Effective peace building should take into account issues of gender and especially consider structural inequalities and power dynamics which are the basis for gender discrimination. The united nations has affirmed its commitment to increasing women’s role in decision making, expanding their role to UN field based operations, providing training guidelines to all member states on the protection, rights and particular needs of women, ending impunity with regard to sexual abuse of women and girls and increasing financial, technical and logistical support for a gender- sensitive approach to peace building and conflict resolution (UNSCRS/RES/1325(2000).
There has been a lot of improvement in women involvement in peace building, their inclusion in peace talks, considerations of their concerns in the same and them being considered a priority in peace keeping missions. Though these efforts have been established, the representation of women in peace keeping and mainstreaming of their issues still remains low, the impact of UNSCRS/135 still remains to be felt.
The stereotype of portraying women as weak aims at justifying their exclusion from negotiations and conflict resolution tables and the larger peace building “women do not suffer in war because of any intrinsic weakness, but because of their position in society” (Pankhurst, 2010, p.176). To attain sustainable peace gendered vulnerabilities of women to conflict and violence is a crucial consideration. The reasons leading to these vulnerabilities should be closely established the role of pre-existing inequalities in a “peaceful world” in case of a conflict arising should be established and addressed.
“When women participate in peace – making and peace keeping we are all safe and more secure” Hillary Clinton
“Women prevent the threads of life from being broken. The finest of minds have always understood the peace making role of women.” Mikhail Gorbachev