Demystifying the Iron Lady and Her Legacy

Margaret Thatcher remains one of the most influential figures in modern international politics; a hardline conservative, a groundbreaking woman, and an inspiration to the many world leaders who have followed in her footsteps. What factors led to her enduring impact? Historically, opportunities for women in political leadership have been limited due to the domination of male gender bias in society. For the majority of human history, women have been denied the keys to power; even in the most democratic societies – from the birthplace of democracy, Athens, to our shining city on a hill, America – women were, as a matter of course, forced to the sidelines of political affairs. Though most women in the 21st century, in democratic countries, now have the right to vote, entrenched biases against women have only recently started to crumble. Perspectives on Thatcher’s rule have fluctuated over the decades, with some seeing Thatcher as a reactionary, others as a status-quo politician, and for some still as a pre-Reagan Reaganite. But for a woman to attain a position of such high relative importance in global affairs signifies something special. How did she manage to overcome negative biases against women in a time when those biases reigned supreme? How have female leaders since Thatcher adopted her strategies? 

In the second half of the 20th century, female leaders were few and far between, and it was still a rather foreign concept for a woman to be the head of a world power. Margaret Thatcher recognized this bias and adjusted her persona accordingly. She knew that the simple fact of her gender could close political doors before she could so much as try to knock. This meant that appearing friendly might as well have been the lowest of her priorities. Her fight to implement  “Britain First” policies eventually led to her infamous designation as the "Iron Lady.” (It is worthwhile to note that this nickname was originally intended as a derogatory slur by the Soviet press.) By the end of her tenure, Thatcher was often thought of as being tougher than most men.    

Over 30 years since Thatcher’s time in office, how much has the stigma around being a female Head of State changed? In the present day, there are, of course, more female leaders than when Thatcher was serving as prime minister; as of September 2022, there are 28 female Heads of State. Has Thatcher’s legacy shaped how women in power act today? Do women in leadership positions feel the same need to correct for their femininity today? 

      In the summer of 1979, Margaret Thatcher was appointed Britain's first female prime minister by the Conservative Party. Growing up through World War II and attending college as the Cold War began in earnest, Thatcher carried through her 11 years of leadership a deep-rooted opposition to communism and a desire to correct the policies she believed were crippling English society. 

Thatcher was a staunch capitalist who believed in the principles of classical liberalism, decrying the interventionist economic policies that she felt had led to Britain’s stagflation in the 70s. With rising inflation, constant energy shortages, frequent labor strikes, and expensive oil prices, this wasn’t hard to believe. Throughout her time in office, she worked to limit the power of trade unions and tighten what she saw as the state’s overly generous welfare programs. All of Thatcher’s actions in office were in furtherance of her goal of restoring England’s former economic status as a major player in Europe and internationally. By privatizing state-controlled and public goods industries, she also cut the amount of government subsidies to underperforming businesses, further increasing the country’s rising unemployment rate. These high unemployment rates significantly reduced the power of the trade unions and, some economists argue, successfully cut down on inflation. As her policies caused unemployment to skyrocket, Thatcher’s popularity declined equally precipitously. All the same, Thatcher is often cited as a pioneer for bringing Britain out of economic decline, and her legacy shaped policies of the Conservative and Labour parties for decades to come. Since Thatcher, there have been a small number of women in a position as powerful as hers, an even smaller number with the influence and political capital to shape their countries around their political ideologies. 

      Perhaps the closest analogue to Thatcher in recent years would be the first female chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, at least in terms of international stature. Merkel served as Germany’s head of government for over 16 years, from 2005 until 2021. Of course, the similarities between Thatcher and Merkel are apparent but rather limited. Similar to Thatcher, Merkel inherited a country during a time where the economy wasn’t as strong as it could have been. She was able to systematically balance the prioritization of safeguarding and promoting German economic interests with protecting her own popularity as a leader. This was always challenging for Thatcher, who was almost single-mindedly focused on economic protection. Merkel’s legacy shaped her as someone just as influential as Thatcher, but who is seen in a very different light. Merkel was given the endearing term “Mutti” (or “mother”) by the German people. In 2021, she was the leader who scored the highest approval rating of any world leader in a survey of six countries for her work in strengthening the German economy and the European Union (EU) as a whole. So how did she learn from Thatcher’s mistakes? By finding the delicate balance between seeking the public’s trust and fighting for her policy goals.

While Thatcher fought for a dramatic reduction in the English welfare state, Merkel’s tenure was characterized by support for expanded social programs. Merkel was widely considered to be a defender of liberal democracy, prioritizing national social welfare programs and helping to lead Europe’s response to faltering international economies. Merkel didn’t seek to command the center stage of EU politics, but her decisive actions had a tendency to put her there anyway. Merkel’s balanced decisiveness echoes Thatcher’s leadership style, but through a completely different tone. Merkel’s leadership personality was “understated but achieving,” vouching for herself as a servant to the German people. This was something Thatcher couldn’t relate to; during her career, she was famously quoted saying “society does not exist.” Considered an underdog by her own party, as the only woman, Protestant, or East German to become chancellor, Merkel was accustomed to fighting for the “little guy” in her pursuit of policies. She advocated for debt relief during the aftermath of the financial instability in the years following 2008 and loosened the country’s immigration laws when other European countries were turning refugees away. 

