a Gender Advisor. However, there are no publicly available reports that detail the activities and members of the Observatory, or explain the resources it has at its disposal. Their access to the highest ranks of the military also remains unclear.
The National Guard has not systematically incorporated the principles of WPS in their strategy, plans, and policy documents, and they have not appointed any gender advisors or gender focal points in their organization.
That said, to what extent the military and the National Guard have integrated WPS and gender equality principles is difficult to tell, since many policy documents are currently under development.
Most women serving in the Mexican military serve in the medical and administrative branches and not the operational and combat branches. Not surprisingly, few women are deployed during operations. Women also occupy very few senior positions in the Mexican military—a mere 3% in the Army and just 1% in the Navy. Furthermore, official information about the number of women in the armed forces is difficult to find in open sources. Although Secretariat of Defense personnel said that there are efforts to increase women’s participation in the military and reach a goal of 30% by 2024, this goal seems unrealistically high given that women currently only comprise 11.8% of the force.
Work Environment
Family Policies: The military and police provide three months of paid maternity leave and 10 days of paid paternity leave. Paternity leave must be used immediately following the birth of a baby. Childcare and other family leave policies support members of the military and they are widely used.
Equipment: Women in both the military and police are issued equipment designed specifically for women. Facilities, including bathrooms and living quarters are available to accommodate women in the military, but they are not systematically available in the National Guard.
Anti-Sexual Harassment Policies: Although the military has policies to address sexual harassment and assault of military members, the number of cases, the disaggregation of cases by sex, or the number of cases that is prosecuted is not made public. Prosecution of cases between military personnel takes place within the military command. However, when the offense is committed against a civilian, the case takes place within the civil tribunals. There is no program to address sexual harassment, assault or exploitation in the National Guard. Presumably, these cases would be referred to the civilian courts.
Training, Education, and Exercises
WPS principles are introduced and integrated into the education and training of personnel at the junior-level as part of entry-level training but it is not widely reinforced with follow-on training at the mid- or senior-levels.
Military personnel consistently receive training on the prevention and response to sexual violence and sexual exploitation and abuse. The training is both internally (within the organization) and externally (civilian populations outside the organization) focused. Although the Mexican government said that National Guard personnel will receive training on gender perspectives, it is unclear if this training is fully integrated into the curricula at all levels.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
The military and police report that sex-disaggregated data and lessons learned are collected and
analyzed to improve security outcomes for women, men, girls and boys but the data is not made publicly available. Furthermore, there are no national level programs to monitor and evaluate progress toward meeting the goals of the WPS agenda and civil society groups are not engaged in any assessments.
Recommendations:
Publish a robust WPS NAP as soon as possible and ensure that it provides clear goals, metrics, and resources for both the military and National Guard. Goals should include: metrics for analyzing and assessing progress in the areas of increasing women’s participation in the forces; a minimum budget allocation; addressing sexual harassment, abuse and exploitation of military and police personnel and civilians in the areas of operation;, applying a gender lens to all programs and operations; andannually evaluating and publishing progress toward meeting national goals. It is important that this plan is not limited to Mexico’s performance in the UN missions, but that it has a firm internal focus. It is also advisable to include monitoring from the Defense and Marine Commissions of the legislative branch or through the Bicameral National Security Commission.
Although Panama does not have a NAP, the Institute of Women has a Strategic Operative Plan that carries out a variety of activities to promote gender equality in government and society.[155]
Overall Assessment:
Panama has been developing a robust legal framework to enhance gender equality. In May 2020, the government of Panama and UN Women signed a five-year agreement to develop a strategy to improve gender equality and women’s empowerment in the country.[156] In terms of its national security structure, Panama does not have a military but does have a Ministry of Public Security that oversees four law enforcement branches: the National Police, the National Aeronaval Service, the National Borders Service and the National Migration Service. While the overall national commitment to gender equality is high, its application in the Ministry of Public Security is relatively low. It was enhanced with the creation of a Gender Advisor (GENAD) office in 2017, which has progressively and steadily increased its activities.
National Importance/Political Will:
Gender equality is mentioned in Article 19 of Panama’s constitution. It explicitly states that there shall be no discrimination on the basis of race, birth, disabilities, social class, sex, religion and political thought.[157] Furthermore, the legal framework that supports gender equality is composed of at least 20 laws, three executive resolutions and four public policy tools. This remarkable framework includes activities for all levels of the citizenship. For example, Law number 6, approved in 2000, made it mandatory for all school texts and materials to include a gender perspective. Law number 54, approved in 2012, reformed the electoral code and requires political parties to have at least 50% of women on electoral lists for primary elections.
In 2017, Executive Decree No. 100 mandated that every ministry and governmental institution create an office for women and/or gender issues, with a special unit to deal with cases of domestic violence, sexual harassment, and abuse. These offices are financed by the Comité Nacional Contra la Violencia en la Mujer. The Committee is part of the National Institute for Women, which works with an overall budget of US $6,516,551 in 2019 and US $5,747,864.00 in 2020.[158]
In 2017, the Congress approved Law 56, which established quotas for the participation of women in state boards of directors. Article 2 requires that any institution supported by the Central government, including decentralized, public companies, should assign at least 30% of seats on their administrative councils, boards of directors, or similar entities to women.[159]
The government of Panama created the National Institute for Women in 2008. Its main task is to monitor and oversee the public policies related to gender equality and equal opportunities.[160] The Institute of Women has worked with the Ministry of Public Security in furthering gender equality. The 2018 Activities Report of the Institute mentions that it worked with the police and provided special training to police on issues related to gender-based violence. Subsequently, the police created a service specialized in gender-based violence. This service is now housed in the offices of the different police zones in Panama and is in charge of dealing with cases of domestic violence.[161] In 2019, the Institute and the National Police carried out a presentation about gender equality and violence against women. The Institute’s Annual Operative Plan for 2020 shows that the activities carried out during the year included two sensitization workshops for the national police. Such workshops focused on how to prevent the revictimization of victims during police and judicial investigations[162]
In terms of the Ministry of Public Security, it created the Office of Gender Equality and the Equality of Opportunities in 2018(Oficina de Equidad de Genero y Equiparación de Oportunidades) in compliance with the executive decree No. 100 published in 2017. Its organizational structure includes a director and sub-director, psychologists, sociologists, and social workers. The Office is composed of different divisions, including one that focuses on generating statistics, and two specialized units: 1) equal opportunities; and 2) gender issues.[163] Moreover, the manual of the Office of Gender Equality, published in 2019, presents a detailed description of the tasks and responsibilities of each position and each area within the Office. Such activities include: the creation of an annual operational plan regarding gender issues to be formulated in coordination with the national police, the National Migration Service, the National Borders Service, and the National Aeronaval Service; the coordination of gender-sensitization campaigns; and the provision of legal and juridical advice to women facing violent events.
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
The principles of WPS/gender equality are sometimes integrated into police exercises, operations, and activities, as evidenced by the Organizational Manual of the Ministry of Public Security. The Oficina de Participacion Ciudadana (Office of Citizen Participation) is the office in charge of preparing plans and programs, with a strategic focus on citizen security with a gender perspective.[164] This Office integrates the group of administrative units of the Ministry of Public Security in an auxiliary support level. In this regard, the Ministry of Public Security is the ministry in charge of citizen security and the promotion of the participation of community leaders and civil groups to strengthen security strategies and policy implementation.
The Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Public Security of Panama does not present a list of actions to improve gender equality or gender perspective in the law enforcement forces of Panama. Instead, it outlines that the next actions are to: “Begin a consultive process to update the goals, results and activities of the Strategy, considering the incorporation of some subjects such as the environment, the indigenous peoples and gender in a transversal (cross-cutting) way.”[165]
All police positions are open to women. That said, there are few women serving in some of the institutions like the Servicio Nacional Aeronaval and the Servicio Nacional de Fronteras, but this is attributed to the fairly recent creation of both institutions in 2008.
Work Environment
Family Policies: Article 107 of the Labor Code establishes that paid maternity leave lasts 14 weeks: six weeks prior to delivery and 8 weeks after delivery.[167] In 2017, three days of paid paternal leave were added.[168] The employees of the Ministry of Public Security have access to the same social benefits as other governmental ministries, including childcare centers.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse: Article 178 of the Penal Code of Panama was modified in 2018 to include sexual harassment. The reform dictates that sexual harassment at work is an offense that can be punishable with 2-4 years in jail.[169] In addition, the Organic Law of the National Police explicitly prohibits any type of discrimination.[170]
Equipment and Facilities:There are some women specific uniforms but no personal protective equipment designed for women. Moreover, there are facilities, including bathrooms and billets, available for women in police facilities, and they are provided during deployments.
Training, Education, and Exercises
Training in gender affairs and gender perspectives are conducted at entry, mid- and senior-level positions. The Office of Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities in the Ministry of Public Security and the National Institute of Women provide training on gender and gender perspectives to the police.
The Office of Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities has substantially increased its activities throughout the two years of its existence. The 2019 report has a detailed description of its accomplishments, including: activities of sensitization; introduction courses and self-care course;, new facilities for the Office; and courses on intervention for first respondents on violent crimes. Planned activities include: building a webpage for the office; providing courses and workshops about gender equality; developing educational material; creatiing a workplan for training entry level personnel as well as training for senior ranks; and the creation of a police unit specialized in gender violence as part of the national police.[171]
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
The monitoring and evaluation of gender policies and programs is undertaken by the Institute of Women. In terms of the security sector, the evaluations are carried out by the Office of Gender Equality and the Office of Equality of Opportunities of the Ministry of Public Security. Additionally, NGOs like the Konrad Adenauer Foundation are also monitoring gender policies in Panama[172].
Recommendations:
Panama has a robust legal framework with respect to gender equality. Given many new policy developments, it might be time to update the Organization Manual of the Ministry of Public Security. It was published in 2015 and does not include the new Office of Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities that started operating in 2018.
Furthermore, the Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Public Security should consider including concrete objectives about how to promote and advance gender equality beyond the prevention of gender-related violence. For example, it could establish a plan to provide protective equipment for all the women in the police forces and address how to recruit and retain more women.
In a similar vein, the gender training provided by the Office of Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities should include more information on gender analyses and gender perspectives. Currently, the training is focused on investigative actions of violence against women. In addition, more attention should be paid to the promotion opportunities of women within the police.
Paraguay adopted its first NAP in 2013. A new version is currently under development.
Overall Assessment:
Paraguay has made progress towards the adoption of the WPS principles, thanks to the national gender equality agenda. That said, the 2013 NAP was never implemented because of a change in the political leadership of the country. The NAP was developed and published by the Frente Guasú and the Partido Liberal administration. In the 2013 elections, the Partido Colorado was the winner and the implementation of the NAP lost priority. The current PartidoColorado administration, elected in 2018, has been more positive towards the WPS agenda. The Ministry of Women is currently leading an effort to develop a new NAP.
National Importance/Political Will:
National importance given to the WPS agenda has waxed and waned over the years. However, Paraguay is committed to gender equality, which is evident in key foreign and national policy documents, such as is the National Development Plan 2030,[173] which was developed in the context of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development.[174] In particular, the gender equality strategy of the plan promotes equitable and participatory access under equal conditions for women and men; it addresses power structures and decision-making processes, and it also calls for the integration of a gender perspective in public policies, plans, programs, projects, and regulations of public institutions.[175] Since the National Development Plan is a joint effort that involves all ministries, both the police (as part of the Ministry of Interior) and the Ministry of Defense (MoD) are engaged in the achievement of these goals. Given the status of the National Development Plan, both the military and the police are expected, but not obligated, to adapt their institutional policy documents to its goals.
The WPS agenda is not mentioned in national security documents such as the National Policy of Defense.[176] This document mentions equality and peace as goals, but it falls short in referring to the WPS agenda. As for the police, the report “Mainstreaming of the Gender Approach in the Strategy National Security Citizen” also does not refer to UNSCR 1325 or the WPS agenda, but it makes clear recommendations on how to improve the integration of a gender perspective into activities of the police.[177] The IV National Equality Plan of the Ministry of Women represents the clearest effort of the government to mainstream gender equality, although it does not mention UNSCR 1325.[178] Other relevant efforts by this Ministry include the Observatory of Women, which monitors the incidence of femicide and efforts to prevent trafficking of women.
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
In the NAP, Paraguay committed to creating a Gender Observatory and to incorporating a gender perspective in all areas related to defense and security institutions. Nevertheless, the NAP did not specify which institution should host the Observatory. In addition, due to the change in political leadership, the Gender Observatory did not materialize (as can be noted in the Strategic Institutional Plan 2019-2023 of the MoD). That said, the MoD has a Gender Unit, which is part of the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Directorate. Since 2019, the Directorate of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law and the Gender Unit fall under the supervision of the Vice Minister. It functions as a GENAD position. It is not clear whether there are GFPs in the armed forces. The police do not have a GENAD, but they do have a Gender Violence Unit, which is in charge of providing specialized care for victims of domestic violence. The police also do not have any GFPs.
