Women's Participation in Peace Processes and Its Implications for the Effectiveness of Gender-Based Security Policy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.67429/9g64th97Keywords:
Women, Peace, and Security; gender-responsive security policy; institutional effectivenessAbstract
Despite two decades of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda, women's participation in peace processes remains uneven, raising questions about whether such participation genuinely strengthens gender-based security policy effectiveness. This study examines the extent to which women's participation correlates with policy effectiveness and explains the mechanisms underlying this relationship. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was employed, combining cross-national quantitative analysis of participation and policy-effectiveness indicators with in-depth qualitative case studies involving document analysis and interviews with policymakers, civil society representatives, and security practitioners. Findings reveal a positive but conditional relationship: women's participation correlates strongly with formal policy indicators but shows weaker association with long-term implementation durability. Qualitative findings identify three mediating mechanisms, institutional embedding, financial sustainability, and sociocultural legitimacy, that determine whether participation translates into substantive policy effectiveness or remains symbolic compliance. These results underscore that meaningful women's participation is a structural, not merely normative, precondition for effective security governance, with direct implications for advancing SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) through sustainable, institutionally embedded, and culturally legitimate policy design.
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