Her cool handling of a crisis became her trademark, as Merkel’s leadership spanned across multiple issues of foreign and domestic upheaval. Merkel, perhaps, learned from Thatcher’s legacy and understood that being a true “Iron Lady” didn’t mean she necessarily had to lead with abrasiveness and what was interpreted as a lack of compassion towards the people of her country to accomplish political goals. The takeaway from her legacy comes down to one characteristic: Merkel’s balance of her maternal nature coming into how she enacted policy and led the country. This was one of the biggest traits that Thatcher lacked, and it appears to have worked wonders for Merkel’s political legacy.     

Of course, it is important to note that Merkel was not without her own criticism. Merkel faced strong opposition for supporting continued robust trade with Russia following its occupation of Crimea – an economically-advantageous move –  rather than taking a more hardline position. Critics argue that this policy not only helped Russia protect its advantages over Europe, but also that Merkel’s lack of a reaction was taken as a sign that further incursion into Ukrainian territory would not be treated harshly by Germany.   

In 2017, Jacinda Ardern was elected as New Zealand’s third female prime minister by the Labour Party. She is also the country’s youngest prime minister in over one hundred years to hold office. The similarities between the leadership of Thatcher and Ardern are antitheses of each other. Ardern’s leadership can be understood in a few words: compassion, honesty, and strength through unity. Ardern’s charisma, her ability to come across as a person rather than a politician, sets her apart from Thatcher and most other political leaders. This core strength is something that helped Ardern gain favor with the people of New Zealand, winning election and a subsequent reelection by a landslide majority. Her policies focused around enacting government subsidies for impoverished citizens and families as well as climate change legislation. Unlike Thatcher, the world saw Ardern’s policies having dual priorities of both social and economic reform. Recently, Ardern spoke to the press, announcing her decision to resign from the role of Prime Minister, which she had held for five and a half years. When asked about how she wanted people to remember her legacy, she responded by saying, “As someone who always tried to be kind.” 

The last statement Ardern left the public with was one of honesty and grace: “I hope in return, I leave behind a belief that you can be kind but strong, empathetic but decisive, optimistic but focused, that you can be your own kind of leader.” Jacinda Ardern’s leadership style is trailblazing in the face of modern politics where the narrative has been centralized around maintaining power by any means necessary. This also means not appearing weak and therefore, incapable of leading. The power struggle of politics leaves little room for the appreciation of empathy and kindness. Ardern’s leadership approach is a sharp contrast to Thatcher’s as a result. 

Her tenure, too, was not without its own controversies. Ardern was praised for her swift and effective policies on controlling the COVID-19 outbreak in New Zealand; a major policy critique of Ardern’s administration, however, was its reported failure to fairly distribute vaccines among indigenous populations in the country. By the end of 2021, 49% of Māori were fully vaccinated compared with 72% of the entire eligible population. 

While Thatcher, Merkel, and Ardern are all widely considered to be successful politicians and changemakers, their legacies can teach new generations of female leaders and politicians that policy is important, but nothing is more vital than personality of a leader, because this is the backbone of their policy decisions. Since Thatcher, there have been leaders such as Merkel and Ardern who have shown that a politician doesn’t have to be a forceful, unrelenting, and manly person to be followed and respected; their empathetic effectiveness and popularity have convinced us that this should not be the grand narrative of politics. Thatcher might have assimilated into this role to become the “Iron Lady” because she felt the burden of her gender and needed a way to gain respect in a masculine world. The widespread popularity of Merkel and Ardern’s policies and personalities is something that world leaders, both men and women, would do well to remember when faced with difficult leadership decisions. Rising female leaders might find it helpful to consider that aggression is not the only way to demonstrate strength.

Drafted Into Abuse: The Experiences of Female Soldiers in North Korea’s Military

Notice: This paper includes discussions of sexual and gender-based violence.

Founded in 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, better known as North Korea, is considered to be the last true Stalinist regime. Similar to other communist nations, such as the Soviet Union and China, North Korea prides itself on gender equality and freeing women from the responsibilities and social roles that held them back from fully supporting their country. In 1946, North Korea passed the Sex Equality Law, followed by a stipulation in Article 22 of the 1948 Constitution that “women in the D.P.R.K. are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of government, political, economic, social and cultural activity. The state protects especially mothers and children.” Articles in the 1972 and 1990 Constitutions continued the trend with the statements that “women hold equal social status and rights with men” and of the country’s contribution to the creation of “various conditions for the advancement of women”, respectfully. For most of its existence, the North Korean government, and the Kim regime - Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il, and Kim Jong-Un - maintained a relatively stable society, with work requirements, food rations, and set salaries for all citizens. However, in the 1990s, North Korea fell into an economic crash and famine following the fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent loss of aid support. The hardships, better known as the Arduous March, went on to drastically change the role of women in North Korean society. During the famine, the government required citizens to continue working despite a lack of salary. Women were in a unique position in the labor force, as, unlike other communist nations, North Korea emphasized the role of mothers and recognized the role of the housewife as a valid alternative to state employment. The country began this acknowledgment of housewives and mothers near its founding, with the 1946 Labour Law prohibiting women and children from “toilsome or harmful labour”. As the nation continued to grow, the North Korean government never officially denounced the traditional Confucian hierarchies, particularly in reference to gender roles, providing many women the leeway to leave their state jobs to be housewives after marriage. The amount of women leaving the workforce after marriage had grown to over 60 percent by the mid-1980s. This supplied them with the freedom and time flexibility to pursue other opportunities to provide for their families as they were no longer expected to perform jobs in the traditional labor force. As more women pursued informal methods of income generation, a market economy known as the “jangmadang” was created and women quickly gained a unique social status as the primary breadwinners and caregivers of their households. Yet, this was not the case for all women in North Korea. Women in the military were denied the same status and opportunities, and while their responsibilities and roles have changed over the past thirty years, the change has not occurred parallel to the overall status change of women in the general population. While the economic and social positions of women in North Korea have changed over the past three decades through greater financial and social independence, those changes have not been mirrored within the military as enlisted women remain subjected to grueling and unequal tasks, poor sanitary conditions, and a mass culture of abuse and discrimination. 