No data was provided on the number and percentage of women who serve in senior ranks in the military and police, except as related to UN peacekeeping operations. Many positions in the military are closed to women. In the Aamy, all cavalry and infantry occupations are closed to women; however, all positions in the air force and navy are open to women. Interestingly, a civilian woman currently serves as the Vice Minister of National Defense, and formerly a woman served as Minister of Defense. Women are only deployed in UN missions. In the police, all positions are open to women, but few women occupy senior ranks. Neither the military nor the police have set recruitment goals to increase the number of women in the ranks. However, the police have new career plan regulations to promote equal participation of women in its ranks.[181]
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies: There are directivesin place to prevent sexual harassment both in the military and the police.
Equipment and facilities: Equipment and uniforms for women in both institutions are available, and facilities to accommodate women are also provided.
Training, Education, and Exercises
Military personnel that participate in UN missions receive training on the principles of WPS. The training is provided by the Peace Operations Training Institute or by training centers from neighboring countries in the Southern Cone. Military personnel who participate in UN missions consistently receive training on the prevention and response to sexual violence and sexual exploitation and abuse. The training is both internally (within the organization) and externally (civilian populations outside the organization) focused. Nonetheless, it is unclear if these, or similar courses, are available and mandatory for the rest of the military at all levels.
The police and other law enforcement institutions receive training in gender perspectives from the Ministry of Women (MINMUJER). This Ministry is the normative and strategic governing body of gender policies, and it currently coordinates the implementation of the IV National Equality Plan.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
General monitoring, evaluation, and reporting are considered within the institutional framework of the Fourth NAP of Open Government of Paraguay.[184] The Paraguayan government has developed short-term plans as tools to ensure accountability for development policies. Civil society is an active contributor to their formulation. That said, the involvement of civil society with regards to security-related policies and activities of the military and the police is limited. In part, this is because the number of specialized NGOs in matters of gender and security is small. The military and the police collect sex-disaggregated data, but the data it is not routinely made public unless requested through transparency mechanisms.
Recommendations:
At the national level Paraguay should deepen and codify its commitment to the principles of the WPS agenda by expeditiously publishing a new, comprehensive NAP. The military and police should be given specific goals for advancing the agenda. The new NAP should include mechanisms to institutionalize its implementation so that it can withstand political changes in the executive. This can be achieved with the adoption of specific implementation plans for the armed forces and the police, and the allocation of resources to these ends. Monitoring and evaluation should be clearly established and include the systematic use of civil society groups, and all data and reports should be made publicly available.
Contributors:
María Gloria Báez Recalde, General Director of Prevention and Care Against Trafficking, Ministry of Women, Asunción, Paraguay
Laura A. Villalba, Senior Principal Consultant, Politics & Policy LLC, Minnesota, USA
Despite not having adopted a NAP, Peru has made concrete progress toward gender equality and the adoption of WPS principles in the armed forces and the police. International commitments are reflected in national legislation and the National Plan for Gender Equality. The latter serves as a roadmap for progress. That said, more work needs to be done regarding the integration of gender equality norms in Peru’s national security institutions.
National Importance/Political Will:
At the international level, Peru has shown commitment to UNSCR 1325 by supporting the legal international frameworks for gender equality, including the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence Against Women, and the Declaration and Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women. Additionally, Peru has advocated for the elimination of gender-based restrictions in the armed forces in multilateral forums, such as the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas.
At the national level, Peru has pursued a national gender equality agenda supported by the Constitution,[185] a legislative framework, and the National Plan for Gender Equality.[186] The Plan is intersectional in nature and addresses structural discrimination against women as a central problem in the country. Among its priorities, it includes guaranteeing women’s access and participation in decision-making institutions as well as guaranteeing the protection of children, adolescents and women against all types of violence. Overall, the national gender equality policy is projected to be implemented by 2030, in accordance with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Peru has a Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations, which is active in the implementation of a gender mainstreaming in all ministries, including the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Ministry of the Interior (which includes the police). Therefore, although the MoD is not specifically identified as a main actor, it implements some policies related to the principles of the WPS agenda. For example, the gender policies of Peru’s National Agreement[187] and the national security and defense policy seek to reduce inequality gaps by promoting a human security approach; the White Paper on National Defense provides information related to the promotion of peace and security and the protection of human rights.
The national police started gender mainstreaming in the 1990s. It has included gender perspectives in its policies and provides training on both gender and women’s rights.[188]
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
Military: WPS principles, and gender analyses and gender perspectives are mentioned in military strategies, plans, and other policy documents on an ad-hoc, not systemic, basis. Gender is not integrated in operational planning processes. There is some recognition of the role that gender plays in military operations, and it is framed as a human rights issue.
The prevention of sexual violence is neither included in military strategic documents, nor is it part of military regulations. However, it is considered in the Law of the Disciplinary Regime of the Armed Forces (Law 29131).[189] The Committee for Gender Equality of the Ministry of Defense (MoD) was created in 2017 to contribute to the follow-up and monitoring of the implementation of national policies and the strategic objectives of the National Gender Equality Policy. The latter has, as goals, the reduction of gender gaps in planning instruments and the actualization of a gender equal organizational culture. The MoD does not have a specific Gender Advisor position, nor does it have a specific budget allocation for gender related work.[190]
Police: Violence against women and the role of the police is specifically mentioned in the Institutional Strategic Plan of the Police 2020-2024.[191] These issues are also covered in plans and protocols that mention the police as a main actor (for example, the National Plan Against Gender Violence 2016-2021). As a result, personnel of the national police are continuously trained in these issues.[192] The police have also assigned a Commissioner for the Fight Against Violence Against Women.[193] This position meets some of the characteristics of a GENAD, but it is mainly oriented to the external tasks of the institution.
In the armed forces, there are no legal limitations for women to serve in all positions. However, there are no women serving in combat positions. Women do participate actively in UN missions. Among the three branches of the military, there are at least 12 women who serve in the rank of colonel. This number is expected to increase in the coming years due to the fairly recent incorporation of women into the armed forces (since 1997).[195] No recruiting goals have been established to increase women’s participation, but the recruitment system does target women.
Women serve in all occupations in the national police and throughout the national territory, including in the Emergency Squad, Explosives Deactivation, and Criminalistics and the Police Aviation Unit. [196] There are women in all specialties, but few women serve in the most senior ranks and not at the same rate as men.
Work Environment
Family Policies: Women in the military and the police receive 98 days of paid maternity leave.[197] Childcare assistance is provided.
Equipment and Facilities: Equipment and uniforms designed to maximize women’s performance exist, but they are not always available and must be constantly adapted.[198] Facilities including restrooms and accommodations are available for women at military and police facilities and during deployment for peacekeeping operations.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies: ThePolice Disciplinary Regime Law (No. 30714) and the Armed Forces Disciplinary Regime Law (No. 29131) regulate and/or punish serious offenses related to harassment.
Training, Education, and Exercises
In the educational curriculum, there are no specific courses on gender equality. However, compulsory courses on international humanitarian law and human rights are part of the training of personnel who participate in military operations inside the country and those who participate in UN missions abroad. These courses are based on the notion of respect and the idea of human life as a fundamental right. In general, mandatory training on WPS principles in the armed forces has not been considered. This type of training is only mandatory for personnel deployed to UN missions. In the case of the police, police personnel are constantly trained on preventing and responding to sexual violence and sexual exploitation and abuse of civilians, and they actively collaborate with the Ministry of Women.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
There are efforts to inform and evaluate the implementation of gender equality in the armed forces and police. The presentation of reports and evaluation is carried out through the Personnel Directorates of each institution. However, there is no gender office in either institution that focuses exclusively on gender mainstreaming. The data that is collected and analyzed is confidential. This is also the case with the police.
Recommendations: Peru should deepen and codify its commitment to UNSCR 1325 by developing a NAP. Specific goals with transparent performance indicators for advancing gender equality and WPS agenda are highly recommended, as well as resources to accomplish established goals. Peru should consider the creation of gender offices in security and defense institutions to focus on monitoring gender integration strategies. These offices would benefit from having GENADs to monitor and evaluate national policies and plans. It is also advisable to incorporate a gender perspective in the curriculum for all levels in the armed forces and the police. It is further advisable to encourage the training and education of women in all specialties of the armed forces as well as to increase the participation of women at all decision levels. Gender specific uniforms, equipment and facilities that are fully adapted to women are also important steps to ensure the full participation of women in all aspects of duty.
Report Contributors:
Leidy Depaz Caballero, International Lawyer, Master in Development and National Defense, Writer and Researcher.
Col. EP Lourdes Barriga Abarca, Director of the Scientific and Technological Institute of the Peruvian Army
Col.EP Guillermo Santolalla, Advisor to the Inter-American Defense Board
PhD Luis Garcia Westphalen, Technical Secretary of the Legal Defense Commission of the Ministry of Defense
Miguel Peña Castro, Multilateral Affairs Officer of the Ministry of Defense
Trinidad and Tobago does not have a NAP but is actively engaged in developing one.
Overall Assessment:
Although Trinidad and Tobago does not have a NAP, they have engaged in a number of best practices for promoting women’s participation in government agencies, and a relatively high percentage (29%) of the national police are women. Notably, at the ministerial level, they have a Minister of Gender and Child Affairs with a department dedicated to gender equity and justice. However, the Ministry of National Security, which includes the military and police, is separate from this organization; although there are some gender advisors in the security sector, they do not serve at the highest levels, and their training is informal and on an ad hoc basis.
National Importance/Political Will:
Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory of all international laws and frameworks promoting women’s rights, and gender equality is enshrined in the constitution and in laws that are mostly enforced by the police and the courts.[199] The Office of the Prime Minister includes a Minister of Gender and Child Affairs. The purpose of the Gender Affairs Division is to “effectively promote Gender Equity and Gender Justice through the process of Gender mainstreaming in all government Policies, Programmes and Projects.”[200] In 2018, the ministry published The National Policy on Gender and Development.[201] This comprehensive document outlines the government’s goals of promoting gender equality across the nation. However, although the national policy says it applies to “all government and ministry agencies,” and it has a section titled “Gender Based Violence and Human Security,” it does not spell out specific responsibilities, tasks, goals, or metrics for the Ministry of National Security, which encompasses both the military and police.
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, and Policy
WPS principles, gender analyses and gender perspectives are integrated into some strategy, plans, and policy and other doctrinal documents at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. They are also occasionally mentioned in field manuals and handbooks. The principles of WPS are integrated into military and police exercises and operations on an ad-hoc, not a habitual basis, as evidenced by documents including exercise directives and operations orders. Both the military and police have some gender advisors, but only the police have trained gender advisors, and they are not assigned to the highest levels. They serve mostly in human resource departments. Prevention of sexual violence is mentioned in key documents, field manuals, and handbooks of both the military and police.
Gender in the Ranks (Military and Police)
Service
Men
Women
Percent Women
Military
4347
726
14.3%
Senior Military Women
Police
7,323
2,939
29%
Senior Police Women
All positions in the military and police are open to women, but there are no recruiting goals to increase women’s participation, and women are limited by policy to 30% of the police force. In fact, there are women waiting to join the police force who cannot get in due to the 30% cap. Women are promoted to senior ranks at the same percentage as they serve across the force. A woman has held the highest position in the police force, serving for a period of time as the “acting” Commissioner of Police.
Work Environment
Family Policies: Women receive 90 days of paid maternity leave and men receive three days of paid paternity leave. Childcare and other family leave policies are available to support members of the military, and they are widely used.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies: There is a sexual exploitation and abuse program in the military, but it is not transparent. The number of reported cases and the disposition of cases is not made public. There is no specific program for the police. However, both the military and police have programs to address sexual exploitation and abuse of civilians in the areas of operations.
Uniforms, Equipment and Facilities: There is women-specific individual equipment, including uniforms and personal protective equipment designed for and issued to all women. There are facilities including bathrooms and billets available for women in military and police facilities.
Training, Education, and Exercises
WPS principles are introduced, but not widely trained, during entry level training. Beyond entry level training, only the military continues to train personnel on the principles of WPS. Personnel receive training only on the prevention and response to sexual violence and sexual exploitation as it relates to civilians in the areas of operations, not as it relates to personnel within their own ranks.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
There are some monitoring and reporting requirements for the military, but it is not a national level effort and there are no requirements for monitoring or evaluating gender equity implementation by the police. The police collect some sex-disaggregated data for analysis, but the military does not. There is informal involvement of some civil society organizations in monitoring and evaluating implementation of WPS principles/gender equality in the military and police.
Recommendations:
At the national level, Trinidad and Tobago should deepen and codify its commitment to the principles of the WPS agenda by expeditiously publishing a comprehensive National Action Plan. The military and police should be given specific goals and benchmarks for advancing the agenda.
Both the military and police should immediately develop programs for addressing sexual harassment and abuse within the ranks.
Both the military and police should develop and implement a monitoring and evaluation program with benchmarks and goals to increase women’s participation at all levels.
An independent monitoring and evaluation program should be established utilizing civil society
groups and the annual reports should be made publicly available.
The restriction limiting women to 30% of the police force should be eliminated immediately.
Report Contributors:
Dr. Dianne Williams, Independent Researcher
Karen Lancaster-Ellis, PhD student at the University of the West Indies, Acting Superintendent of Police, Trinidad & Tobago Police Service
Uruguay has not published a NAP, but one is in development.
