ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the central role that these women played in the development of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ‘gender agenda’ in order to both demonstrate the importance of well-placed and well-intentioned individuals in advancing organisational change, and to demonstrate how the personal is both political and international. It outlines some of the key stages in the development of the Committee on Women in the NATO Forces and highlights the importance, during these decades, of women advocating for and advancing the status of other women in NATO Forces. The chapter explores the more development of military men becoming actively engaged in promoting and advancing NATO’s engagement with the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The masculinist protection narratives as a response challenges the individual gendermen face draws upon and reinforces broader constructions of hegemonic masculinity at NATO writ large. They provide a further mechanism through which the disruption of their ‘transgression’ can be normalised.