Understanding the background of the issue is essential when approaching the roles of women in North Korea’s military. The relationship between women and the military can be broken into two major time periods; 1) prior to a reported mandatory service requirement in 2015 and 2) post the requirement. South Korea and internationally based news agencies first began reporting on the mandatory service requirement in January of 2015, however, the details of the exact policy remain ambiguous. One article, published by Daily North Korea, stated that the directive establishes military service as “mandatory for eligible women between the ages of 17 and 20,” with enlistment length lasting up to five or six years.  It must be noted, however, that reports surrounding the mandatory service requirement may not be entirely accurate due to the lack of clear sources or data, and it is possible that it is instead a highly encouraged enlisted policy, similar to what men in North Korea experienced throughout most of the country’s history. For the purposes of this analysis, attention will be paid to the policy in 2015 as a marker in shifting attitudes and expectations surrounding the military service of women. Prior to 2015, primary accounts - mostly from defectors - present that joining the military was viewed by women not as a duty to the country but as a way to rise up in social rank, as many of those in higher military positions were in a higher class or members of the Korean Workers’ Party. One defector, Lee So-Yeon, served in the military for about a decade and served as a signals specialist along the Demilitarized Zone. During an interview with The World, she stated her reason for joining was to “become a low-ranking member of the ruling party.” Even as women gained social and economic status due to the market economy, the country’s strict hierarchical order made it difficult to move between class levels. Additionally, during the famine in the 1990s, many who enlisted did so due to the appeal of a daily meal. For many, especially women, who had less pressure to enlist, joining the military could create a path to a better future. 

Following the reported mandatory service requirement in 2015, the number of women in the military unsurprisingly grew from an estimated 2.38% of the country’s total population in 2015 to an estimated 2.62% in 2018. According to South Korean news sources, women were now expected to serve from the age of eighteen or nineteen until they were twenty-three. This five-year service expectation is half of what is set for men, who are typically in the service for ten years. The change can be explained in part by the reported population decline in North Korea, which has contributed to a similar decline in military size. Enlisting in the military was now no longer a tool for increasing social status. Rather, it is now a responsibility. While women who care for family members or children face less pressure to join, many do not marry or have children until their late-20’s, due to the preexisting service expectations for men. As a result, there is less ability for women to pursue market opportunities or keep themselves out of the pressure of contributing to North Korea’s workforce and military.

Central to the experience of any soldier is the expected tasks and duties. For the women in North Korea’s military, these expectations varied heavily from that of male soldiers. After joining, women undergo training similar to that of their male counterparts. They reportedly have slightly shorter physical training regimens during the day. However, the overall daily schedule is relatively the same. In addition to the physical training demands, many women soldiers are also expected to perform the cooking and cleaning for their units. They are viewed as “ttukong unjeongsu” according to author Juliette Morillot, a term that directly translates to “cooking pot lid drivers” and references the traditional attitudes around the gender roles and responsibilities of women. The requirements end up being overwhelming to the soldiers, who have to juggle their training, position tasks, and domestic duties simultaneously. 

North Korea’s government has presented itself as a beacon of gender equality, the military being no exception. However, under that phrase is a culture of Confucian values creating social hierarchies. Women in the country are subject to inadequate sanitation and hygiene, an issue that is worse for those serving in the military. Primary to this is the issue of menstruation. North Korea’s society shuns the idea of periods, considering them impure and taboo to discuss, making it difficult for women to receive the care they need. Women outside of the military have access to jangmadang where they can purchase makeshift sanitary products. For example, some defectors described how women would oftentimes buy medical gauze to use as pads, cloths that could be washed and reused, old used clothing, or socks to use as pads. Those in the military, however, are cut off from the jangmadang and are forced instead to use military gauze or reused sanitary pads that could only be cleaned and reused during the night, when male soldiers were sleeping. As discussed, female soldiers are subject to the same intense physical regimens as their male counterparts, a requirement that limits their ability to swap out dirty hygiene products and stresses their body’s limits. Some recounts by defectors claim the complete loss of periods due to the physical training, stress, and inadequate nutrition - most troops, male and female, are reportedly provided bowls of rice and corn for meals, with meat and candies reserved for special occasions. Following the 2015 policy change, the Kim Regime announced it would start providing sanitary products to its female soldiers, however, little is known about the follow-through or the amount that was distributed.

The tasks of women in the military went beyond physical training, cooking, and cleaning. For a majority of North Korea’s history, one of the most prominent images of women in the military was of the Kippumjo, a “pleasure squad” of approximately 2,000 women and girls that provided entertainment for the Kim regime, high-ranking officials of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and distinguished guests. The squad was formed under Kim Il-Sung sometime in the 1970s and was reported to be disbanded in 2011 by Kim Jong-Un. It is also important to note that in 2015, news agencies began publishing articles that Kim Jong-Un was reestablishing the Kippumjo. During its active period, teenage girls, typically between the ages of 15 and 19 would be recruited by officers based on their height and appearance. One defector by the name of Mi Hyang claimed to have been a member of the Kippumjo. She recounted being conscripted while in high school when officers visited her school and was then trained for six months before beginning her service. Members of the special force received greater benefits than other women in military service. They were reportedly provided with new appliances and a stipend. Reported duties for the members of the Kippumjo varied from dancing and singing to massages to sexual favors. While the Kippumjo has reportedly been disbanded, the culture of gender discrimination within North Korea’s military has not.