General Assessment:
Uruguay has made concrete advancement towards the implementation of the WPS principles despite not having published a WPS NAP. As a contributor of personnel to the UN missions, its involvement with the WPS agenda is extensive. These efforts have also permeated the police. That said, the WPS standards should be integrated more fully in all security (defense and police) forces and not just those deployed in UN missions.
National Importance/Political Will:
The constitution guarantees that all people shall be treated equally, and in 2007 Uruguay enacted the Equal Rights and Opportunities between Men and Women law.[202][203]Uruguay’s commitment to the WPS principles is reflected in key foreign policy documents, such as the Strategic Plan 2015-2020.[204] The Foreign Ministry is also consistent in its support for the international gender equality framework and explicitly makes references to UNSCR 1325.[205]
At the national level, the National Strategy for Gender Equality by 2030 stands out as the main instrument for the implementation of Uruguay’s commitments to gender equality.[206] The National Strategy is a comprehensive and inclusive roadmap, which guides the actions of the state in matters of gender equality in the medium term. It is also relevant that there is momentum in Uruguay for women’s rights. In 2019, Uruguay elected for the first time a woman as Vice President of the Republic, and there is a very active multi-party caucus of congresswomen coordinating gender policies. Given the support for gender equality in the country and in the Congress, both the National Defense policy and the rest of the legal frameworks contain formulations that imply the presence and active participation of women.[207]
Nonetheless, there is room for improvement, particularly in referring explicitly to the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the police as principal actors of the implementation of WPS and gender equality principles. Both institutions participate in the National Council of Gender, but neither has specific plans to implement the principles of UNSCR 1325.[208]
Institutional Policy and Practice:
Strategy, Plans, Policy
In Uruguay, the National Gender Council is a key government body that advances gender equality principles. This body, created by Law No. 18,104, mainstreams the spirit of UN Resolution 1325 and integrates the principles of gender equality in all public policies of the state, including those related to military strategy, policy, and planning. That said, none of these documents are publicly available.
The principles of WPS/UNSCR 1325 are more substantially integrated into key documents related to police strategy, plans, policy, and operations.[209] This is also the case for police operational planning process.
The Ministry of the Interior actively promotes gender equality in security institutions, for example, by the elimination of female entry quotas and their participation in UN missions.
Despite these advances, the military has not appointed a full-time Gender Advisor (GENAD). A GENAD is appointed only for UN missions. The police also not have a GENAD. That said, in both the military and the police there are double-hatted GFPs.
On average, women make up 11% of the military. Their presence in flag positions remains very low. The Uruguayan armed forces frequently participate in UN missions. Uruguay is the largest troop contributor of Latin America. Of the troops contributed to UN missions, women represent 7.18% of all personnel.
All positions in the military are open to women. The recruitment target for women in the armed forces is set at maintaining the current percentages. This is related to the national demographics. Uruguay’s population has not significantly grown in the past three decades; rather than increasing the gross number of women in the armed forces, the goal is to maintain the rate. The MoD has taken steps to achieve this, for example through presenting the military as an appealing professional career.[211]
In terms of the police, 25.6% of the personnel are women. The target goal for the recruitment of women in the police is 50%.
Training, Education, and Exercises
The principles of WPS/UNSCR 1325 are not consistently integrated into the education and training for military personnel. Specialized courses are available for Uruguayan personnel before deployment at UN missions. These courses are mandatory. But this is not the case for the rest of the personnel.[212] In the training, emphasis is given to the protection of vulnerable populations. This is particularly important after a series of sexual abuse accusations against the Uruguayan peacekeepers were acknowledged at the highest political level.[213] Since then, Uruguay has strengthened its instructions. This “lessons learned and good practice” response has been recognized by the UN as such.[214]
In terms of the police, the Ministry of the Interior provides an extensive curriculum and extracurriculum training program for police officers, including with regard to issues related to domestic violence, receipt of complaints, budgets and planning with a gender approach, trafficking of persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation, sexual and reproductive health, gender and sexual diversity, and gender and deprivation of liberty.
Work Environment
Family policies: The Uruguayan military and police provide maternity/paternity leave as well as childcare. This is a direct ordinance from the Ministry of the Interior that provides training on sexual and reproductive rights, pregnancy, breastfeeding and leave, including consultation services and the distribution of contraceptives.
Anti-Harassment and Abuse Policies: Both institutions have protocols to prevent and respond to sexual harassment cases within the ranks, although the protocol for the military is recent.[215] In 2020, a general from the army was sanctioned for a domestic abuse case.[216] There is also a sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse prevention program to address issues of military and police personnel as perpetrators of violence in an area of operations.
Equipment and Facilities: Although there are facilities and infrastructure available for women in the military and the police, uniforms and equipment are not necessarily adapted.
Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation:
Despite not having published a WPS NAP, civil society is involved in the monitoring of the adoption of WPS/gender equality principles through the National Gender Council and the 4th National Action Plan for Open Government 2018-2020.[217]
In the area of accountability, the Ministry of the Interior, through the Division of Gender Policies, reports annually to the National Institute of Women on the implementation of the Plan for Equal Rights and Opportunities in its area of action.
Sex-disaggregated data is collected by the military and the police, and it is available through transparency mechanisms.
Recommendations:
Uruguay has a great opportunity to consolidate and expand the efforts of implementing WPS principles by adopting a NAP. The experience of the police can become the basis for an inward-looking perspective for the Plan. Uruguay’s experience with UN missions could also be the starting point for an external perspective. The NAP should specify particular tasks for the MoD, apart from those that it already undertakes. Further mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the military should be a priority, both for increasing the number of women in decision making-positions as well as in the training of all personnel. Assigning a full-time GENAD that is part of the senior command would prove valuable to achieve it. The consolidation of the protocols through a program for the prevention of sexual violence within the ranks should also be included.
[2] See Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Decreto Nº 1895/2015, Plan Nacional de Acción de la República Argentina para la Implementación de la Resolución N° 1325/2000 del Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas y Subsiguientes.s. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Argentina, September 21, 2015), at: https://www.argentina.gob.ar/normativa/nacional/decreto-1895-2015-252151/texto
[3] National Defense Policy Directive, Decree 1714/2009 (Argentina: National Defense Policy Directive, 2009) see CHAPTER III, “Regarding Human Rights and Gender Policies”, subsection e) and its update Decree 2645 / 2014
[11] See courses at CAECOPAZ, Centro Argentino de Entrenamiento Conjunto para Operaciones de Paz, (2020) at: http://caecopaz.mil.ar/ofertaacademica.html
[12] Resolution MoD Nº 96/2014 establishes that each year the Chiefs of each Force and the Auditor General of the Armed Forces must designate personnel from the Gender Offices, the General Directorates of Personnel and the Auditors of each Force to receive specific training in “Gender and Institutional Management.”
[13] See Annex II, Comprehensive Gender Centers, Ministry of Homeland Security, Resolución 1021/2011, (Argentina: MoHS, October 20, 2011)
[22] The National Action Plan 2020-2022 against gender-based violence has federal scope, including commitments from the provinces and municipalities. It is transversal at the level of the National Administration, Axis 4: “Integrated information management, transparency and monitoring.”
[26] Brazil NAP, pp. 8-10. The femicide law adopted under the Brazilian Penal Code, imposes specific sanctions for harming or killing women because of their gender. See also Law 13,112/2015 on registration of children; see also https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/initiatives/stepitup/commitments-speeches/brazil-stepitup-commitment-2015-en.pdf?la=en&vs=5255
[27] See, for example, the National Plans of Policies for Women (Plano Nacional de Politicas para es Mulheres) developed by the National Secretariat of Politics for Women housed at the time in the Ministry of Human Rights. The first plan was developed in 2004, a second plan in 2008 for the period 2008-2011; and a third in 2013 for the period 2013-2015. See Centro de Apoio Operacional das Promotorias de Justiça dos Direitos Humanos, Governo Federal institui Sistema Nacional de Políticas para as Mulheres e Plano Nacional de Combate à Violência Doméstica (November 29, 2018) at: https://direito.mppr.mp.br/modules/noticias/makepdf.php?storyid=44 and the Brazilian NAP, p.12. See also Governo Federal. Secretaria Nacional de Políticas para Mulheres (SNPM) (Brazil, June 20, 2018) at https://www.gov.br/mdh/pt-br/navegue-por-temas/politicas-para-mulheres/politica-para-mulheres
[33] At the same event, corvette captain Marcia Andrade Braga, an officer in the Brazilian Navy who at that time served as Military Adviser for Gender at the headquarters of the United Nations Integrated and Multidimensional Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), was awarded the United Nations Military Defender of Gender Award.
[34] See Renata Avelar Giannini and Perola Abreu Pereira, Building Brazil’s National Action Plan: Lessons Learned and Opportunities (London: LSE, March 3, 2020 – blog).
[35] See also Paula Drumond and Tamya Rebelo, “Global Pathways or Local Spins? National Action Plans in South America,” International Feminist Journal of Politics, Vol. 22, No.4 (2020), pp.462-484.
[36] This is true for all previous and current Brazilian administrations. The MFA is the lead organization for the NAP, and they are focused on foreign affairs. In addition, Brazil’s foreign policy stance is very clear about the non-interference, not viewing domestic issues as part of a Security Council agenda. See also Drumond and Rebelo, Implementing the “Women, Peace and Security” agenda.
[39] It may be noted that during the development of the NAP, the Ministry of Justice had frequent leadership changes and was not actively engaged. The other institutions did not feel comfortable including targets for the police in the absence of representation from the Ministry of Justice. Also, it must be noted that whenever the NAP mentions the police system, it refers to the state military police and not the federal police. The state military police falls under the authority of the national states. The state police institutions have very little knowledge about the WPS agenda. Brazilian police who participate in UN peacekeeping operations do so mostly on an individual basis, with little or no support from their states.
[49] See Paula Drumond and Tamya Rebelo, Implementing the “Women, Peace and Security” agenda in Brazil: An assessment of the national Action Plan, Strategic Paper 31 (Rio de Janeiro: Igarapé Institute, August 2019). See also https://igarape.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2019-07-31_AE-31_Women-Peace-and-Security-National-Action-Plan.pdf
[50] Centro de Apoio Operacional das Promotorias de Justiça dos Direitos, Governo Federal institui Sistema Nacional de Políticas para as Mulheres e Plano Nacional de Combate à Violência Doméstica Humanos, (Brazil, November 29, 2018) https://direito.mppr.mp.br/modules/noticias/makepdf.php?storyid=44
[51] All the references to the police in this report refer specifically to the Investigations Police of Chile (PDI), the civilian police, and not the Carabineros of Chile.
[58] Figures for the Army, Navy and Air Force are taken from the 2016 Report from Red de Seguridad y Defensa de America Latina (RESDAL), A Comparative Atlas of Defence in Latin America and Caribbean, (Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: RESDAL, 2016) at: https://www.resdal.org/ing/assets/atlas_2016_ing_completo.pdf
[59] Figures for the police are updated to 2020 and it does not consider administrative staff.
[60] This figure considers only Chile’s participation in UN Missions. See: Peace Keeping United Nations, Summary of Troops Contributing Countries by Ranking Police, UN Military Experts on Mission, Staff Officers and Troops 2020 (Peace Keeping United Nations, 2020) at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/2_country_ranking_13.pdf
[83] The Ministry of Public Security has documents that require the respect and fulfillment of women’s rights, among them we can mention: 1. Executive Decree No. 015-2019 MSP “Declaration of the Ministry of Public Security as an institution with zero tolerance for sexual harassment.” 2. Agreement Number 124-2018-MSP “Declaration of zero tolerance for any manifestation of violence against women in the Ministry of Public Security”.
[102] See Instituto Superior para la Defensa, Escuela de Graduados en Derechos Humanos y Derecho InternacionalHumanitario (Santo Domingo: Ministerio de la Defensa, 2020), at: https://egdhdih.mil.do/
[107] See Instituto de Educación Superior en Formación Diplomática y Consular (INESDYC), Sobre el INESDYC, (Santo Domingo, 2014), at: http://www.inesdyc.edu.do/sobre-el-inesdyc
[117] Unless stated otherwise, this data was obtained through different public sources collected by contributors to this report and is updated until 2019.
[136] This figure is for Guatemala’s participation in UN missions. See: Peace Keeping United Nations, Summary of Troops Contributing Countries by Ranking Police, UN Military Experts on Mission, Staff Officers and Troops 2020, (Peace Keeping United Nations, 2020) at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/2_country_ranking_13.pdf
[141] Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (aka AMLO) assumed the Mexican Presidency on December 1, 2018.
[142] The military is indeed heavily involved in public security. Unlike many other countries in Latin America, Mexico has no territorial disputes, and the AMLO administration considers the threat of external aggression low to non-existent. See also Maureen Meyer, One Year after National Guard’s Creation, Mexico is Far From Demilitarizing Public Security, Commentary (Washington, DC: Washington Office on Latin America, May 26, 2020). See Also Mark Stevenson, “Mexico puts Military in Charge of Customs Operations,” Associated Press (July 18, 2020).
[152] This number refers to the number of women in senior ranks accounted up to 2013. See SEMAR, “Entorno de las Mujeres en la Armada de México”, (Mexico City: SEMAR, 2013), at: http://www.semar.gob.mx/redes/igualdad/1.pdf
[153] Most of the deployments of the Mexican armed forces occur inside the Mexican territory as part of the efforts against organized crime.
