Introduction

The feminist approach has presented renewed sources of hope and belief in the
ability of humans to negotiate a fair and equal deal for peaceful interventions. The
feminist analysis for peace and conflict studies poses an argument about
peacebuilding being ignorant of the gender differences (Strickland & Duvvury, 2003).
The UN and European commissions have consistently voiced their displeasure about
women’s suffering in wars and the unfair treatment meted to them during an attempt
to return to peace (Pankhurst, 2003). Most change experienced by the society (be it
political, economic and social) during the course of history occurred due to conflict
and to quell the conflict, there had to be a peace intervention. The United Nations
Security Council (UNSC) ensured the application of a new resolution in the year
2000 called UNSC resolution 1325 that ensured women were included in the peace
building process. This resolution was established to state explicitly the important role
women play in peace building and negotiation (UN Women, 2016).

In this study, the aim is to look at a feminist perspective to peace keeping. Are there
nuances that exist between the critical research and a feminist approach to study
peace? To answer these questions, we consider the feminist approach and try to
provide an analysis to what the feminist approach offers in peace and conflict
studies. Women’s role in peacekeeping is looked as extensively to discover how they
affect the peacekeeping process. Peace agreements in Libya and Sudan will be
used as case studies to see how the feminist approach has been used to intervene
for peace amidst rising conflicts. The effect of this approach will be studied to see if
the feminist approach proffers a better solution than the critical approach.

The feminist Approach

Feminism is challenging, it is dynamic and inquisitive. It is difficult to pin point a

singular definition for feminism as there is so much work to be carried out as
feminism has not been given a home in the world (Ahmed, 2017). Before we begin, it
is important that we explicitly differentiate the terms women, gender and feminism.
Woman is used to refer to the biological sex, gender on the other hand is used to
refer to the socially construed phenomena used to explain the varying behaviour of
the human body. It is a very slippery concept that does not explicitly state what
counts as a “man” or “woman” (Squires and Weldes, 2007). Gender understands
that masculinity and femininity are phenomena developed socially and culturally and
do not fall under the same category as boy/girl which are used to differentiate
humans based on already established sexual differences emanating from bodily
characteristics. Feminism is a difficult word to describe as it has a lot of nuances.
Feminism can be understood as a political movement directed towards the complete
change of gender powered relations.

The feminist theory

There exist multiple feminist theories. A common foundation for all these theories is
the fact that they try to explain gender roles. Gender roles are used to describe how
the society is divided along gender lines. What is feminine and what is masculine
differs across various institutions. It is important that we have this basic
understanding of what femininity is and what masculinity is. It is important to
understand that these two are opposite and the man may be active being while the
woman a passive being. The man may be a rational being while the woman an
emotional being (Hjalmeskog, 1999).

Pateman & Grosz (2013) posed an argument that only people with male attributes
can engage in masculine activities. They gave an explanation to a patriarchal society
and advised women who do not possess the attributes of a man to not engage in
male activities. Butler (1988) explained the differences between sex and gender and
the psychological impact these words had to a woman’s social existence. The
reason women are supposed to be submissive to men can be explained using the
gender schema. Gender schema is used to explain how people assimilate incoming
information and how they react and act on this information. Selective intake of
information can lead to imposition of certain ideologies in the society. These
ideologies are picked up from childhood where the society lectures boys and girls the
various gender roles associated with their sexes. Boys for instance are taught on
how to always show strength and never display weakness while girls on the other
hand are taught to always be nurturing and caring. This goes further to show that
there is an internal initiation that begins from childhood that determines why boys
and girls grow up to take up “masculine” and “feminine” roles respectively (Bem,
1981). It is important that we understand the psychological explanation as to why
and how gender is being taught. Butler (198) goes further to argue that gender is
more of what we do rather than who we are, this implies that when we act in a
specific way appropriate to a particular gender, we become either masculine or
feminine. He argues that we can use the feminist theory to understand the structure
that determines how culture and politics are developed and passed on.

El-Bushra (2007) carried out a research to determine if both genders actually carry
out their gender assigned roles during the process of peace building. This implies
that women roles in peacebuilding should not be stereotyped to their individual
gender roles. When women are allowed to understand the norms in which war
functions, it will be easy to see that the process of war and conflict are not masculine
rather they affect all the members of the society. It is important that the role women
play in peacebuilding are properly examined and the areas where the feminist theory
can be applied are stated. By applying the feminist theory on gender roles, it is
possible to explain whey women are excluded from the peace process but they play
a large role in the peace building work as peace is often attributed to the female
gender. When we attempt to understand women can actually do and to what extent
they can be recognized, it becomes easier to evaluate these roles and present more
structures to accommodate women and their roles.
The feminist approach to peace building: Case study of Libya