Despite the lack of attention to female bodily autonomy and needs, North Korea maintains a hyper-feminized image of how women should appear and behave. This is highlighted by the intense beauty standards faced by women both within and outside of the military. For the general female population, the rise of the market economy and greater economic freedom has allowed for more expression in fashion. Since the 1990s, women’s fashion has evolved to embrace clothing reflective of the nation’s first lady, Ri Sol-Ju, with brighter colors, lace and sequins, and feminine cuts. It could be expected that this hyper feminization would not occur within the military, as women there would be expected to be equals to their male counterparts and focus on their tasks and position. Yet, women in the military are still expected to maintain appearances.  While the pleasure squadron, the Kippumjo, has been disbanded, female soldiers are expected to maintain basic aspects of their feminine image. In fact, when the Kim Regime released the state-sponsored cosmetics brand “Pyongyang Cosmetics Industry,” it distributed products to many female aviation units. In short, the country expected women to be capable of maintaining their feminine qualities despite their intense training, lack of sanitation, and domestic duties.

Arguably the harshest part of the experiences of women in North Korea’s military is the expansive sexual assault and rape culture. Despite a lack of exact numbers, reports from defectors have shown that rape and sexual assault are part of the norm for many female soldiers. Defectors would report that even if they themselves were not assaulted during their time in the army, they knew of many others who were. While Pyongyang claims that it does not tolerate any form of sexual assault towards its soldiers, cases are seldom pursued. Cases that are pursued are rarely found in favor of the victim, and many more are shunned into silence by a culture of shame. Some women are frightened into silence through threats to “block their chances of joining the party if they refuse or attempt to report the abuse.” Rhetoric is presented to blame victims and put the focus on women’s actions rather than on the violations by men. This creates a system of victim-blaming, one which takes the blame away from perpetrators and puts it on the female victims. Female soldiers are unable to receive care, on top of the already lacking menstrual hygiene and the pressure to keep quiet. Instead, they are forced to suffer in silence.

Despite sexual assault and harassment being common knowledge for women in the military, they are still forced to struggle on their own. In the case of sexual assault, victims are oftentimes on their own, as a culture of shame and victim-blaming is prevalent even among other female soldiers. Sexual assault is viewed as something to be expected and is normalized to the point that the country has established the idea that women must act in a certain way to avoid violence. The issue is so expansive that in order to avoid social blame, women are willing to undergo dangerous abortions. Especially in the military, where a pregnancy could ruin one’s social status and career, some soldiers use anthelmintic medicine, tighten their belts, or roll down hills to force miscarriages. If able to, some pursue illegal surgical abortions, with potentially life-threatening consequences. Sexual assault and rape also put them at risk for injury, sexual-transmitted illnesses, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Enlisted women are especially vulnerable to sexual violence due to the male-centric hierarchal nature of the military, with social values and limitations cutting them off from seeking comfort, medical care, or legal recourse, leaving them on their own to cope. 

Not only is the mental and physical health of the women in the military impacted by the tasks and discrimination that they face during their service, but their social roles and the country’s economy as a whole are also affected. Women outside of the traditional workforce were able to participate in the market economy during the 1990s, including women who were not tied up in the military operations that came as a response to natural disasters and flooding. As North Korea continues to work towards increasing its military capabilities despite a dwindling population, its focus on pressuring enlistment among women limits their ability to provide food for themselves and their families as well as to participate in the country’s now semi-legal and quasi-capitalist markets. Taking women out of the markets will eliminate the primary organizers and parties involved, potentially decreasing the strength of the country’s overall economy. Additionally, as women are pushed into the military, they will potentially lose the social statuses that they gained as a result of the jangmadang. Following the Arduous March, women had become the primary “breadwinners” for their households and also gained greater freedoms as divorce rates rose and extramarital affairs became less taboo. This status is inherently linked to the market economy, and if women are taken out of the equation, it is likely that both will reverse. 

As North Korea gains increased attention on the international stage, many look to its growing military capability and unique economic structure. North Korea’s military growth has involved technological developments in cyber, missile, and nuclear capabilities. Simultaneously, the country developed its market economy through the jangmadang. However, both of these involve one specific group, the women of North Korea. As the country attempts to balance its ambitions, declining population growth - from 1.54 percent in the 1980s to 0.49 percent in the 2010s - and diminishing military size - from an estimated 6.6 percent of the population in the 1980s to 5.2 percent -, it turned to women as the solution. Women had been part of the solution to famine and economic decline thirty years ago, as their unique social status allowed them to become the primary breadwinners and base of a new market economy during the Arduous March in the 1990s. Women currently make up an estimated 51.5 percent of the country’s population, yet, as previously stated, only 2.62 percent of women currently serve in the country’s military. As a result, the female population remains a largely untapped resource for military growth. From the 1990s onward, women managed to gain a higher social status and earn greater freedoms, even if those freedoms are not comparable to those of other nations. Despite these changes, the status of women within the North Korean military saw little movement. While the country’s campaign to increase female military enlisted, domestic responsibilities, lack of sanitary products, beauty standards, and sexual assault have continued to dominate their experiences. As North Korea pushes forward on its current path, it puts its economy at risk, as well as the status of its female population. The removal from the market economy and the cultural shame around traumatic gender-based experiences in favor of the stagnant military status threatens to dominate the experiences of women and force their social advances to regress.