[154] These figures correspond to Mexico’s participation in UN Missions only. See Peace Keeping United Nations, Summary of Troops Contributing Countries by Ranking Police, UN Military Experts on Mission, Staff Officers and Troops 2020, at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/2_country_ranking_13.pdf
[169]National Assembly, Prupuesta de Leyque Modifica el artículo 178 del Código Penal (Panama, September 10, 2020), athttps://www.laestrella.com.pa/nacional/180216/ley-acoso-sexual-vigencia
[179] Figures excerpted and adaptaded from: Seminario Internacional ”Experiencias exitosas y lecciones aprendidas de la inclusión de la mujer en operaciones militares y acciones de seguridad” with the Directorate of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law – Gender Unit from the MoD in June 2020.
[180]This figure is for Paraguay’s participation in UN missions only. See: Peace Keeping United Nations, Summary of Troops Contributing Countries by Ranking Police, UN Military Experts on Mission, Staff Officers and Troops 2020 (Peace Keeping United Nations, 2020) at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/2_country_ranking_13.pdf
[185] For further reference see: subsection 2 of article 2 of the Political Constitution of Peru that establishes the right of every person to equality before the law, providing that no one should be discriminated against on the basis of origin, race, sex, language, religion, opinion, economic condition or of any other nature; see also Law 26628.
[189] See Law 29131 and legislative Decree N ° 1145 Law, both related to the disciplinary regime of the Armed Forces. Also see Legislative Decree that establishes rules of employment and use of force by the Armed Forces in the national territory: El Peruano, Reglamento del Decreto Legislativo N° 1095, Decreto Legislativo que establece reglas de empleo y uso de la fuerza por parte de las Fuerzas Armadas en el territorio nacional, (Lima, Perú: El Peruano, March 2020), at https://busquedas.elperuano.pe/normaslegales/reglamento-del-decreto-legislativo-n-1095-decreto-legisla-decreto-supremo-n-003-2020-de-1864943-1/
[207] Instituto Nacional de Impresiones y Publicaciones Digitales (IMPO), Ley N° 18650, Ley Marco de Defensa Nacional, (Montevideo: IMPO, 2010) at: https://www.impo.com.uy/bases/leyes/18650-2010/16; also from IMPO see Decreto N° 129/016 (Montevideo: IMPO, 2016), at:
[208] In its art. 8, the 18.650 law, defines the integration of the National Council of Gender: The National Council is created within the orbit of the Ministry of Social Development Coordinator of Public Policies for Gender Equality, chaired by a representative of the National Institute of Women, which will also be composed of a representative of each Ministry designated by the respective Minister. See: Ministerio de Desarrollo Social, Consejo Nacional de Género, Documento Base de Trabajo 2015-2020, (Montevideo, Uruguay: InMujeres, 2015), at: https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-desarrollo-social/sites/ministerio-desarrollo-social/files/2020-08/documento-base-cng-2015-2020.pdf
By Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, Kayla McGill and Zi Xue
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) called for greater participation of women in peace and security decision-making processes and underscored the importance of incorporating a gender perspective when addressing international peace and security challenges. In November 2017, the US Congress adopted the Women, Peace and Security Act, which posited that “the United States should be a global leader in promoting the meaningful participation of women in conflict prevention, management and resolution, and post-conflict relief and recovery efforts.”1 While much progress has been made since 2000, the roles and numbers of women in foreign policy and security establishments remain underdeveloped, including in the United States.
In 2018, Women In International Security (WIIS)—as part of an effort to measure the gender disparities in the US foreign policy and security communities—surveyed 22 US foreign policy and international security think tanks.2 This scorecard provides an update to that survey. This scorecard also spotlights the nuclear security community—both as a subset of the foreign policy and security community and as its own community.3
Foreign policy and international security experts in the United States have taken renewed interest in issues related to greatpower competition, including nuclear security, arms control and disarmament issues. In addition, at both international and national levels, policymakers and non-governmental actors have recognized the lack of women in nuclear security, arms control and disarmament issues. For example, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2010 that urged UN member states to promote the equitable representation of women in the field of disarmament and to strengthen women’s effective participation.4 In 2018, the UN Secretary-General’s agenda for disarmament called for the full and equal participation of women in all decision-making processes related to disarmament and international security. The UN Secretary General also committed to gender parity on all panels, boards, expert groups and other bodies established under his auspices in the field of disarmament.5 These efforts are all part of the national and international commitments made under the WPS agenda.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also undertaken a range of initiatives to raise awareness about the lack of women in the nuclear security, arms control and disarmament communities. For example, Article 36 (a UKbased NGO created in 2011) and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) have tracked women’s scant representation in multilateral disarmament fora.6 In November 2018, Laura Holgate, the former US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), launched the Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy (GCNP) initiative to address gender imbalances in the field.7 As of July 2020, heads of 58 US and non-US organizations had committed to “breaking down barriers and making gender equity a working reality in their spheres of influence.”8 The International Gender Champions Disarmament Impact Group published a Gender and Disarmament Resource Pack in 2018 outlining what a gender perspective in arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament might look like.9 In 2019, New America examined the role of women in nuclear policy, including
how women navigated the nuclear security field and how gender diversity (or rather the lack thereof) affected US policymaking.10 The Ploughshares Fund committed $1 million to a Women’s Initiative Campaign in April 2019 to create greater gender diversity within the nuclear establishment.11
There is thus progress in the advancement of the role of women in nuclear security. That said, there is very little data with respect to the representation of women in the nuclear security arena.
This WIIS Gender Scorecard seeks to fill this void.
To assess how well women are integrated into this community, we examined the number of women experts working on nuclear security issues in US think tanks. We also examined the number of women writing on arms control and nuclear security issues and being published in academic and specialized journals. Think tanks and journals play an important role in shaping foreign and defense policies, including nuclear security policies. Indeed, in the United States members of think tanks frequently move in and out of many critical positions in government. Together with their colleagues in academia, they also participate in policy debates in the media and in writing for specialized academic journals.
In sum, this scorecard does three main things:
Scoring the Tanks. We assess the gender distribution in 32 think tanks in the United States—22 foreign policy and international security think tanks and 10 think tanks and programs that are more specifically focused on arms control and nuclear security policy. We also examine the extent to which gender has been integrated into programming.12
Table 1:Washington, DC Think Tanks with Women at the Helm
Center for American Progress (CAP)
Ms. Neera Tanden, President and CEO
2011
German Marshall Fund (GMF)
Dr. Karen Donfried, President
2014
Heritage Foundation
Ms. Kay Coles James, President
2017
New America
Dr. Anne-Marie Slaugther, CEO
2013
Wilson Center for International Scholars
Ms. Jane Harman, President and CEO
2011
Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control
Ms. Valerie Lincy, Executive Director
2012
Scoring the Journals. We review the gender distribution in 11 major international security journals and five major arms control and nuclear security journals. In addition, we examine to what extent gender perspectives are represented in the journals.
Bringing into Focus the Nuclear Security Community. We examine the gender distribution of nuclear security experts in 32 think tanks. In addition, we consider the gender distribution of articles on arms control and nuclear security issues in 11 major international security journals and 5 major arms control and nuclear security journals. We also examine to what extent gender perspectives are represented in arms control and nuclear security articles.
The Headlines
Despite some progress, the national and international security field, including the nuclear security field, remains a maledominated field.
The percentage of women leading think tanks has declined, from 32 percent in 2018 to 19 percent in 2020.
(See Table 1)
The percentage of women on think tank governing boards has increased slightly, from 22 percent in 2018 to
25 percent in 2020. (See Figure 1)
The percentage of women experts working on foreign policy, national and international security issues has increased, from 27 percent in 2018 to 35 percent in 2020.13
(See Figure 2)
The nuclear security community is small. The majority of arms control and nuclear experts work in specialized think tanks and publish in specialized journals.
Of the foreign policy and international security think tanks surveyed, only 10 percent of experts (3 percent women and 7 percent men) focus entirely or in part on nuclear issues.14
(See Figure 3)
There are 162 nuclear experts working in the specialized arms control and nuclear security think tanks and programs—49 (30 percent) are women.15
Despite renewed interest in nuclear security issues, the percentage of articles devoted to these issues remains small, and few have women authors.
In the international security journals only 9 percent of articles published between 2015 and 2019 were devoted to nuclear security. Only 15 percent of those articles were written by women. (See Figure 6.)
In the arms control and nuclear security journals, women wrote 17 percent of the articles on nuclear security issues.
Gender perspectives remain largely ignored in the national and international security, including the nuclear security, community.
Only one out of 32 think tanks has integrated gender into its programming.
In the academic and specialized literature, most articles with a “gender” perspective focused on women in the field—very few articles examined how gender (and notions of masculinity and femininity) shapes thinking about national and international security, including about nuclear security.16
This scorecard shows that women in the international security field, including in the nuclear security field, remain severely underrepresented. The percentage of women experts and women authors remain well below the 60 percent of women enrolled for over a decade in graduate programs (master’s and doctoral programs) in the social and behavioral science (including political science and international relations); the over 55 percent of women students in the professional schools of international affairs; the 43 percent of women members of the International Studies Association (ISA); and the 38 percent of women members of the ISA’s International Security Studies Section (ISSS).17
While this scorecard does not incorporate any qualitative interviews in the community, there have been a number of studies that examine how women experience the international security and nuclear security field. A 2019 survey of the members of the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) of the International Studies Association (ISA) showed considerable problems within the international security community, of which the nuclear security community is a subset. The survey showed that women were more likely to report hostility and exclusion and to describe the section as “insular,” “clubby” and an “old boys’ network.”18 In her 2019 study of women in the nuclear arms control and nonproliferation field, Heather Hurlburt talked about the “gender tax” that women in nuclear policy face. She shows “how experiences of sexism, harassment, and gendered expectations translate into constant mental and emotional weight.”19 A 2019 report about the nuclear security field, even though not focused on gender, showed that early and midcareer women professionals found the field rife with
The lack of gender diversity (including ethnic and racial diversity) and the small number of women experts have serious implications not only for the field itself, but also for policy.21
One such implication is that a small group of mostly likeminded people monopolizes influence and shapes policies. The fact that the nuclear security field seems to live very much in its own bubble or ecosystem of think tanks and journals reinforces its insular nature. Only 10 percent of experts (7 percent men and 3 percent women) in the think tanks focus on nuclear security issues. Most of the knowledge production and action on nuclear security happens in the specialized institutes and journals. Carol Cohn has written about how language, particularly in the nuclear sphere, kept women and different perspectives out.22 Michèle Flournoy has talked about how women had to fit into a “consensual straitjacket” in the nuclear policy sphere.23 Many early and midcareer professionals in this community defined the field as “old (in terms of both age and ideas) and static.” 24 “Most of the people who work in this field have been doing the same thing for 30 years, and their thinking has not evolved at all, especially in arms control. It’s the dogma. This community … hasn’t evolved with changes in the security environment.”25
Scoring the Tanks
The scorecard reviews think tanks along five main axes:
Gender distribution of those who lead think tanks;
Gender distribution of governing boards of the think tanks;
Gender distribution of experts in the tanks’ foreign policy and international security programs;
Gender distribution of experts focusing on nuclear security issues;
Level of commitment to gender and/or women’s programming.
Heads of Think Tanks
Of the 32 think tanks surveyed, women lead only six (19 percent). (See Table 1)
Of the 22 foreign policy and international security think tanks, women lead only five (23 percent): The Center for American Progress (CAP), the German Marshall Fund (GMF), the
Heritage Foundation, New America, and the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. Compared with 2018, this is a decrease.26
Of the 10 arms control and nuclear security think tanks and programs, a woman heads one: the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.
sexism and gender discrimination.20
Figure 1: Gender Ratio – Think Tank Governing Boards Governing Boards
2018 and 2020
The gender gap remains stark at the level of the governing 2018 boards. The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
•• MENWOMEN is the only institution that has achieved parity on its governing board. It is followed by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS),
which has 44 percent women on its governing board.
On average, the percentage of women members of the board of directors or trustees is 25 percent, compared with 23 percent in 2018. (See Figure 1) The specialized arms control and
nuclear institutes do a little better, with 31 percent of women
2020 on their boards.
• MEN
• WOMEN Experts
Compared with 2018, the overall gender balance in the think tanks has improved, from 27 percent of women experts in 2018 to 35 percent in 2020. (See Figure 2)27 That said, very few think tanks have achieved parity. There is also great variation among the think tanks. (See Table 2 and Figure 4. See also the
Appendix)
Figure 2: Gender Ratio – Foreign Policy and National and International Security Experts in Think Tanks 2018 and 2020Nuclear Experts
2018
•• MENWOMEN Of the 20 foreign policy and international security think tanks 28
surveyed, only 10 percent of experts (3 percent women and
7 percent men) focus entirely or in part on nuclear issues. (See Figure 3)
The gender distribution within this group of nuclear experts is slightly lower than the overall gender balance of these institutes. Of the 185 nuclear experts, 55 (30 percent) are
2020 women and 130 (70 percent) are men. (See Figure 5) ••MENWOMEN That said, many arms control and nuclear experts work in
specialized think tanks. We surveyed 10 major think tanks and programs that focus exclusively on arms control and nuclear security issues. Together they comprise 175 experts—162 of which focus on nuclear security issues as defined in this scorecard.29 The percentage of women experts working on nuclear security issues in these 10 think tanks and programs is 30 percent.
