Women as active agents: UNSCR 1325 and macro-economics in Asia

The following blog is based on meeting notes by the Post 2015 Coalition

During the Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (May 30- June 1, Chang Mai, Thailand), the Post 2015 Women’s Coalition organized the workshop “Tackling Key Structural Factors for Feminist Movement Building across Regions”. On behalf of the Women Peacemakers Program (WPP), Anand Pawar, member of the WPP Asia Board and Executive Director of SAMYAK, participated as one of the speakers of the workshop.

Other speakers of the workshop were representatives of the Centre for Women’s Leadership; Programme on Women’s Economic Social and Cultural Rights (PWESCR); Equidad de Genero: Ciudadania, Trabajo y Familia; and the youth branch of the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (Y-WILPF).

The workshop focused on two main themes: 1) the transformative capacities of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325; and 2) macro-economics thinking about women as economic agents.

Within the first theme, questions were raised whether the current application of UNSCR 1325, which centers on representations (or ‘women at the table’), women within the military and making the military accessible to women, is utilizing the full potential of UNSCR 1325 and Women Peace and Security (WPS) frameworks as a demilitarisation tool. Anand Pawar spoke about the connections between hegemonic masculinities, violence and militarism, and using a masculinities perspective for advancing UNSCR 1325 implementation. He advocated for changing the masculine military and economic system, adjunct to including women within the existing system.

In regards to the second theme, speakers emphasized the need for a paradigm shift – seeing women rather as active economic agents instead of victims that need protection. It is not just about placing women in income generating activities in current economic systems, it requires an overall paradigm shift. This section had an ‘Economics, Social and Cultural Rights’ (ESCR) focus as a way to challenge structural inequalities that result in gender (and other) inequalities.

Within the discussion, the context and the structural issues of women in the Asia region were highlighted, including the following topics:

• The issue of (disabled) women, and their exclusion from full economic participation, and how this links with the culturally defined responsibilities of women. As these responsibilities are still mainly situated in the home, full economic participation for women is hard to achieve. In relation to this, it was also discussed that the culturally defined expectations of male roles should be readdressed in order to change the roles of women in society, and, subsequently, in the economic system.
• The social realm in which the discussion on changing the current economic system can take place. Currently, cultural and regional factors impede the creation of a space in which the issues can be discussed, let alone resolved. These factors consist, among others, of a “strong union of patriarchy, religion and capitalism”. This means that often the cultural realm, but also the government, form an impediment to activism, which in turn results in the continuation of the male dominated structure.
• State policies can often form an obstacle to those wishing to discuss changing the current structure of inequality. Linked to this is the problem of access to the discussion; women in rural areas are often excluded from the conversations, even though they might have very distinct issues because of their location. The state is also linked to the economic system, and how it defines the roles of people. It was discussed that these roles, especially of women, should be evaluated, and with that also our definitions of productivity and economic value.

Next to the structural issues, several obstacles were discussed. Amongst others, the problem of the perception of women as victims, instead of active agents, was raised. Linked to this is the problem of the economic development models that do not address structural inequalities. Another obstacle was the threats (women’s) human rights defenders have to face.

At the end of the workshop, strategies for moving forward were also discussed. The focus of these strategies lay on the “universal but not uniform” approach. Through this approach the same goals can be reached, but it allows for the means to be situation specific. One suggestion was to incorporate a holistic analysis, in order to be better equipped to address women's issues, such as militarism, disarmament, and security. In addition, it was advised to invest in trainings covering multiple international tools and legislation – UNSCR 1325, CEDAW, ESCR etc – in order not to be dependent on one tool and to diversify strategies.

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