Women in UN Peacebuilding Discourse

Abstract

This chapter explores the representation of women in UN peacebuilding discourse that the author has curated and outlines the various ways in which women are associated with, and determined as subjects by, peace and security practices. The chapter develops an analysis of women as victims of violence and the representation of women as “agents of change,” with particular reference to the constitution of women’s economic agency, and the construction of women as rights-bearing subjects upon whom various expectations are placed in the peacebuilding context. The author argues, ultimately, that the association of women with civil society, and the depoliticization of their roles as economic actors, even as great emphasis is placed on the centrality of women’s empowerment to peacebuilding success, function to heavily circumscribe women’s meaningful participation in peacebuilding.