ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to address systematic knowledge gap of how women are involved in peace processes by presenting UNSCR 1325 as a paradigmatic concept, called (en)gendered security. It reviews the literature on peace agreements, noting the gap in women’s presence in actual agreements and the processes creating them. The chapter describes the limitations of engaging UNSCR 1325 to study women’s participation in peace processes. It examines civil conflict peace agreements from 1990–2014 to expose the variation in how accords accommodate women’s security concerns. The goal in approaching UNSCR 1325 as a concept is to make sense of the meanings of women’s security to reflect both theoretical ideas about and practical needs regarding women and peacebuilding. The chapter presents preliminary analyses regarding what conditions may account for these different levels of (en)gendered security by briefly examining Sudan’s divergent approaches to women’s inclusion, including a women’s agenda, political space for their participation and “gender-aware” participants.
