A LANGUAGE THAT MATTERS – Viewing the Women, Peace and Security agenda through an intersectional lens

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse how the Women, Peace and Security agenda is intersectional in its approach to women. This study contributes to previous research regarding gendered security and peace and conflict studies. In this study, the focus is on national implementations of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, in terms of National Action Plans. These documents are government policy papers that explain and articulate the national legal and policy frameworks. Reviewing these documents through an intersectional theoretical framework is interesting because it allows space to evaluate how well the call for more inclusiveness within the peace and security sector has been adopted into national policies, and compare different cases to see who is included, and why others are not. Through a discourse analysis eight different cases across four different regions and four different conflict situations, are compared. The results illustrate that there is a lot of variation between each of the cases, and this could be due to different reasons. In each context it depends on a complex myriad of issues. Intersectionality remains largely neglected, even when it shows promising shifts in the narrative of the peace and conflict situations around the world.