Figure 3: Percentage and Gender Ratio of Nuclear Experts
in Think Tanks There is, of course, great variation among the think tanks.
Out of the 10 think tanks, only one has achieved parity—the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). (See Table 3 and Figure 5.
See also the Appendix)
••• MEN NUCLEAR EXPERTS
WOMEN NUCLEAR EXPERTS
NON-NUCLEAR EXPERTS
Table 2: Percentage of Women Experts in Foreign Policy and International Security Think Tanks
Rank
Think Tank
% of Women
1
Aspen Institute
50%
2
US Institute of Peace (USIP)
49%
3
Third Way
47%
4
RAND Corporation
42%
Stimson Center
6
New America
41%
7
Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)
36%
8
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
31%
Atlantic Council
10
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
30%
Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
12
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
27%
13
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP)
26%
American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
Brookings Institution
16
Heritage Foundation
22%
17
Center for American Progress (CAP)
19%
18
Cato Institute
11%
19
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA)
10%
20
Lexington Institute
0%
Table 3: Percentage of Women Experts in Arms Control and Nuclear Security Think Tanks
Rank
Think Tank
% of Women
1
Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI)
55%
2
Arms Control Association
43%
Global Zero
4
Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control
40%
5
James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
38%
6
Physicians for Social Responsibility
33%
7
Pugwash Council
28%
8
Managing the Atom Project, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
27%
9
Federation of American Scientists
17%
10
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
11%
Substantive Focus
We also examined the substantive focus of those working on nuclear security issues to explore whether gender has an impact on the types of issues people study.30 Our survey found that the majority of nuclear experts focus on issues related to deterrence, followed by arms control. From their bios, we found no notable differences in terms of substantive focus between men and women.
Gender and Women’s Programming
Programming on gender within the institutes has seen little change since 2018.31 Most DC think tanks do not consider the role of gender in national and international security. For many in the traditional security think tank community— men and women—gender is often equated with women or a “woman’s point of view.” This lack of understanding of gender as a multilevel social construct that governs relations between men and women within societal structures and institutions is widespread within the DC foreign policy and security, including in the nuclear security, think tank community.
Figure 4: Gender Ratio – Foreign Policy and International Security Experts in all Think Tanks Measure Names
Figure 5: Gender Ratio – Nuclear Security Experts in all Think Tanks
Measure Names
Of the think tanks surveyed only one—the US Institute of Peace (USIP)—has recognized gender as an important component of its programming. Since 2016, USIP has had a director for gender policy and strategy that oversees and advises all programs on gender. The director sits in the Policy, Learning and Strategy Center, which reports directly to USIP’s president. In addition, USIP functions as the Secretariat for the US Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace and Security (WPS).32
Other think tanks have notable gender or women programs:
The Center for New America Security(CNAS) has a Women in National Security program.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS) has a Smart Women, Smart Power Program and a Women’s Global Leadership Program.
The Council on Foreign Relations(CFR) has a Women and Foreign Policy Program and a Women and Foreign Policy Program Advisory Council.
The German Marshall Fund (GMF) since 2017 has organized an annual Women of Color in Transatlantic Leadership Forum. In June 2020, it surveyed the gender balance of European thinks tanks.33
New America has a Gender and Security program housed in its Political Reform Program.
The RAND Corporation has a web page called “RAND Women to Watch,” on which it addresses “Gender Equity in the Workplace” and “Gender Integration in the Military,” including issues related to women and transgender military personnel. In its work on female populations, RAND addresses issues faced by women and girls, including women refugees, migrants and gender-based and intimate partner violence.
In 2020, the Woodrow Wilson Center appointed a gender advisor. In addition, the center has a Middle East Women’s initiative, a Maternal Health Initiative and a Global Women’s Leadership initiative.
The other think tanks have occasional events and publications on gender and security and the WPS agenda. They may also have one or two individuals working on gender and security issues.34
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) houses the Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy initiative. All the heads of the 10 specialized arms control and nuclear security think tanks have signed on as Gender Champions. The heads of the Carnegie Endowment, Third Way and the Stimson
Center have also signed onto the Gender Champion in
Nuclear Policy Pledge.35
Scoring the Journals
The influence of women in the national and international security field, including in the nuclear security field, can also be measured by how well they are represented in academic and professional journals.36
We examined articles in 11 major peer reviewed international security journals, as well as articles in 5 major journals exclusively focused on arms control and nuclear security issues.
Women wrote 23 percent of the articles in the international security journals versus 64 percent written by men and 13 percent written by mixed gender teams.
That said, there is great variation amongst the journals. Critical Studies on Security is close to parity, with 45 percent of articles written by women versus 48 percent of articles written by men and 8 percent of articles written by mixed gender teams. Security Dialogue has 42 percent of articles written by women versus 47 percent written by men and 11 percent written by mixed gender teams. The Journal of Conflict Resolution is an outlier in the sense that it has the highest percentage of articles written by mixed gender teams—namely, 30 percent versus a 13 percent average. The Journal of Strategic Studies and Survival have the least amount of articles written by women. (See Table 4 and the Appendix.)
Articles on Arms Control and
Nuclear Security Issues
Our survey found that the majority of articles on nuclear security are published in specialized journals.37 In the 11 international security studies journals surveyed, the percentage of articles that focused on nuclear security issues was only 9 percent. (See Figure 6 and Table 4. See also the Appendix) Of those articles, 15 percent were written by women.38 When we broaden our category and include other weapon and arms control issues, the percentage of articles rises to 16 percent, of which women wrote less than a quarter (21 percent).39
In the arms control–specific journals, the percentage of articles on nuclear security issues written by women was even lower—17 percent.40 If we broaden our category and include other weapon and arms control issues, the percentage
increased slightly, to 19 percent.41 (See Table 5 and the
Appendix)
That said, there is quite a bit of variation amongst the arms control journals. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists scores above the average, with 22 percent of articles written by women. At the other end, the Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament had only 11 percent of articles written by women.
Our analysis also confirms earlier studies that found that women coauthor less than men, and when they do coauthor, they are more likely to coauthor with men than with other women.42
Figure 6: Percentage of Nuclear Security Articles in International
Security Journals – 2015-2019
Gender Perspectives
Of the 3,068 articles surveyed in the 16 journals, we found a mere 91 articles (3 percent) with a gender perspective. This number dropped to 2 percent when we considered only articles that focus on arms control and nuclear issues.
Table 4: Percentage of Articles written by Women in International Security Journals – January 2014-December 2019
Rank
Journal
% of Articles by Women
1
Critical Studies on Security
45%
2
Security Dialogue
42%
3
Cooperation and Conflict
30%
4
European Journal of International Security
27%
5
Journal of Global Security Studies
26%
6
International Security
23%
7
Security Studies
22%
8
Contemporary Security Policy
16%
9
Journal of Conflict Resolution
15%
10
Survival
14%
11
Journal of Strategic Studies
11%
The majority (71 percent) of the gender articles were penned by women. In the general security studies journals, women wrote 73 percent of those articles. In the arms control and nuclear security journals, they wrote 65 percent of genderfocused articles.
However, most of the articles with a gender perspective focused on the gender balance within the international security and arms control community and how to increase the number of women in the field. Very few examined how gender (and notions of masculinity and femininity) affects thinking about international security, including nuclear security issues.
Lastly, we examined whether men and women wrote about the same topics in the nuclear and arms control field. While we did not see a marked difference in our think tank analysis between the topics men and women studied, in the journals we did see some differences. Women were more likely to write about drones and unmanned aerial vehicles, chemical and biological weapons and nuclear energy and climate. Men were more likely to write about outer space, proliferation (including nonproliferation) and nuclear deterrence issues.
Concluding Thoughts
The nuclear security community is a subset of the national and international security community. Both communities are deeply entrenched male-dominated communities, in which “old-boy networks” continue to thrive. While we have seen the number of women experts in the think tanks increase from 27 percent to 35 percent, no progress was made in terms of governing boards, and the number of women heading think tanks has regressed. Both communities continue to struggle with the integration of women. It is also striking that while it is recognized by many in the international security, including the nuclear security, community that new approaches and new thinking are necessary, gender as a lens through which to analyze international, including nuclear, security challenges is not on think tank agendas. Too little thought is given in either the think tanks or the journals to how gender and notions of masculinity and femininity influence understanding of international and national security challenges, including challenges related to nuclear security policies.
Table 5: Percentage of Articles written by Women in Arms Control Journals – January 2014-December 2019RankJournal% of Women 1 Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 22% 2 International Journal of Nuclear Studies 20% 3 Arms Control Today 19% 4 Nonproliferation Review 17% 5 Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament 11%
While patriarchal structures are difficult to take down, in recent years we have seen some progress in the amount of efforts to break down these structures.
First, the number of women interested in international security issues is increasing. Their enrollment in international affairs schools continues to surpass that of men. Second, a number of people and organizations, including funding organizations, have realized that the changed strategic landscape requires new approaches and new people. This need is apparent for the international security community and particularly for the small, somewhat atrophied nuclear security community. The Nsquare initiative, the Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy, and the Ploughshares Fund’s women initiative are explicitly geared toward creating a more diverse and open community. These efforts have also been supported by major funders of this community such as Carnegie Corporation New York and the MacArthur Foundation. Third, after the killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, organizations including foreign policy and international security think tanks expressed renewed commitment to building a more diverse workforce. Many think tanks in the international security and nuclear security have signed on to the Organizations in Solidarity initiative of WCAPS.43
It is important to hold organizations accountable and to make sure that progress is measured not just in declaratory statements but also in actions. This scorecard provides numerical baselines.
Our analysis of the journals, even though it encompasses a broader group of experts, reinforces conclusions from the think tank analysis. Women authors remain grossly underrepresented. Journals, like think tanks, suffer from gender gaps.
Many of our 2018 recommendations still hold. Four stand out:
Thinks tanks should periodically carry out a gender analysis of their institutions. An inward gender analysis should be intersectional and must include collection and analysis of data related to gender, race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, age and disability. It must focus on knowledge production as well as recruitment, retention and promotion processes. It must also examine policies and practices related to issues such as remuneration, remote work, family leave and sexual harassment. Finally, the think tanks should make deliberate efforts to diversify their governing boards.
Think tanks should carry out an analysis of their partnerships and knowledge dissemination. Such an outward gender analysis should focus on whom they partner with and how content is disseminated. Among the questions one should ask: What type of publications are produced, what type of events are organized, who participates and attends these events, who is tapped for media appearances?
Think tanks should consider appointing a gender advisor and locate these advisors not in the human resource office but in the front offices with direct access to the leadership.
Journals continue to have gender gaps. One is expressed in terms of women authors published in the journals; the other is represented in the lack of gender perspectives. Editors and editorial boards should resort to periodic gender audits of their journals. Such audits would include issues related to the gender balances and substantive background of editorial staff, editorial boards and outside reviewers. It should also include an analysis of the readership—many of whom are also potential authors.
References
US Congress, Women, Peace and Security Act of 2017, Public Law No. 115-68 (10/06/2017). In accordance with the law, the White House published its WPS Strategy in June 2019. See White House, United States Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security (Washington, DC: White House, June 2019).
See Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and Soraya Kamali-Nafar, The WIIS Gender Scorecard: Washington, DC Think Tanks – 2018, WIIS Policy Brief (Washington, DC: WIIS, September 2018-1).
This scorecard was supported by a grant from the Ploughshares Fund.
See UN General Assembly A/Res/65/69 (2010). See also UN General
Assembly resolutions A/Res/67/48 (2012); A/Res/68/33 (2013); A/ Res/69/61 (2014); and A/Res/71/56 (2016). In addition, the Genevabased Conference on Disarmament held its first informal meeting on gender and disarmament in August 2015. In May 2016, it held a second informal plenary on Women and Disarmament, in which delegations restated their support to increase the role of women in the disarmament field.
See UN Secretary-General, Securing Our Common Future: An Agenda for Disarmament (New York: United Nations, October 2018).
See Renata Hessmann Dalaqua, Kjolv Egeland and Torbjorn Graff Hugo, Still Behind the Curve: Gender Balance in Arms Control, NonProliferation and Disarmament Diplomacy (Geneva: UNIDIR, 2019).
See GCNP website at gcnuclearpolicy.org. See also Pamela Hamamoto and Laura Holgate, “Gender Champions,” in Tom Z. Collina and Cara Marie Wagner, eds., A New Vision: Gender, Justice, National Security (Washington, DC: Ploughshares Fund, April 2019), pp. 40-45.
See GCNP website and GCNP, Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy, Impact Report 2019 (Washington, DC: NTI, May 2020), p. 2.
International Gender Champions Disarmament, Gender and Disarmament Resource Pack (Geneva: UNIDIR, 2018 and updated in January 2020).
See Heather Hurlburt et al., The Consensual Straitjacket: Four Decades of Women in Nuclear Security (Washington, DC: New America, March 2019).
