Achieving a Feminist Peace by Blurring Boundaries Between Private and Public

Abstract

In spite of increased attention following resolution 1325 to women’s sidelining in matters related to peace and conflict, women continue to be marginalized in peacekeeping missions, peace negotiations and peacebuilding processes. Yet both rights-based and instrumentalist arguments push firstly for the right of women to be part of the resolution to the conflict and the construction of the post-conflict society and secondly for the necessity of including women in an effort to attain gender equality for a durable peace. The aim of this chapter is to identify and develop the necessary conditions to build a feminist peace, characterized as inclusive and transformative. Through a transdisciplinary literature review drawing on the domains of feminist studies, peace studies and security studies, the author singles out two interrelated aspects which are necessary to address for the construction of a feminist peace: enlarging the understanding of ‘security’ to encompass an absence of violence in the private as well as the public sphere and empowering women socio-economically to give them the means to participate in the post-conflict political economy.