ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the central themes of the critical gender literature on private security to show that gender is fundamental to military outsourcing, the operation of the private security industry, the constitution of contractor identities, and the wide-ranging effects of private security. It also outlines the differences between problem-solving and critical gender approaches. The chapter explores that potential avenues for future research and considers what it would mean for the study of private security to take gender seriously. Privatization–a key strategy of neoliberalism–has redefined the role of the state and its citizens, and opened up security provision to profit making. In addition to the state, the private security industry is a crucial site for critical gender analyses of private security. The chapter provides key themes in critical gender scholarship on private security: security privatization as a gendered process; gendered industry practices and discourses; the complex gendering of contractor identities; and the gendered effects of private security on accountability.