Context

Libya followed Tunisia to the Arab spring in January of 2011. The protesters in Libya
were calling for the resignation of the Libyan ruler, Muammar al Qadhafi after he had
been at the helm of affairs of the country for over 42 years. The protests steadily
increases and by the next month, the protesters were marching in their thousands.
What initially started as a peaceful demonstration became violent. People perceived
to be Qadhafi’s opposition staged major protests in cities such as Benghazi,
Misratah and the Nafusa mountains. The unrest escalated at a fast pace that the
lives of civilians were currently being threatened. This made the United Nation
Security Council (UNSC) adopt a new resolution to ensure that the lives of civilians
are protected. The involvement of the United Nations meant countries such as
France, the United Kingdom and the United States were now involved. These
countries took a military action against Libya which lasted for over eight months
which led to the capture and death of Qadhafi in October (McQuinn, 2013). A
political agreement called the ‘Libyan Political Agreement’ was signed in 2015 that
explains the need for women to be part of the peace building process in the political
sphere. It was written that there need to be a “fair representation of women when
choosing members of the government national accord” (PA1, 2015) as well as
“Underscoring the important role of Libyan women in conflict prevention and
resolution as well as in peace building, and the importance of their equal contribution
to all efforts that aim to resolve the Libyan crisis; also, the need to increase their
decision-making role in relation to those efforts and participation in the political
process” (PA1, 2015). In this agreement, emphasis is made on the importance of
women and their role in peace building. It also stresses on the need for equal
participation among both genders and how an increase in women’s presence in
peace agreement can help spur up proper conversations on achieving peace

Role of women in peacekeeping in Libya

Women in Libya were sidelined form the formal peacekeeping process, especially
the part that involves mediation and reconciliation. Including women has proved a
herculean task as it is mostly elders who constitute the mediation council who feel
insulted if women are made to participate. Special cases involve separate group
meetings for each gender with the women influencing the outcome of the mediation
by sharing their information with them men later (Larsson & Mannergren, 2014).

In November of 2017, women came together to join a workshop set up by the United
Nations Development programme (UNDP) and the United Support Mission in Libya
(UNSMIL) where they discussed on how to ensure there is peace in the region. The
women involved discovered that their different tribes and religion it did not deter their
plan of working towards a reconciliation process (UNDP, 2017). The National
Movement for Libya (NML) is an organization that helps Libyans by working with
women for the benefit of all. Their leadership comprises of over 80 female leaders
across the various tribes and of different ethnical groups. They carried out a
movement that enables its members to go on camps where they interact with fellow
members that may have experienced tragedies such as the passing of their
husbands. The aim of this movement is to ensure that the women of different tribes
can meet and form bonds while spreading the message of peace across the various
tribes. These women are also involved with the negotiation of cease-fire deals with
the military leaders and assist in providing humanitarian help to the wounded. This
do come at a cost sometimes as the women are killed during the course of
engagement (Athie, 2017).

Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace (LWPP) was established in 2011. It is an NGO
tasked with fighting for the rights of women in the post Qadhafi era. Their job is
centered around fighting for women, ensuring women are involved in leadership as
well as advancing women’s involvement in the political and economic sphere in
Libya (LWPP, 2016).

Women participating in peace intervention usually encounter problems. These

women when they speak for gender equality, they face targeted insults, threats and
abuse for speaking up. In some cases, women in politics are assassinated when
they speak up on gender bias. These crimes are almost never viewed as a political
agenda thus their roles in the political sphere are threatened whenever they speak
ups as these communities operate based on a conservative patriarchal perspective.
Women are usually portrayed as the one who bear the family’s honour so a woman’s
voice is that of the family and not just an individual (Larsson & Mannergren, 2014).
The feminist approach to peace building: Case study of Sudan

Context

Determining who has access and control of Sudan’s resources was the major cause
of conflict in Sudan with land being the major resource being fought over. Sudan’s
land conflicts started back in the 1920’s. The Sudanese believe they have a strong
tie with their initial habitat which they consider to be their homeland. The conflict
arose again in the 1970’s when the land issue was politicized and the “Land’s Act”
was introduced. The ‘Lands Act’ meant the tribes were denied ownership of the
original homeland and the government now possessed the sole right to use any
means it deemed necessary to secure these lands from the tribes (Ayoub, 2006).
The original communities have now been displaced. The newcomers have
government backing leading to a conflict between the new comers and the original
inhabitants. Between 2010-2016, twelve peace agreements were signed in Sudan.
Women were not mentioned in six of these reports, three portrayed women as
victims of conflict while six mentioned women in terms of achieving gender equality.
The government of Sudan signed a peace agreement in 2005 that attempts to
establish gender equality for the Sudanese people as well as providing men and
women with equal rights to enjoy all civil and political rights put forth by the
government. This agreement was called the ‘Comprehensive Peace Agreement
between the Government of Sudan and the SPLM/SPLA’ (PA5, 2005). It was agreed
here that equality between both genders is a focus rather than a role women had to
play in the formal setting. This agreement however failed to report how women would
be brought forth to partake in political and economic policies and how this equality is
to be achieved. The 2013 ‘Ceasefire agreement between the Government of Sudan
and the Justice and Equality Movement-Sudan (JEM)’ (PA6, 2013) the women are
mentioned to take an active stan in the areas surrounding the ceasefire. Women
were actively involved in reporting and seeing that the conditions as stated in the
ceasefire was adhered to. How the government plans to implement all the policies
regarding equality still remains a thing of concern as they fail to explicitly state them.

