The Georgian security sector takes effective steps integrating gender perspectives

One crucial aspect of integrating a gender perspective into the Georgian security sector is the effective implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda. To this end, UN Women is actively collaborating with the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) to implement a number of initiatives.

This partnership primarily includes deepening the work on gender mainstreaming within the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defence, while also supporting other public institutions, such as the National Security Council, the Georgian Intelligence Service and the State Security Service, during their integration of gender equality principles and the WPS Agenda in Georgia.

At this stage, the integration of a gender perspective into the security sector is principally hindered by existing stereotypes. When speaking about barriers that women face, Megan Bastick, a gender and security fellow at the DCAF, noted that these challenges are largely linked to social attitudes: “women are considered by male leaders as less committed because of their responsibilities for children. This translates into women being passed over for training opportunities or being steered into career paths perceived as less demanding. These stereotypes undermine women without children as well.”

Dr. Bastick believes that overcoming these barriers requires parents to share childcare responsibilities in order to ensure that women have more opportunities in the workplace. She went on to explain that “security sector institutions can do a lot in the shorter term. They can commit to equal opportunities for women, track and share their progress, support women to organize and advocate for themselves, and make day-to-day changes in workplace policies and practices that overcome barriers to women.”

It is noteworthy that the initiatives implemented under the cooperation of UN Women and the DCAF are based on the steps required to remove these barriers. Therefore, employees of institutions taking the first steps towards gender mainstreaming will be offered introductory training, while those who have been working on the WPS Agenda for years will receive support from DCAF experts to further their progress and to learn the best practices.

Activities to integrate a gender perspective into the security sector, as well as cooperation with the DCAF, are part of the UN Women “Accelerating Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Georgia” project. This initiative is supported by the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund of the Government of the United Kingdom.