SeeTom Z. Colinna and Cara Marie Wagner, eds., A New Vision: Gender, Justice, National Security (Washington, DC: Ploughshares Fund, April 2019).
While gender is generally defined and discussed as meaning more than just whether one is a man or a woman, this scorecard takes the binary approach. We identified experts and authors as either women or men by examining their bios, photographs and use of pronouns.
This scorecard tallies national and international security experts, including foreign policy and international affairs experts. Definitions of national and international security differ from institution to institution, some use an expanded definition of security, including human security, others have a narrow definition of security. For more on who is included within each of the think tanks see the methodology section on p.15.
This corresponds to 185 experts (55 women and 130 men) out of a total of 1,931 experts.
These institutes employ a total of 175 experts, but only 162 (113 men and 49 women) work on nuclear security issues.
For more on gender and security, see Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and Michael E. Brown, eds., The Gender and Security Agenda: Strategies for the 21st Century (London: Routledge, 2020).
See Hironao Okahana and Enyu Zhou, Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2006-2016 (Washington, DC: Council of Graduate Schools,
2017); website of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA); and the website of the International Studies Association (ISA).
Maria Rost Rublee et al., “Do You Feel Welcome? Gendered Experiences in International Security Studies,” Journal of Global Security Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2020), pp. 216-226.
Hurlburt et al., Consensual Straitjacket, pp. 6 and 18-28.
See Nsquare, Greater Than: Nuclear Threat Professionals Reimagine Their Field (Washington, DC: NSquare, December 2019). See also Bonnie Jenkins, “Diversity Makes Better Policy,” in Tom Z. Collina and Cara Marie Wagner, eds., A New Vision: Gender, Justice, National Security (Washington, DC: Ploughshares Fund, April 2019), pp. 34-39.
This scorecard focuses on gender. That said, the lack of gender diversity often goes hand in hand with discrimination on other identity markers, such as race, ethnic background, sexual orientation and age. After the killing of George Floyd in summer 2020, Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS) launched the Organizations in Solidarity project to root out institutional racism. Many organizations and think tanks, including in the nuclear security arena, (and those surveyed in this scorecard) signed on to the project.
Carol Cohn, “Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense
Intellectuals,” Signs, Vol. 12, No. 4 (1987), pp. 687-718; Carol Cohn and
Sara Ruddick, “ A Feminist Ethical Perspective on Weapons of Mass Destruction,” in Steven Lee and Sohail Hashmi, eds., Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 405-435; Carol Cohn, “The Perils of Mixing Masculinity and Missiles,” The New York Times (January 5, 2018).
Cited in Hurlburt et al., Consensual Straitjacket.
See Nsquare, Greater Than, p. 14.
Ibid., p. 15. See also note 17.
In 2018, 32 percent of think tanks were headed by women. The reins of the Center for a New American Security passed from a woman to a man, and leadership position of the US Institute of Peace is vacant as of the summer of 2020 with the departure in August 2020 of Nancy Lindborg, who had been president and CEO since 2015.
This number also does not include information with regard to the German Marshall Fund (GMF). At the time of our survey no data was available on the website regarding experts at GMF. In addition, at the time of our survey the Bipartisan Policy Centre had no longer a foreign policy international security program.
Amongst the nuclear programs in the Foreign Policy and
International Security think tanks mention should be made of the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI), a program, housed at CSIS, that is geared towards the next generation of professionals in the nuclear security field. In addition, the Carnegie Endowment hosts every two years an international non-proliferation conference attracting hundreds of experts, officials and journalists from around the world.
Nuclear experts are defined as experts and analysts who study topics related to nuclear deterrence, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear policy, general nuclear issues, nuclear security (nuclear materials, fuel cycle, nuclear energy, radiological security), arms control and disarmament, nuclear technologies, defense strategy with a nuclear focus, regional studies with nuclear focus (North Korea, China, Iran, Asia-Pacific, Korea, Middle East). See also the methodology section in this scorecard.
Within our overall nuclear security category, we defined nine subtopics: nuclear deterrence, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear policy, nuclear security (nuclear materials, fuel cycle, nuclear energy, radiological security), arms control and disarmament, nuclear technologies, defense strategy with a nuclear focus, regional studies with nuclear focus (North Korea, China, Iran, Asia-Pacific, Korea, Middle East) and miscellaneous nuclear issues.
See de Jonge Oudraat and Kamali-Nafar, WIIS Gender Scorecard 2018.
TheU.S. Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace and Security (U.S. CSWG)brings together over 40 organizations and civil society groups working on women’s issues, gender and the WPS agenda. While many of these groups are active in advocacy and operational work, many will also conduct research and produce policy papers. See https://www.usip.org/programs/advancing-women-peace-and-security.
See Rosa Balfour, Corinna Hörst, Pia Hüsch, Sofia Shevchuk and Eleonora del Vecchio, Absent Influencers? Women in European Think Tanks, Policy Paper No. 5 (Brussels, Paris, Washington, DC: GMF, June 2020).
For example, Lisa Aronsson at the Atlantic Council, Saskia Brechenmacher at the Carnegie Endowment or Mackenzie Eaglen at the American Enterprise Institute.
All gender champions adopt a panel parity pledge. See GCNP website.
For more on the representation of women in journals, see Nadia
Crevecoeur, Kayla McGill and Maya Whitney, The Gender Balance in 11 Security Journals, A review of the literature and PowerPoint analysis of women authors in security journals, draft manuscript (Washington, DC:
WIIS, 2020).
Nuclear security issues were determined by title keyword searches. The following keywords were used: weapons—nuclear, hypersonic, missiles (ICBMs, etc.), missile defense, nuclear technology in weapons, cleanup from nuclear accidents, nuclear energy, IAEA, nuclear terrorism, deterrence, nonproliferation. Treaties: disarmament and arms control, nuclear disarmament, NPT, CTBT, INF, nuclear export control, fissile materials negotiations. We also added a country level: USA, China, Russia, France, UK, NATO/Europe, Iran, India/Pakistan, Middle East, North Korea. Arms control issues were broadly defined and determined by the following title keyword searches: weapons—nuclear, hypersonic, missiles (ICBMs, etc.), drones, biological weapons, chemical weapons, missile defense, technology in weapons (very specific, not just technological advances in general but focused on weapons), cybersecurity/cyber war. General themes: geoengineering and climate change, medical/radio isotopes, cleanup from nuclear accidents, nuclear energy, IAEA, nuclear terrorism, space, materials. Treaties: disarmament and arms control, nuclear disarmament, NPT, CTBT, INF, export control, biological and chemical weapons control, fissile materials negotiations, arms trade, general. We also added a country level: USA, China, Russia, France, UK, NATO/Europe, Iran, India/Pakistan, Middle East, North Korea.
The overall number of articles in the 11 security journals was
2,147, of which 194 were devoted to nuclear security issues. There were 29 (15%) written by women, 149 (77%) by men, and 16 (8%) by mixed gender teams. When we expand our focus and include other weapons and arms control issues, the total number of articles was 338.
Of those 338 articles, 72 (21%) were written by women, 232 (69%) by men and 34 (10%) by mixed gender teams. The overall percentage of articles written by women is 23 percent.
Of the 921 articles, 683 focused on nuclear security issues. There were 115 (17%) written by women, 512 (75%) by men; and 56 (8%) by mixed gender teams.
Of the 921 articles in the five arms control and nuclear security journals, 178 (19%) were written by women, 661 (72%) by men, and 82 (9%) by mixed gender teams.
See Crevecoeur, McGill and Whitney, Gender Balance in 11 Security Journals.
Notes: Absolute Numbers and Gender Ratio of Articles in Arms Control Journals – January 2014-December 2019
Arms Control Today 251 47 19% 191 76% 13 5% Bulletin of Atomic Scientist 392 85 22% 271 69% 36 9% International Journal of Nuclear Studies 54 11 20% 32 60% 11 20% Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament 63 7 11% 52 83% 4 6% Nonproliferation Review 161 28 17% 115 72% 18 11% Journal Total No Women* Men* Mixed Gender Teams *Includes articles by single authors and by same sex coauthors
Methodology
Think Tanks All data come from the think tanks’ own websites. Data for the think tanks were collected between September 2019 and January 2020, except for Third Way. Data for Third Way were collected in July 2020. Data for the governing boards of all think tanks were collected in July 2020. We were not able to retrieve data for experts from the German Marshall Fund’s (GMF) website. The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) no longer features a national or international security program on its website. Hence, data for GMF and BPC are incomplete. While gender is generally defined and discussed as meaning more than just whether one is a man or a woman, this scorecard takes the binary approach. We identified experts and authors as either women or men by examining their bios, photographs and use of pronouns. This scorecard tallies experts, analysts and fellows. We did not include people whose main responsibilities are in the administrative, operational, personnel, development, communication, and editorial sectors. Experts in foreign policy, defense and national and international security were selected based on the identification of such experts by the think tanks themselves. Nuclear security experts were identified by searching the think tank websites and expert bios for any the following terms: nuclear deterrence, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear policy, general nuclear issues, nuclear security (nuclear materials, fuel cycle, nuclear energy, radiological security), arms control and disarmament, nuclear technologies, defense strategy with a nuclear focus, regional studies with nuclear focus (North Korea, China, Iran, Asia-Pacific, Korea, Middle East). We did not analyze experts’ seniority. Some think tanks include junior staff; others identify only mid-level and senior staff. We did not distinguish between nonresident and resident experts. Again, for each think tank, we followed the think tank’s own identification of its experts. In the case of RAND we excluded all adjunct experts. Adjuncts at RAND are the equivalent of non-residential fellows in other institutions. RAND will feature some adjunct experts, but not all adjuncts on its website. Upon request and in consultation with RAND we decided to leave all adjuncts off this tally. The following experts, analysts, fellows, scholars and staff have been included for: AEI: All Foreign and Defense Policy Scholars; Atlantic Council: All Fellows and Non-Resident Fellows mentioned under Experts; Aspen Institute: All Security & Global Affairs, including the Aspen Strategy Group, the Cybersecurity & Technology Program, and the Homeland Security Program; Bipartisan Policy Center: No Information; Brookings Institution: All Experts in the
Foreign Policy Program; Cato Institute: All Nat./ Int. Security Experts; Carnegie Endowment: All Experts in the Washington, DC office; CSBA: All All Nat./Int. Security Experts; CAP: Foreign Policy and Security Program; CSIS: All Experts; CFR: All Experts; CNAS: All Experts; GMF: Not Available; Heritage Foundation: Heritage Foundation: All Experts in the International, National Security, and Nuclear Energy Issue Areas; IPS: All Experts; Lexington Institute: All Experts; New America: All Analysts and Fellows in the Cybersecurity Initiative, the International Security Program and the Gender and Security Program; RAND: All experts in the Homeland Security and Public Safety, the International Affairs, and the National Security Programs. Our tally does not do not include Adjuncts, Operational Staff and Legislative Assistants. It may also be noted that some experts in the Homeland Security and Public Safety program are more focused on public safety and domestic issues. Similarly, some experts in the International Affairs Program are focused on non-security international affairs issues; StimsonCenter: Senior Research Team & Distinguished Fellows; Third Way: Experts in Climate and Energy and National Security; USIP: All Experts; The Wilson Center: All Experts; Arms Control Association: All Expert Staff; Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation: All Experts; FAS: All Expert Staff; Global Zero: All Expert Staff; James Martin Center forNon-Proliferation Studies: All Expert Staff; Managing the Atom Project, Belfer Center forScience and International Affairs: All Experts; NTI: All Expert Staff; Physicians for SocialResponsibility: All Expert Staff; PugwashCouncil: All Expert Staff; Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control: All Expert Staff. The Full Think Tank Data Set is available from WIIS. Journals Sixteen journals were examined over the period January 2014–December 2019: 11 security studies journals and 5 journals focused exclusively on arms control and nuclear security issues. 11 – International Security Journals: Contemporary Security Policy; Cooperation &Conflict; Critical Studies on Security; European Journal of International Security; International Security; Journal of Conflict Resolution; Journal of Global Security Studies; Journal of Strategic Studies; Security Dialogue; Security Studies; Survival. 5 – Arms Control and Nuclear Security Journals: Arms Control Today; Bulletin of Atomic Scientists; International Journal of Nuclear Studies; Journal for Peace &Nuclear Disarmament; Nonproliferation Review. The survey covered all articles published in these journals. We excluded editorial comments, reviews of any kind (i.e., book reviews) external news articles or blogs, letters to the editor, addendums and other nonrelevant sections.