Women in Terrorist Organizations- Victims or Accomplices?

The role of women in terrorist organizations, particulary jihadist groups in the Middle East (the most notorious of which are the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and the current governing force of Afghanistan, the Taliban) has been studied from a variet of perspecties, mostly focusing on their victimization. Terrorism is both a consequence and perpetrator of instability and violence, which, as is the case with most marginalized populations, affects women in particular. Women living under terrorist-controlled strongholds in the Middle East are brutally subjugated, forced into sexual and domestic slavery, forced to serve the organizations dominating them, and tasked with indoctrinating the next generation. When we consider the women who willingly join terrorist groups and engage in acts of terrorism such as suicide bombing, we more often that not only consider women in the West - to take one infamous example, Shamima Begum, who traveled from the United Kingdom to an Islamic State-controlled region of Syria and was charged with terrorism upon her return to the United Kingdom. However, plenty of women in the Middle East have willingly joined terrorist organizations, defying the “jihadi bride” trope which will be examined in more detail later in this article. In refusing to acknowledge the agency of Middle Eastern women - in the negative context, the agency to commit crimes and harm others, not just the agency to obtain an education or to start a business - we risk not only underestimating the security threat that women pose, but we deny ourselves the possibility of a more well-rounded and well-informed counterterrorism strategy and fail to fully comprehend the socio-political factors that both breed terror and inspire women to join the movement. 

Chief amongst those factors seems to be a well-documented feeling of a lack of agency on the part of many women who join terrorist organizations. As a Washington Institute study found, “one of the principle reasons these women can choose to take part in terrorism is to gain a sense of agency and power that they were never given in their communities through leaning into extremist ideology and accepting the new leadership roles opening up for women within those structures–even as these organizations treat them as second citizens and will even use women to generate revenue through sex trafficking.” In other words, women frustrated with a lack of agency viewed jihadism and joining terrorist organizations as a way to reclaim a sense of independence previously lacking. The emphasis on preserving a patriarchal system was part of a broader rejection of diversity that included the repression of racial and ethnic minorities. Put simply, those who tried to choose a life outside of the communal norm were seen as threats, an attitude that has suffocated the creative and productive abilities of women and, indeed the this region as a whole. What is relatively new is that some of the women who have lived through these traumas, especially those already exposed to a radical upbringing, increasingly see joining terrorist groups as a way of recapturing the agency denied to them by society. In a twisted way, some women respond to socially accepted oppressive traditions to women’s rights, as well as social pressures that encourage radical thoughts and definitions of self-sacrifice in the name of the sacred, by seeking agency through the most extreme performance of these 'values.' The fertile soil in which some women naturally harvest radical ideas stems from the lack of alternative ways to express their inner anger-turned-hatred. An interesting perspective to explore 

The BBC has warned of the dangers of falling into the habit of assuming women only join or are affiliated with terrorist organizations as ‘jihadi brides’.  ISIS’ capture of the Syrian city of Raqqa in 2013 led to a a shift in their online propaganda; not only were women actively recruited for traditional roles like wife and mother (which still remains their primary function), but as doctors, nurses, teachers, and administrators. “Notably, women were eventually given the responsibility to monitor compliance among other women, evident in the establishment of the all-female al-Khansaa police brigade. This adaptation by the Islamic State to changing circumstances was later reflected in the seventh edition of the group’s online propaganda magazine, Dabiq, which included a new section directly addressing women.”

One of the most vital roles that women play in terrorist organizations is that of a recruiter. As USAToday found, “Western women have also been highly effective online recruiters for young girls from their countries of origin. Teenage girls — justifiably skittish about conversing with strange men online — are likely to be less circumspect about communicating with someone of the same gender who holds allure by being slightly older, sharing their interests and confidences and conveying a sense of inclusion. Thus Hoda Muthana from Alabama recruited American girls, while Aqsa Mahmood from Scotland successfully recruited girls from Great Britain.”  Failing to recognize this can have deadly consequences, with the Washington Post stating “Extremist groups rely upon women to gain strategic advantage, recruiting them as facilitators and martyrs while also benefiting from their subjugation. Yet U.S. policymakers overlook the roles that women play in violent extremism—including as perpetrators, mitigators, and victims—and rarely enlist their participation in efforts to combat radicalization. This omission puts the United States at a disadvantage in its efforts to prevent terrorism globally and within its borders.”

The Washington Post summarized it best, saying that “Pull factors for joining a terrorist organization were a desire for a new environment, pride, support of a political cause, free education and training, image, and access to social and political roles. Push factors were deprivation, redemption and honor, revenge, romantic ties, family influence, commitment to an ideological cause, traumatic experiences, and protection of self and family.”

It has already been established in the literature on terrorism that a wide range of social, political, cultural, and economic trend contribute to the rise of terrorist organizations. Almost ironically, the global war on terror has both caused and strengthened many of these trends. By recognizing the veritable threat that female terrorist fighters pose, as well as the vital role that they play in terrorist networks and their strengthening, we can more holistically broaden our understanding of terrorism dynamics, and in doing so, our understanding of effective counterterrorism strategies.

