The female ‘boot on the ground’: Indian ambivalence over gender mainstreaming in UN peacekeeping operations

The Indian government has presented itself as a champion of gender mainstreaming in UN peacekeeping. At the same time, the domestic security sector in India continues to create a gender-segregated environment and experiences of uniformed women in the field show remaining barriers for gender equity....

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Klossek, Lara, Johansson-Nogués, Elisabeth
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Recursos:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/49003
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/49003
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2021.1880899
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:India
Peacekeeping
Gender mainstreaming
UN Resolution 1325
Descrição
Resumo:The Indian government has presented itself as a champion of gender mainstreaming in UN peacekeeping. At the same time, the domestic security sector in India continues to create a gender-segregated environment and experiences of uniformed women in the field show remaining barriers for gender equity. Given this contradiction, the article examines the ambivalence inherent to Indian gender mainstreaming of peacekeeping units. We argue that transnational norms, such as gender mainstreaming, are embedded in larger norm bundles, and we combine the literature of norm localization and norm contestation in our conceptual framework to illustrate how India localizes parts of the gender mainstreaming norm bundle whilst contesting others. We find that India’s localization of the gender mainstreaming norm has meant to pursue an asymmetric gender-parity approach between different branches of the Indian security forces and that it has fomented a division of labour within the police corps. Moreover, we illustrate how India contests the idea of placing women in security-sensitive areas, in combat roles, and gender-integrated police units.