We established 6 datasets. Data set 1: All 16 journals. Comprises all articles from the 11 international security and 5 arms control and nuclear security journals from January 2014 to December 2019. Does not include letters to the editor, book reviews, or external blogs. Total articles: 3,068by women (individual and coauthor): 665 by men (individual and coauthor): 2,036 by mixed gender teams: 367articles with a gender perspective: 91 Data set 2: All international security journals (11 journals). January 2014-December 2019 Total articles: 2,147by women (individual and coauthor): 487 by men (individual and coauthor): 1,375 by mixed gender teams: 285 gender articles: 71arms control/nuclear articles: 338 Data set 3: All arms control and nuclear security journals (5 journals). January 2014-December 2019 Total articles: 921by women (individual and coauthor): 178 by men (individual and coauthor): 661 by mixed gender teams: 82 articles with a gender perspective: 20 Data set 4: All arms control and nuclear security articles (16 journals). Comprises all articles from the 5 nuclear journals and 338 arms control/nuclear security issues articles from the 11 security journals. Total articles: 1,259by women (individual and coauthor): 250 by men (individual and coauthor): 893 by mixed gender teams: 116 articles with a gender perspective: 21 Data set 5: All nuclear security articles in all journals (16 journals). Total articles: 877by women (individual and coauthor): 144 by men (individual and coauthor): 661 by mixed gender teams: 72 Data set 6: All nuclear security articles in internationals security journals (11 journals). Total articles: 194by women (individual and coauthor): 29 by men (individual and coauthor): 149 by mixed gender teams: 16 All data is available from WIIS. Contact: info@ wiisglobal.org, Subject: Scorecard data
By Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and Soraya Kamali-Nafar
For over 30 years, Women In International Security (WIIS) has worked to advance the role of women in national and international security. While much progress has been made, the number of women occupying prominent positions in foreign and defense policy remains limited. As a result, the role of women in decisionmaking in foreign and defense policies is under-developed.
Indeed, while women constitute 40 percent of the Foreign Service officer corps, they hold only one-third of the chief of mission positions.1 Women make up 33 percent of the Department of Defense civilian staff and 18 percent of the DOD active duty officer corps, and they remain grossly under-represented at the highest ranks—less than 8 percent have the rank of general or flag officer.2
Women also remain under-represented as expert commentators in the media. Women accounted for just 24 percent of foreign affairs and national security experts invited to speak on major political talk shows.3 Manels— that is, event panels with only men—remain common in the United States, including in Washington, DC.4
The lack of women in prominent positions in the foreign policy and national and international security establishments In 2000, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which recognized the importance of the role of women in matters related to international peace and security.7 In 2011, the US rolled out a US National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, and in November 2017, the US Congress adopted the Women, Peace and Security Act, which posited that “the United States should be a global leader in promoting the meaningful participation of women in conflict prevention, management and resolution, and post-conflict relief and recovery efforts.”8
Think tanks play an important role in shaping foreign and defense policy agendas. Think tank experts shape these agendas by moving in and out of many critical positions in the US government and by participating in policy debates in the media.
Many think tanks have recognized the importance of diversifying their staff and recruiting and retaining more women.9 Many have in recent years added programs highlighting women in the field (see below). Unfortunately, many think tanks continue to suffer from significant gender gaps. First, only 32 percent of the national and international security think tanks are headed by a woman.
is surprising since for over a decade more than 60 percent of those enrolled in graduate programs (masters and doctoral programs) in the social and behavorial sciences (including political science and international relations) have been women.5 The 7,000-member International Studies Association (ISA), the professional association for scholars, practitioners, and graduate students in the field of international studies, has 43 percent female membership. Amongst its graduate student members, women are in the majority.6
Figure 1:Heads of Washington, DC Think Tanks
Figure 2:Average % of Experts in Washington, DC
Think Tanks by Gender
Figure 3:Average % of Governing Board Members of
Washington, DC Think Tanks by Gender
Second, on average only 27 percent of expert staff are women. Only 3 out of 22 think tanks (14 percent) have achieved gender parity within their expert staff. Third, only 22 percent of think tank governing boards are women. Finally, only one think tank has integrated gender in its programs.
Since 2007, the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) of the University of Pennsylvania has published an annual Global Go To Think Tank Index Report. The report measures the roles think tanks play in governments and civil societies around the world. It does so by ranking think tanks in a variety of categories, including top think tanks by region and areas of research.10
Table 1:Washnigton, DC Think Tanks with Women at the Helm
Center for American Progress (CAP)
Ms. Neera Tanden, President and CEO
2011
Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
Ms. Victoria Nuland, CEO
2018
German Marshall Fund (GMF)
Dr. Karen Donfried, President
2014
Heritage Foundation
Ms. Kay Coles James, President
2017
New America
Dr. Anne-Marie Slaugther, President and CEO
2013
US Institute of Peace (USIP)
Ms. Nancy Lindborg, President and CEO
2015
Wilson Center for International Scholars
Ms. Jane Harman, President and CEO
2011
Unfortunately, the Global Go To Think Tank Index Report does not consider how gender balances or gender programming influence these roles. In sum, up until now there has not been a systematic effort to collect data on the gender balances within the major thinks tanks active in national and international security arena.11 Nor has there been a systematic effort to survey the programs of think tanks to see how gender is integrated into them.
The WIIS Gender Scorecard: Washington, DC Think Tanks fills this gap by presenting data with regard to the gender balance of 22 major think tanks that work on foreign policy and national and international security issues and are based in the Washington, DC area. We also present information about the gender and women’s programs within these think tanks.
This scorecard is part of a broader WIIS initiative to promote the integration of gender perspectives into national and international security agendas.12 Indeed, we believe that gender perspectives are insufficiently integrated into analyses of national and international security challenges.13 An important step in the right direction is to achieve gender parity at the level of the expert staffs. In addition, we believe that it is important to achieve gender parity at the level of the governing boards of thinks tanks. Indeed, boards of directors and trustees have judiciary responsibilities for the governance of thinks tanks, they oversee think tank activities, and help set the strategic direction. Without leadership from the top, gender gaps will remain.14
By publishing this scorecard, we hope to stimulate discussions within the think tanks on how to close the gender gaps on their expert staffs and governing boards. We also hope to stimulate a broader discussion about the importance of gender when examining important international security challenges. We believe that a more diverse staff within think tanks, as well as more diverse governing boards, will stimulate innovative and better approaches to critical national and international security challenges and help to make the world a better place.
Scoring the Tanks
The scorecard reviews think tanks along four main axes:
percentage of women that lead the think tanks;
percentage of women experts in the think tank’s foreign policy and national and international security programs;
percentage of women in the governing bodies of the think tanks.
number of think tanks with significant commitment to gender and/or women’s programming.
Heads of Think Tanks
Of the 22 institutions surveyed, only seven (32 percent) are led by women – the Center for American Progress, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), the German
Marshall Fund (GMF), the Heritage Foundation, New America, the US Institute of Peace (USIP), and the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.
Experts
Only three think tanks—the Stimson Center, the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), and the US Institute of Peace (USIP) —have reached gender parity at the level of their expert staff.
On average, only 27 percent of the expert staff of Washington, DC thinks tanks surveyed are women.
Figure 4:% of Women Experts in Washington, DC Think Tanks
51 50 49
Governing Boards
The gender gap is particularly stark at the level of the governing boards. No think tank has achieved gender parity. The Institute for Policy Studies and the Aspen Institute come closest, with 44 percent and 43 percent women, respectively.
On average, only 22 percent of the Board of Directors or Trustees are composed of women.
Gender or Women’s Programming
Most Washington, DC think tanks do not consider the role of gender in national and international security. For many in the traditional security think tank community—men and women—gender is often equated with “women” or a “woman’s point of view.” A 2016 survey by the New America
Foundation found that the majority of US policymakers and elites had little knowledge and understanding of gender. Most equated gender with women. If at all open to the idea of a gender
Figure 5:% of Women on Governing Boards of Washington, DC Think Tanks widespread within the DC foreign policy and security think tank
Table 2:% of Women Experts in Washington, DC Think Tanks
Rank
Think Tank
% of Women
1
Stimson Center
51%
2
Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI)
50%
3
US Institute of Peace (USIP)
49%
4
Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)
44%
5
RAND Corporation
40%
6
Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
37%
7
Wilson Center for International Scholars
34%
8
New America
33%
9
Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS)
30%
10
Atlantic Council Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
29%
13
CATO Institute German Marshall Fund (GMF)
27%
15
Brookings Institution
26%
16
Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC)
24%
17
Heritage Foundation
22%
18
American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
21%
19
Aspen Institute
20%
20
Lexington Institute
17%
21
Center for American Progress (CAP)
16%
22
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA)
13%
the programming center on gender to the front office and began mainstreaming gender throughout its work in 2015, most notably in its field projects and programs. Since 2016, USIP has had a director for gender policy and strategy that oversees and advises all programs on gender. The director sits in the Policy, Learning and Strategy Center, which reports directly to USIP’s president.
None of the other think tanks have integrated gender into their national and international security programming. Most other think tanks have separate programs that have a focus on women, rather than gender. A few think tanks work on the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, but most of that work is not integrated into their other national or international security programs.16
Think tanks with notable programs on women and/or the WPS agenda include the following:17
The Center for a New American Security(CNAS) launched a Women In National Security program in 2014.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS) launched a Smart Women, Smart Power Program in December 2014 and a Women’s Global Leadership Program in 2015.
The Council on Foreign Relations(CFR) has a Women and Foreign Policy Program and a Women and Foreign Policy Program Advisory Council founded in 2002.
New America started work on the WPS agenda in its Better Life Lab and Political Reform Program.
The RAND Corporation has a webpage called Rand Women
To Watch. It also has programs on Gender Equity in the Workplace and Gender Integration in the Military, which addresses issues related to women and transgender military personnel. In its work on Female Populations RAND addresses issues faced by women and girls, including women refugees, migrants, and gender-based and intimate partner violence.
The Woodrow Wilson Center has a Global Women’s Leadership Initiative (GWLI) (since 2012) and a Women In Public Service Project.
Most research on the WPS agenda and the intersections of women, gender, and national and international security issues is carried out outside of the foreign policy and national and international security think tank establishment by nongovernmental organizations and civil society groups. While many of these groups are active in advocacy and operational work, many also conduct research and produce policy papers. Most of these organizations are members of the US Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace and Security (US CSWG). (see box page 6).
Table 3:% of Women on Governing Boards of Washington, DC Think Tanks
Rank Think Tank % of Women
Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) 44%
Aspen Institute 34%
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) 31%
Wilson Center for International Scholars
Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) 29%
New America 27%
RAND Corporation
8 German Marshall Fund (GMF) 26%
Stimson Center
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) 25%
Heritage Foundation 24% 12 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) 23%
Center for American Progress (CAP) 22%
Brookings Institution 21%
Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI)
16 Atlantic Council 20%
US Institute of Peace (USIP)
18 CATO Institute 11% Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS)
20 Center for a New American Security (CNAS) 10%
21-22 American Enterprise Institute (AEI) 0%
Lexington Institute
Concluding Thoughts
The main security policy establishments, including think tanks, continue to be staffed and managed mostly by men.
The top 10 think tanks in the United States, as ranked by the Go To Think Tank Index Report—Brookings, CSIS, CEIP, Heritage Foundation, Wilson Center, RAND, CAP, CFR, Cato, Atlantic Council—are often not those who do best in terms of gender balance or gender programming, the Wilson Center being the exception.
While we see an increasing number of women entering the field of national and international security, their influence remains limited. Only 3 out of 22 think tanks have achieved gender parity at the level of their expert staff.
We hope that the publication of this scorecard will stimulate discussions and encourage thinks tanks to conduct a gender analysis of their organizations.18
Such an analysis should include a more fine-grained examination of the gender balance within their institutions. For example, what positions do men and women occupy within the foreign and national and international security expert positions available at the organization? How are hiring and retention policies affecting the gender imbalances? Are there gender pay gaps? Do men and women get interviewed and quoted equally? If not, why not? These discussions should include not just the human resources department, but also and most important the staff of the policy programs in question.
In addition, think tanks should examine the gender balance at their governing boards and how they can increase efforts to attract more women to the boards. Organizations, like WIIS can help think tanks identify women with the necessary expertise and experience.
A think tank gender analysis would also include an examination of how gender is integrated into the analysis of national and international security issues. Program directors should be encouraged to examine how research on women and gender can become a more integral part of their foreign policy and national security programs, instead of standalone, siloed, programs.
Change within institutions require leadership from the top. They also require that programs and program staff are held accountable. Collecting gendered data on such things as new hires, panels, and media outreach is often a first step.19
Lastly, think tanks may consider appointing a Gender Advisor (GENAD). Such advisors have been particularly useful in government settings (USAID, State and DoD) and international organizations (United Nations, NATO). When appointing GENADs, it is important to locate them in policy positions or in the think tank’s front office so that they have direct access to the leadership.
Members of the USCSWG
4Girls GLocal Leadership Alliance for Peacebuilding American Red Cross Amnesty International USA Asia Foundation Baha’is of the United States Equality Now Fuller Project for International Reporting Futures Without Violence George Washington University Center for Gender Equality in International Affairs Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security Human Rights Watch Inclusive Security Institute for State Effectiveness (ISE) International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) International Republican Institute (IRI) International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) Mina’s List / Peace is Loud National Democratic Institute Our Secure Future: Women Make the Difference PAI Peace X Peace Promundo – U.S. Protect the People Saferworld Strategy for Humanity The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) United Nations Association of the USA U.S. National Committee of UN Women Vital Voices Global Partnership WomanStats Project Women Enabled International Women for Afghan Women Women In International Security (WIIS) Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS) Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND) Women’s Refugee Commission Secretariat: USIPFiscal Sponsor/Agent: WIIS
Much progress has been made with regard to gender equality. In the last two decades the number of women studying national and international affairs has grown enormously. Students (women and men) are also increasingly interested in analyzing the role of gender and gender inequalities on national and international security. Think tanks no longer have many excuses for the persisting gender gaps and the neglect of gender perspectives. In a world with increasingly complex national and international security challenges, think tanks need to appeal to broad expertise in order to advance peace and security in the 21st century.
