Gender, Justice and Security: Structural Challenges, Feminist Innovations and Radical Futures
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Scroll down to download country briefings for each Hub focus country and Hub research stream summaries in the ‘Related Publications’ section.
Gender, Justice and Security: Structural Challenges, Feminist Innovations and Radical Futures is a synthesis of Gender, Justice and Security Hub’s key findings and recommendations at the thematic, project, country and Hub-wide levels. Collectively authored by 150 Hub members, it highlights Hub-wide analysis and reflections, findings and recommendations from the streams and projects and individual Hub members’ voices. The Report is divided into sections on Structural Challenges, Hub Research and New Ways Forward, each of which is summarised below.
Section One discusses why the challenges the Hub addresses remain so difficult to overcome. It examines patriarchy, capitalism, coloniality, racism and militarism as interlocking forms of structural violence that have been exacerbated by a series of compounding contemporary crises, which include the COVID-19 pandemic, austerity, regional and country-specific conflicts, and the global backlash to gender, to human rights and to the rule of law. It thus contextualises the Hub’s research projects and foregrounds the centrality of an intersectional and structural analysis of inequalities, violence and crisis in gender, justice and security research, practice, law and policymaking, and activism.
“The report, the projects and the research themes imagine radically transformed futures but are rooted in the actual daily lives of women as lived and experienced in the world today. They question existing orthodoxies and urge a respect for differences. They prioritise the voices of vulnerable and marginalied women. They insist on participation and democracy as an overarching framework. In this way, some of the best minds and practitioners working in the field of women, peace and security have come together to stake a claim for our future.”
Radhika Coomaraswamy
Section Two is the core of the Report. It provides an overview of the Hub’s complexity and coverage, beginning with briefs for each of the Hub’s seven focus countries that outline the conflict context, the key challenges each faces and a brief overview of the Hub’s work in-country. These lay the foundations for the synthesised findings and country-specific recommendations that are set out in Section Three of the Report. Following the country briefs are project summaries, which include the findings and recommendations from each of the Hub’s research projects. These are grouped by thematic structure, which is underpinned by the Hub’s six research streams. The Hub Co-Directors introduce each thematic chapter, summarising the underlying questions and problems explored by the projects within their stream and describing the contribution of the stream projects to the Hub’s overall conclusions and recommendations. By bringing together geographic, thematic, and project level analysis, Section Two presents an encyclopaedic overview of the Hub’s innovative research and provides cutting edge evidence that can be drawn upon by those studying, researching, working in, advocating for, and making law and policy related to gender, justice and security.
“Alongside its incisive research findings, this report offers valuable lessons on putting feminist ethical principles into practice, serving in itself as a model for feminist research praxis.”
Professor Andrea Cornwall
Section Three synthesises the reflections and recommendations emerging from the Hub projects to provide a cohesive and holistic representation of the Hub and its key lessons for advancing gender justice and inclusive peace. Chapter Ten explores the Hub itself as a model for change, unpacking how its multidisciplinary, transnational and collaborative feminist praxis can support advances in addressing the interdependent intractable challenges outlined in Section One and further illuminated by the Hub research projects described in Section Two. It conceptualises the Hub as a complex and evolving collection of relationships, which has been variously depicted by Hub members as a feminist web, tapestry, mosaic or bridge. Yet the Hub as a whole has also evolved organically to create its own separate identity. The Chapter explores the advantages, weaknesses, challenges, and risks of the model of the Hub, its practices and ethics. In doing so, this part of the Report translates the Hub’s innovative approach into a set of reflections and recommendations that can inform future feminist research addressing gender justice in conflict- or crisis-affected areas and inclusive peace. Chapter Eleven draws on the findings in the country briefs and individual research projects to craft a set of nine key reflections that inform a series of more specific recommendations for each of the seven focus countries. These broader reflections and country-specific recommendations look toward what Hub members call a ‘radically transformed future’ that can only be achieved through transforming mindsets, processes, language, and institutions. Chapter Twelve concludes the Report with some overall reflections on the impact and legacy of the Hub.
Integrated throughout the Report are two additional substantive contents. First are essays featuring individual Hub Voices. Hub members were invited to contribute short essays reflecting on aspects of the Hub or its work that they felt should be amplified, or simply to express personal thoughts that had been sparked by their interactions with the Hub and its activities. Second are the summaries of the Collective Output Projects detailed above that are spotlighted throughout the Report in key areas where their distinct cross-project, cross-stream work and analysis expand upon the discussion and offer additional insights.
In summary, the Report provides a holistic view of the Gender, Justice and Security Hub’s five years of interdisciplinary, transnational, multi-partnership research at the project, country, thematic and Hub-wide levels. It is designed as a cohesive narrative examining how Hub researchers are expanding the gender justice evidence base, how its projects connect and build upon one another and how the collective work of the Hub addresses pressing global, national, and local intractable challenges. The Report was also designed so that each Section, Chapter and Project Profile could be used as a distinct research resource focusing on specific geographies, thematic areas, and research methodologies. The combination of its textual whole and its more targeted segments are intended to make this a resource of broad interest and use.
About The Gender, Justice and Security Hub
The Gender, Justice and Security Hub addresses some of the world’s most urgent injustices. Conflict and gender-based violence have devastating, long-term consequences on individuals, families and communities. They also severely hamper the successful delivery of development goals internationally. The Hub is an interdisciplinary, transnational research network working with local and global civil society, practitioners, governments and international organisations to address these challenges and advance the delivery of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on gender equality; SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions; and the implementation of the UN Security Council’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Through the creation of new knowledge and networks, including over 200 publications and research outputs, the Hub amplifies the voices of women and marginalised groups and drives local and global policy change and institutional reform.
The Hub includes of over 40 partner organisations, 38 research projects and 150 members around the world. Its novelty lies in its interdisciplinary ambition, its feminist framework, the breadth of comparative analysis it has generated and its vision of a holistic approach to considerations of gender equality and sustainable justice in and after conflict. The Hub is managed by an Executive Group of leading global scholars on gender justice, guided by a set of core feminist research ethics, and administered from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Centre for Women, Peace and Security. It is one of twelve interdisciplinary research Hubs funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
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