Gender and Security

The gender equality agenda has focused on the areas of conflict and security since the creation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000.

Gender is an often-overlooked social construction that shapes every individual’s understanding of roles and motivations, as well as their experience of the many different impacts of terrorism and conflict.

RUSI’s research and analysis explores the role that gender plays in conflict and security, looking at the many ways in which gender analysis and equality is essential to meaningful security solutions. It is hoped that our work will help foster a stronger gender lens in all analysis of conflict and security among policymakers and practitioners.

RUSI continues to make unique contributions especially to the body of work on gender mainstreaming in countering terrorism and extremism policy and programming. This work has distinctive insight into the importance and challenges of applying a gender lens in policy and programming, and into the assumptions around the roles that women have in violent extremism as well as in countering and preventing it.