Methodology
The WIIS Gender Scorecard: Washington, DC Think Tanks surveys 22 think tanks with a strong presence in the Washington, DC area. They all work on a broad range of international affairs and national and international security issues. Most are mentioned in the 2017 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report and/or get regular mention in the media.20
This scorecard does not include university-based research institutes (e.g., the McCain Institute or the Center for Transatlantic Relations). The scorecard also excludes those think tanks focused on a specific region (e.g., the Middle East) or one functional area (e.g., migration or international economic development).
While gender can be defined and discussed as more than just women and men, this survey takes a binary approach and conducted its evaluation using women and men and based its evaluation on the names and photographs found on organizations’ websites.
Data on each of the think tanks were collected in August 2018 from the think tanks’ own websites. Experts in foreign policy, defense, and national and international security were selected based on the identification of such experts by the think tanks themselves. We did not analyze the positions of the experts. Some think tanks include junior staff; others will identify only more senior staff. Similarly, we did not distinguish between non-resident and resident experts. For each think tank, we followed the think tanks’ own identification of its experts. For the full data set, see the WIIS Gender Scorecard: Washington, DC Think Tanks Data Set – 2018 at wiisglobal.org.
Table 4:WIIS Gender Scorecard: Washington, DC Think Tanks in alphabetical order.
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) head: Arthur Brooks (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 21% women total: 29 6 (F) + 23 (M) Governing Board: 0% women total: 27 0 (F) +27 (M) Atlantic Council head: Fred Kempe (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 29% women total: 227 66 (F) + 161 (M) Governing Board: 20% women total: 200 39 (F) +161 (M) Aspen Institute head: Dan Porterfield (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 20% women total: 10 2 (F) + 8 (M) Governing Board: 34% women total: 77 26 (F) + 51 (M) Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) head: Jason Grumet (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 24% women total: 17 4 (F) + 13 (M) Governing Board: 29% women total: 17 5 (F) + 12 (M) Brookings Institution head: John R. Allen (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 26% women total: 109 28 (F) + 81 (M) Governing Board: 21% women total: 89 19 (F) +70 (M) Cato Institute head: Peter Goettler (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 27% women total: 11 3 (F) + 8 (M) Governing Board: 11% women total: 19 2 (F) + 17 (M) Carnegie Endowment for InternationalPeace (CEIP) head: William J. Burns (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 29% women total: 31 9 (F) + 22 (M) Governing Board: 23% women total: 31 7 (F) + 24 (M) Center for Strategic and BudgetaryAssessments (CSBA) head: Thomas G. Mahnken Nat./Int. Security Experts: 13% women total: 32 4 (F) + 28 (M) Governing Board: 25% women total: 8 2 (F) + 6 (M) Center for Strategic and InternationalStudies (CSIS) head: John J. Hamre (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 30% women total: 108 32 (F) + 76 (M) Governing Board: 11% women total: 44 5 (F) + 39 (M) Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) head: Richard N. Haass (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 29% women total: 75 22 (F) + 53 (M) Governing Board: 31% women total: 36 11 (F) + 25 (M)
Center for a New American Security(CNAS) head: Victoria Nuland (F) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 37% women total: 78 29 (F) + 49 (M) Governing Board: 10% women total: 21 2 (F) + 19 (M) Center for American Progress (CAP) head: Neera Tanden (F) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 16% women total: 19 3 (F) + 16 (M) Governing Board: 22% women total: 9 2 (F) + 7 (M) German Marshall Fund (GMF) head: Karen Donfried (F) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 27% women total: 44 12 (F) + 32 (M) Governing Board: 26% women total: 19 5 (F) + 14 (M) Heritage Foundation head: Kay Coles James (F) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 22% women total: 32 7 (F) + 25 (M) Governing Board: 24% women total: 25 6 (F)+19 (M) Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) head: John Cavanagh (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 44% women total: 16 7 (F) + 9 (M) Governing Board: 44% women total: 18 8 (F) + 10 (M) Lexington Institute head: Merrick “Mac” Carey (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 17% women total: 6 1 (F) + 5 (M) Governing Board: 0% women total: 7 0 (F) + 7 (M) New America head: Anne-Marie Slaughter (F) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 33% women total: 104 34 (F) + 70 (M) Governing Board: 27% women total: 22 6 (F) + 16 (M) Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) head: Ernest J. Moniz (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 50% women total: 18 9 (F) + 9 (M) Governing Board: 21% women total: 34 7 (F) + 27 (M) RAND Corporation head: Michael D. Rich (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 40% women total: 613 245 (F) + 368 (M) Governing Board: 27% women total: 26 7 (F) + 19 (M) Stimson Center head: Brian Finlay (M) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 51% women total: 72 37 (F) + 35 (M) Governing Board: 26% women total: 27 7 (F) + 20 (M)
US Institute of Peace (USIP) head: Nancy Lindborg (F) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 49% women total: 72 35 (F) + 37 (M) Governing Board: 20% women total: 15 3 (F) + 12 (M) Wilson Center for InternationalScholars head: Jane Harman (F) Nat./Int. Security Experts: 34% women total: 187 64 (F)+123 (M) Governing Board: 31% women total: 16 5 (F) + 11 (M) NOTE: The following experts, fellows, scholars, and staff have been included for: AEI: All Foreign and Defense Policy Scholars; Atlantic Council: All fellows and non-resident fellows mentioned under experts; Aspen Institute: All staff and experts from the following programs: Security & Global Affairs, including the Aspen Strategy Group, the Cybersecurity & Technology Program, and the Homeland Security Program; Bipartisan Policy Center: All experts mentioned under the National Security Project; Brookings Institution: All experts mentioned under the Foreign Policy Program; CATO: All experts mentioned under Foreign Policy and National Security; CarnegieEndowment: All experts in the Washington, DC office; CSBA: all national and international security analysts and fellows; CSIS: All experts; CFR: All experts; CNAS: All experts (staff and adjunct fellows); CAP: All experts mentioned under the Foreign Policy and Security Program; GMF: All experts; Heritage Foundation: All experts staff identified as working on national and international security issues; IPS: all experts identified as working on foreign policy and national and international security; Lexington Institute: All experts; New America: All current staff and fellows mentioned in the following programs: Cybersecurity Initiative and International Security. NTI: All experts: Rand Corporation: All experts mentioned under Homeland Security & Public Safety, International Affairs, and National Security & Terrorism programs; Stimson Center: All national & international security experts mentioned under “Staff”, note: we did not include development staff, finance officers, or other administrative staff members; USIP: All experts; Wilson Center: All experts. For a full list of experts go to the WIIS Gender Scorecard: Washington, DC ThinkTanks Data Set – 2018 at wiisglobal.org
References
See Andrea Strano, “Foreign Service Women Today: The Palmer Case and Beyond,” The Foreign Service Journal, March 2016. On the lack of women in leadership positions, see also Katherine Kidder, Amy Schafer, Phillip Carter, and Andrew Swick, From College to Cabinet: Women In
National Security, (Washington, DC: CNAS, 2017); Women In Public Service Project, Wilson Center, Roadmap to 50×50, Power and Parity in Women’s Leadership, (Washington, DC: Wilson Center, May 2018); Joan Johnson-Freese, “Half of Heaven: Why More Women are Needed in National Security,” TedxTalks, August 17, 2018; and Adrianna Pita, Tamara Cofman Wittes and Sarah Yerkes, “Presence and Voice: Women In Foreign Policy,” A Brookings Podcast, June 8, 2016.
See DOD, Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity, DoD Diversity and Inclusion 2013 Summary Report (Alexandria, VA: DOD, 2013), pp. B3-B6; and Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, 2017 Annual Report, (Alexandria, VA: DOD-Dacowits, 2017). See also Kidder et al. From College to Cabinet.
See Foreign Policy Interrupted, “Women’s Voices Marginalized in
2016 News Coverage of Foreign Affairs and National Security,” Media Matters, March 8, 2017. Foreign Policy Interrupted reports similar numbers with respect to the number of women who have seen their Opeds published. See website: www.fpinterrupted.com. See also: Amanda Taub, “The #ManPanel problem: Why are female experts still so widely ignored?,” Vox, March 16, 2016.
Several initiatives to combat manels and gender discrimination were launched in 2015. In Australia, the Panel Pledge was launched—i.e., a commitment not to appear on male only panels. In Geneva, the International Gender Champion network was launched, committing heads of organizations to no longer sit on single-sex panels. See also, Daniel Drezner, “A Few Thoughts on Manels,” Washington Post Blog, June 7, 2018; and Tamara Wittes and Marc Lynch, “The mysterious absence of women from Middle East policy debates,” Washington Post, January 20, 2015.
See Hironao Okahana and Enyu Zhou, Graduate Enrollment and
Degrees: 2006-2016 (Washington, DC: Council of Graduate Schools, 2017). For example, in the Fall of 2016, first-time graduate enrollment in the social and behavorial sciences (including anthropology, economics, political science and international relations) saw 38 percent men and 62 percent women enrolled in doctoral programs and 35.5 percent men and 64.5 percent women enrolled in Masters programs. A separate study should examine what happens with these graduates.
See “Gender Distribution of ISA Membership” at https://www.isanet.org/ISA/About-ISA/Data/Gender. In the international security thematic group of ISA women make up 37 percent; in foreign policy analysis women 34 percent; in peace studies 53 percent. Women outnumber men in 8 of the 29 thematic groups: interdisciplinary studies, environmental studies, feminist theory and gender studies, global development, global health, human rights, international law, and peace studies. Women also outnumber men in three of its four caucuses: Global South Caucus LGBTQ and allies caucus; and the Women Caucus. The Online Media Caucus has 48 percent women members.
See, for example, Kathleen Kuehnast, Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and Helga Hernes, eds., Women and War: Power and Protection in the 21st Century (Washington, DC: USIP, 2011), and Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and Michael E. Brown, “WPS+GPS: Adding Gender to the Peace and Security Equation,” WIIS Policybrief, November 2017
The US NAP on WPS was updated in June 2016. See also Women, Peace and Security Act of 2017, Public Law No:115-68, 10/06/2017.
See for example Vestige Strategies, Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in the Foreign Policy Sector, (Washington, DC: Vestige Strategies, July 2018). See also the activities of The Think Tank Diversity Consortium (TTDC).
James McGann, 2017 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, (Philadelphia, PA: TTCSP, the Lauder Institute, The University of Pennsylvania, 2018).
Micah Zenko has been one of the few foreign policy experts paying attention to this issue. See for example, Micah Zenko, “Where are the Women in Foreign Policy Today,” Foreign Policy Blog Post (September
26, 2015). In the past, WIIS has surveyed women in the State Department, staff in the US Congress and women in Peacekeeping, but never did a survey of women in think tanks. See wiisglobal.org
This scorecard is also part of a broader initiative of the Leadership Council for Women In National Security (LC-WINS) that seeks greater diversity within think tanks. LC-WINS is an informal group of foreign policy and national security professionals created in 2017. 13. See de Jonge Oudraat and Brown, “WPS+GPS”
Leadership should also encourage men and women to integrate gendered perspectives into their analysis of international security problems.
See Heather Hurlburt, Elizabeth Weingarten and Carolina Marques de Mesquita, A Guide to Talking Women, Peace, and Security Inside the U.S. Security Establishment (Washington, DC: New America Foundation, 2017)
In 2015, the Compton Foundation launched a $5 million special peace and national security initiative with a focus on the Women, Peace and Security agenda and the integration of a gendered perspective in US Foreign Policy. Thanks to these grants The Council on Foreign Relations, CNAS, and New America greatly expanded their programs on women and the WPS agenda.
We do not include those think tanks that view women and gender mostly through a domestic lens (Brookings and CAP) or those that might have an occasional publication related to women and gender and national or international security.
An increasing number of companies in the corporate sector seek EDGE (Economic Dividends for Gender Equality) workplace gender equality certification. WIIS has also a growing portfolio of gender evaluation and analysis and gender trainings.
The collection of data and the setting of benchmarks and objectives has proven to be very effective within the Scandinavian academic and think tank community. In August 2018, a consortium of seven European universities launched a new Charter that seeks to build a stronger commitment to gender equality in higher education and research institutions. The Charter is part of an EU Horizon 2020 initiative entitled the SAGE (Systematic Action for Gender Equality) project. It outlines 12 principles that support structural, cultural and political
change to eradicate sexism, bias, and other forms of discrimination
in research and higher education, and advance an intersectional and inclusive concept of gender. See “New European Charter to Promote Gender Equality in the University Sector,” Press Release, Trinity College
Dublin, August 22, 2018; see also http://sage-growingequality.eu. The Irish Minister of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, announced that University funding would in future be linked to how well universities are tackling gender inequality, including gender inequalities among staff. See Catherine Sanz, “University funding will be linked to gender equality,” The Times, August 21, 2018.
20. McGann, 2017 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report. We also consulted https://thebestschools.org/features/most-influential-think-