Combating stereotypes: Female security personnel in post-conflict contexts

A woman in uniform with a baby in one arm and an AK-47 in the other continues to provoke shock, outrage, pride and disdain. With the prevalent sociocultural construct of “man protector” and “women and children protectees”, the very notion of a woman, much less a mother, as a security provider is often beyond the popular imagination. Predictably, reconstruction, peacebuilding and development initiatives in postconflict environments often fail to take women into account as actors in the realm of security. As a result, men continue to be highly overrepresented in post-conflict security sector institutions: from 81 per cent of Rwandan police officers and 96 per cent of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces to 98 per cent of Nepali judges.

Related Subject(s): Human Rights and Refugees