How African Women Navigate Urban Geographies Through Radical Incrementalism

worldbank.org

According to the World Bank, the urban informal sector anchors economic activities across the African continent, accounting for nearly 80% of jobs for African urban dwellers. These are especially pervasive for youth in cities between the ages of 15 and 24, with over 90% of them being women (Guven & Karlen, 2020). The sector itself is difficult to miss among a conventional African urban geography that embodies modernity and thus, urban dynamism. Street merchants and vendors are crucial to ensure food security across the city; craftsmen, manufacturers, and repairers of goods and services, and those who work in the transportation of goods and services keep the world-class city and the economy rapidly moving, among several other tasks that are integral to maintaining urban landscape. In terms of what specifically is meant by the ‘urban informal sector,’ though difficult to define succinctly by several scholars and economists, statistics clearly suggests that it is defined as merely the residual difference between a nation’s total economic activity and the well-recorded economic activity of the formal sector. The informal sector is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government and absorbs the city’s unemployed population. Persons employed by the urban informal sector typically work a variety of ad hoc jobs that vary across cities, resulting in low wages and substandard living conditions (Fukuchi, 1998, pp. 225-56). The urban informal sector cannot be considered without women as they heavily contribute to the trading and transportation of food and clothes across the city (Kanyinjui, 2014, pp. 1-3). Low productivity and earnings are fostered by the urban geographies of rapidly urbanizing or world-class cities in Africa, which champion spaces that operate on higher-value markets, such as markets that are worth more to customers than commodity products like technology, information, tourism, analytics etc. In turn, the informal sector is pushed to the periphery of the city and is financially excluded from the market. This results in the physicality of urban informal settlements or “slums.” Slums typically consist of human-constructed, sub-standard settlements that lack access to basic services like water and electricity (Ranganathan, 2019). 

Workers of the urban informal sector build human capital or useful attributes in the informal sector production process. Human capital is present under social protections as informal sector workers can prevent the sale of productive assets in the event of shocks as well as the promotion of savings to build resilience. But not all urban dwellers are granted social protections; informal sector businesses are excluded from the formal sector and hindered from making reliable business transactions, accessing credit for productive investments, and accumulating savings for unanticipated risks. With no social protections and little to no savings, the unadulterated economic downsides emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic have annihilated many of the livelihoods of African workers in the informal sector. Nonetheless, the role of Africa’s informal sector is only estimated to grow at exponential rates as not only Africa’s population itself increases, but as urbanization persists (Guven & Karlen, 2020). Therefore, African cityscapes are likely to thrive, but most of their residents will not. Perhaps the city will boom as private sector actors like urban planners, who have autonomy over governing the city, rely on the informal sector agents or those who work for the informal sector. Yet private sector actors have no interest in investing in social protections of the millions of informal sector agents living in the cities they construct.

According to Mary Njeri Kinyanjui, a key contributor to the political and social dynamics of the informal economy in Africa, notably on the East African coast, are social networks emerging from friendship and kinship. These close social networks are important in reinforcing the strength of their businesses through emotional support, advice, skill-sharing and training, business start-ups, information, social protection, and rotational credit services. Social networks within the informal economic sector have been documented as especially important among poor women. The informal sector is where intersecting networks of trust, kinship, ethnicity, marital status, among several other facets present themselves and promote the development of social networks.

Evolving from social networks are collective organizations, which are an important aspect of the operations of the African informal economy. Kinyanjui emphasizes that they enable the scaling up necessary to promote the potential for political intervention. This modality would be particularly strategic for the informal sector because it differs from less comprehensive approaches to the sector that are primarily focused on structural and welfare-based interventions (Kanyinjui, 2014, pp. 99-101). Despite the stigmatization and subordination of female urban informal workers, they are crucial to the urban economy and the ecology of the city. Thus, to facilitate their integral roles, female informal workers have collectively self-organized in a multitude of ways across African urban landscapes to permeate their Indigenous market work in the city. 

Chapter 8 of Kinyanjui’s book details the types of social networking among women specific to Nairobi’s informal sector. She indicates that informal workers, namely women, collectively organize themselves in what is referred to as vyama. This is a level of solidarity used for organizing among women in the informal sector. Typically, vyama involves bolstering both economic and social action. Its fundamental principle rests on the notion that urban marketplaces are vicious and patriarchal environments. Thus, social and economic networks and interactions like vyama among women promote their survival in the marketplace (Kanyinjui, 2014, p. 105). In a case study conducted on Taveta Road traders in Nairobi, women are seen joining collective organizations in search of solidarity, to find a sense of identity, and a sense of belonging to a community. The female subjects of the study iterate that the chama, an investment in social capital, is what reinforces their belonging in vyama. The conclusion is that on an individual level without notions of vyama or the chama, there is less incentive for these women to engage in their work in the city due to a lack of economic and social support (Kanyinjui, 2014, p. 102). 

Moreover, the chama cha soko, the street market association, is the first level of social and economic collective organization among female informal sector workers in Nairobi. In essence, it is a bridge between the city council and the informal sector and requires daily contributions from its female members. Contributions include security maintenance, cleanliness of business premises, coordination of trade affairs, dispute resolution, and handling of the opening and closing of business premises. The chama cha soko is reinforced by a tangible constitution in which rules and regulations for traders are enforced. It differs from informal economy associations in Latin America or South Africa, for instance, in that the chama cha soko is less likely to counteract government agendas. 

