Alchin, et al.

‘Making a difference in peacekeeping missions’:

Voices of South African women peacekeepers’

Word Count: 298

Summary (103 w.)

It is advocated that women, due to their unique qualities, can have a positive impact in
peacekeeping operations, in terms of interacting with locals and mitigating the behaviour of
male soldiers. In reality, they often lack appropriate training, while their gender makes them a
target or proves a disadvantage in patriarchal societies. As to ‘civilizing’ male soldiers, it is
observed that they often change their behaviour around them in order to ‘fit in’. Conclusively,
the importance of ‘gender mainstreaming’ is highlighted, to realise the true potential of
female soldiers, and an ‘androgynous soldier identity’ is promoted, to combat the problems
of hyper masculinity.

Critique (195 w.)

The text is based on a lot of assumptions of what constitutes a ‘female identity’. Even while
criticizing the UN directives, the author falls into the generalization trap, disregarding the
varied experiences of female soldiers which could differ based on their rank, position, or
environment, and thus, making the female experience in the military quite one-dimensional.
This may suggest that in order to access the ‘female privileges’ in peacekeeping, female
soldiers must conform to the norms and expectations of their gender.

In addition to this, emphasizing the intrinsic advantages of women in peacekeeping may lead
to their deployment in roles, which they might not prefer or be actually good at. So, a new
kind of prejudice could be at play, which might not correspond to the needs of wishes of
women. Moreover, there seems to be quite a lot of pressure and responsibility on female
soldiers to ‘save’ the local (wo)men and keep male soldiers ‘in line’, e.g. reporting sexual
violence, while at the same time operating in a hostile, male hegemonic and often dangerous
environment, where they are not valued. So, why is the participation of women so
emphasized, instead of forcing masculinity to develop?