Role of women in peacekeeping in Sudan

In Sudan, the women are known to play an active role in conflict resolution as they
play an active role in peace building, reconciliation and building bridges created by
conflict (Freitas, 2016). Women in the 1990 were involved in the peace building
process at the grassroots level where they engage in person to person contact to
help provide solution to person-to-person conflicts (Faria, 2011). A conference was
held in 1994 that had a lot of women in attendance. This was a significant milestone
in women’s role in peace keeping as this was the first time the military actively
recognized women as part of the civil society and offered to work with them (Itto,
2006).

A lot of the attempts at peacebuilding in the grassroot levels have focused on using
mediation techniques to establish indigenous peace building processes to help
establish a more peaceful society. Women have been used to create mediums to
solve inter-ethnic conflicts. Women in Sudan have also been engaged in a national
level to solve conflicts that span across the country. Women were used as a means
of spreading information to people where they preach peace and present the conflict
situation ravaging the country to the world, a war they often called ‘the forgotten war’
(Itto, 2006).

The women in Sudan have used various techniques to lend their voices to
peacebuilding. They used their voices, marriages and peace missions to sort for
peace. In extreme cases, women have used their nudity to preach peace as public
display of a woman’s nudity is viewed as a curse in Sudan. Women used this
technique when they needed to force their sons to lay down their weapons and
preach against the conflict rising in Sudan. Women have also tried to foster inter-
ethnic peace building reconciliation strategies with the neighbouring communities
(Ogunsanya, 2007). The Sudanese women discovered that the conflict in their
country was not going to end soon so they had to organize themselves into groups to
seek for peace on an international level. These women preached about the effects
plunging into a civil war would cause and advocated for peace instead (Ogunsanya,
2007).

Women’s role in peacekeeping from a Feminist Perspective

When peace keeping was examined for the two case studies, women and their orle
were not explicitly spoken about. In Libya, the focus on women is more on the
political aspect and their participation is encouraged so that they can fully participate
in the peacebuilding process. In Sudan, the peace agreement is focused on gender
equality and how they can improve the daily lives of the female citizens. Watanabe
(1995) reiterates that there exists a relationship between racism, capitalism, the
military and women’s body being sexually objectified as seen in the case of military
prostitution and sexual trafficking. In preaching for peace and ensuring women take
active participation, it is pertinent that the military prostitution of women is eliminated.
Militarized prostitution will keep women away from engaging in peace keeping
activities (Enloe 1990). Military institutions have a fundamental stance in feminism
and strongly opposes feminism. Reardon (1985) argues if this stance could be
changed if there is an increased participation by women in military. Whitworth (2004)
establishes that there exists a disconnection between the ideals of a peacekeeping
mission and the militarized masculinity evident in soldiers. When women are
involved in peacekeeping, they stand a chance of being raped in war. When these
rape cases are properly documented, it becomes easier to see that these attacks
have a political significance (Pettman, 1996). In the former Yugoslavia, women were
raped as a means of exerting dominance. Rape establishes a form of domineering
masculinity where men are seen as superior beings (Stiiglmayer, 1994).

Feminists have insisted that most political and military establishments will not
function properly without the unwavering contribution of women (Enloe, 2004). It is
argued that although women are nurturing, they may adopt whatever means
necessary in an attempt to rise in power just as men do although the stereotypes
society has given to the various genders indicate that neither women’s equality nor a
change in status quo is about to be accomplished (Sjoberg & Gentry, 2007).

One of the major activities of women in peace building is that of reconciliation and
mediation. Women do not only engage in these activities but they also carry out
activities concerning human rights, psychological help, security, etc. The feminist
theory portrays women as being peaceful and as such should focus more on
activities relating to reconciliation. Women should not only be engaged in mediation
but also assist in healing the society.
Conclusion

Very few scholars consider the role of gender in conflict resolution. Feminists were
able to explain how ignoring women’s voices results in partial methods that exclude
important viewpoint from processes. To ensure there is a level playing field, it is
important that we not only include women or feminist perspectives to the existing
bodies but rather ensure that the nuances that exist in various genders are
understood. One must be able to answer questions that are often taken for granted –
such as gendered assumptions.

Women engage in peacekeeping and carry out tasks outside their normal gender
roles. Women do leverage on their reconciliation and mediation roles to carry out a
lot of activities. Women do this by speaking with women of other tribes as they do
have a particular bond. Something that is absent in the masculine folks. In cases
where women are limited by their gender roles, they use threats as in the case of
Sudan to push for equality.

It is evident that women do not limit themselves to their gender roles but rather push
for more and as such should have a larger role in the process of peace building.
Women are agents of change and as such could quite impact the peace process.
Women should not be seen as just victims but also as agents in fostering peace
building. Implementing a policy that ensures women are participants in the peace
building process can help deal with conflict in a more amicable manner.
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List of Peace Agreements

PA1: Libyan Political agreement, signed 17 Deceomber 2015, Libya.

PA5: Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the
SPLM/SPLA (with Annexes), signed 10 February 2013, Sudan.

PA6: Ceasefire agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Justice and
Equality movement (JEM), signed 10 February 2013, Sudan.