Rather, the intent of the chama cha soko is to ensure that the interests of informal sector workers are not pushed aside for private sector interests on behalf of actors governing the city. When necessary, the chama cha soko mobilizes its constituents to the means necessary to achieve justice for the informal economy. Further, among its constituents, the chama cha soko promotes a nature of toughness. Those within this level of the collective organization who do not abide by the trading rules are subject to k̃uhandwa, or “being brought to the ground level.” In other words, an individual who breaks or bends trading rules can be subject to expulsion from the market (Kanyinjui, 2014, p. 105). 

In Durban, South Africa, an emerging world-class city known for its influences from colonization and India, navigation of urban informality takes an activism approach. The film, A Place in The City/Trying to Find A Voice, investigates slum residents’ efforts to speak out against agendas that trump private property rights over the livelihoods of urban informal. In recent years, residents of the Foreman Road and Motala Heights slums have been confronted with the war of attrition, which is the prolonging of a war or conflict period in which each actor attempts to defeat the other through small-scale behaviors. City planners have also executed a world-class city in Durban. The implementation of the astronomical Moses Mabhida soccer stadium in 2009 for the 2010 World Cup intended to displace slum dwellers from Foreman Road and Motala Heights. To forward this aim, Durban’s governance agenda has been depriving its periphery and ultimately, slum dwellers, of electricity. Informal settlements also lack other basic sanitation services or accounts in the market despite their presence on state property. According to the film, in Durban, about 40% of working-age adults are unemployed or unaccounted for in the market (Morgan, 2008). 

Amidst this unadulterated inequality, urban informal residents of Foreman Road and Motala Heights have mobilized themselves into an activist group known as the Abahlali, to confront the state’s agenda with hopes for a more just urban informal environment. The residents identify the call-to-action in which they desire from the governance actors of city planning. They identify the following as key needs: housing that actually supports the families in settlements (e.g. houses with more than two bedrooms to accommodate a family) and stagnancy of informal settlements, specifically in Motala Heights, as opposed to relocation to Nazareth. According to female residents, staying in Motala heights would provide them with opportunities to learn trading and entrepreneurship skills necessary for work in the marketplace (Morgan, 2008). 

Abahlali activists are comprised of slum residents in Durban that have evolved from a local development committee. In the film, activists emphasize that though they are fighting for justice and a place in the city, the bedrock of their theory of change is to assert that they are poor. They contend that even when given a house by the government, it should be sold and that they will ultimately return to their shack in the periphery of the city (Morgan, 2008). They do so to push against the stigma of informality, proving that it is not impossible to live in a slum. Within the Abahlali activist group, though including both men and women and spearheaded by a male, S’bu Zikode, women have made courageous strides at exercising the heart of the movement.

Due to their critical role in the informal economy and the interminable burdens they face compared to their male counterparts, they have had to sacrifice things in both physical and economic ways. For instance, Mariet Kikine, an Abahlali activist, describes how despite her nonviolent protesting, she was shot six times by the police (Morgan, 2008). This reveals the intersectionality of police violence against African women in the urban landscape of post-apartheid South Africa. In an interview with several female Abahlali activists in Motala Heights inquiring why they would not prefer to relocate from their current settlements to Nazareth, they explain the opportunities to learn trading and entrepreneurship and the social stability they have in Motala Heights (Morgan, 2008). Several women have raised their children in Motala Heights and thus, have a sense of stability, social networking, and are aware of the procedures of marketplace activities in place.

Moreover, radical incrementalism as a theory of change in an urban context is best understood by South African sociologist, Edgar Pieterse, in his book, City Futures: Confronting the Crisis of Urban Development, as the notion that the drive of urbanity is to promulgate radical change amidst all the idealistic aspects of ‘the city.’ Simultaneously, the necessary austerity and burdens of incremental change stand in contempt of radical change. Thus, it is the only way to intervene in a vicious microcosm of hyper-capitalism and modernity (Pieterse, 2013, p. 134). Through both the social networking and collective organizing of women in Nairobi and the mobilization on the ground in Durban, both radical and incremental theories of changes are invoked to promote justice in urban informal settlements. 

The chama cha soko’s communication with the government to promote social protection for the urban informal sector conveys that this group has organized communication with governance actors, especially their private sector counterparts. It conveys adaptability and acceptance of the urban dynamics in place. However, their by-the-means-necessary approach to resistance against the government especially parallels Pieterse’s notion of radical incrementalism. This is because they have not adopted a more violent approach to seeking justice and protection. If they had, they would have deemed contention a larger part of their agenda. 

The Abahlali activists invoke a radical incrementalism theory of change through community mobilization of nonviolent protesting of both women and men. A notable example of demonstrations by the Abahlali activists, especially the women from Motala Heights, is their rejection of displacement or even a home. In part, they claim that this is from the lasting social networks and familial roots they have established there. Considering their rejection of displacement or houses from the government, they embrace the structure of informal settlements, ultimately pushing back on perceptions that slums are insurmountable. In doing so, they have accepted the capitalist system in place that enables urban informality. Female Abahlali activists also exemplify resilience in their nonviolent activism yet are still targeted by hyper-capitalist forces like the police system. For example, Mariet Kikine, who was shot six times by an officer at a demonstration that became violent due to police action, was overpowered by a capitalist entity at that moment. 

Though calling-to-action different ways to bring about justice in the urban informal sector, women from both the Abahlali and the chama cha soko exhibit a level of solidarity with one another to promulgate their agendas. Both agendas emphasize the importance of social protection over their environments in different ways yet work within a broader system to foster small change. They also push back on conventional perceptions and rhetoric regarding slum resistance as neither of the women in these groups exercised violence on their capitalist counterparts unless it was declared necessary to do so. Unsurprisingly, this is when a capitalist force has intervened in a group’s organizing or demonstration.

