Women’s Leadership and Participation in Peace and Security Processes: which Role for the Armed Forces?

This critical literature review reflects on the role played by women in peace and security processes, by looking specifically at which function they perform in the armed forces, thus, mostly in the context of peacekeeping operations. Consequently, while this analysis focuses on women, it simultaneously directs its attention to the role played by the armed forces, necessary counterpart in this field. Starting with an overall vision of the broad framework of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, in order to understand the main concepts which characterize it, this paper will observe three specific settings: Sweden, Denmark and Italy, three cases chosen because of their peculiar features, as outlined in this study. In this journey through the academic research which emerged step by step, becoming more intense at the turning point marked by the introduction of UNSCR 1325 in 2000, a beacon naturally appears on the horizon: feminism. While it is not really possible to talk of ‘feminism’ but rather of ‘feminisms’, as a range of social and political movements and ideologies, it is the curiosity about ‘where are the women’ in peace and security which will lead this analysis in a thorny but stimulating debate in the research. A debate which needs to be deepened since, how this review will show, it is still lacking an attempt to answer paramount questions.