Fundamentally, through examining the chama cha soko of Nairobi and the Abahlali activists of Durban, the female urban informal sector workers adopt a radical incrementalist theory of change. The chama cha soko exercises collective organizing to ultimately show hybridized reforms between capitalist entities and the informal economic sector. Moreover, the Abahlali activists in Durban foster community mobilization to form demonstrations in order to communicate with governance actors and capitalist entities, with female activists exhibiting particular resilience against such overpowering actors and entities. 

A conclusion that can be deduced from these radical incrementalism theories of change is the notion that urban informality is not a product of inherent disorder. Instead, it is a product of governance actors’ and capitalist entities’ inability to construct models to fit the schema of disorder. In turn, women subordinated and marginalized by these urban outcomes on the African continent have been challenged with the interminable impacts of informality. Instead of overt radical resistance, they are working within a system that has consistently worked against their favor. Avenues for further research may extrapolate beyond these two cases of the Abahlali activists and the chama cha soko to discover a greater understanding of radical incrementalism among women in the informal sector. Perhaps another theory of change may be invoked when analyzing additional approaches from African women in their promulgation of social protections over their urban informal environments.

References

Fukuchi, T. (1998, September). A Simulation Analysis of the Urban Informal Sector: 

Introduction. In The Developing Economies. (pp. 225-256)

Guven, M., & Karlen, R. (2020, December 3). Supporting Africa's Urban Informal sector: 

Coordinated policies with social protection at the core. Retrieved from 

https://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/supporting-africas-urban-informal-sector-coordinat

Ed-policies-social-protection-core

Kinyanjui, M. N. (2014). Women’s collective organizations and economic informality. In Women 

and the informal economy in urban Africa: From the margins to the centre (pp. 99-117). 

London, UK: Zed Books. 

Morgan, J. (Director & Producer), & Grey Street Films. (2008). A Place in The City/Trying To 

Find A Voice [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NG2v9On4h4

Pieterse, E. A. (2013). City futures: Confronting the crisis of urban development. London, UK: 

Zed Books.

Ranganathan, M. (2019, March). "Liberal" Urban Planning. Lecture presented at Guest Lecture 

in World Politics Course in American University School of International Service, 

Washington, DC.

The Fight for Equal Pay in the Land of Opportunity

Every year, a myriad of migrants make their way to America and cross its borders in search of their own Dream, enshrining our nation as the land of opportunity. The truth, however, is that America has failed to live up to its democratic standards, using a fake mask of patriotism in the hopes of hiding the real inequities that persist today. 

Whether it was during the fight for suffrage or the current ongoing fight for equal pay, women are constantly reminded of their second-class status. It’s not hard to decipher the root cause of these vestigial prejudices. In Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, he espoused that at the time, voting requirements existed to exclude “persons [that] are in no means [or] situation [such] that they are esteemed to have no will of their own.” Though written in 1765, his subversive words have rung true time and time again. In fact, many women did not enter the workforce, let alone gain the right to suffrage, until the outbreak of World War II. While the men were away at battle, the women were left to tend to both of their households and family businesses. As a result, the rate of female employment rapidly proliferated, and by 1960, 23.3 million women made up over thirty-two percent of the American labor force.

In spite of the unprecedented rise in female employment, the struggle for equality has not not ended. Since a capitalist society is rooted in power and monetary gain, men found themselves threatened by the sudden female success, facing the risks of job insecurity as a so-called “inferior” woman could replace them at any time. To paraphrase sociology Professors Barbara F. Reskin and Denise D. Bielby of the University of Washington and University of California Santa Barbara in the 2005 Issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, sex is a means of social differentiation. Society through its principles then further perpetuates such differences, eventually leading to a severe systemic inequality based on group membership and the social stratification of “their members across virtually all domains.” This subtle sexism stemming from gender stereotypes and unconscious biases among male employers and employees alike leads to the unequal treatment of women, ultimately benefiting men. 

The labels placed on a masculine or feminine job further segregates the labor force. In a 2012 Pew Research Study, when asked what is best for young children, only 16 percent of respondents agreed that having a mother who works full time is the most ideal, and 33 percent said that a mother of young children should not work at all. With this perspective, it is increasingly difficult for women to advance in the workplace as employers tend to prefer men--because they will not, for example, take a 12-week-long maternity leave--despite women’s equal working capability. Patriarchy and its pious devotees will do anything to maintain the status quo; the insidious nature of entrenched gender norms in the professional sphere continue to underpin the constant discrimination faced by women today. 

In light of the recent U.S. Women's National Team’s victory at the 2019 World Cup, unparalleled chants for equal pay have reignited. The women’s team worked tirelessly and brought much pride to our country but were not even rewarded with equal--or more than equal--pay based on their merit. As they say, history repeats itself. This phenomenon of unequal pay is nothing new as revealed by the discriminatory treatment endured by women soccer players back in 2015, after their defeat over Japan in the World Cup. A post-cup analysis from a 2016 FiveThirtyEight study of U.S. soccer players Hope Solo and Carli Lloyd’s salaries uncovered a gross total income of $480,038 in contrast to male players Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard’s total of $826,517. That amounts to an astounding difference of $364,479, even with the men's team's poor finish at the CONCACAF Gold Cup that year.

The female soccer players saved the dying American morale and brought much revenue with their undeniable excellence and victories, especially in juxtaposition with the men’s dismal and disheartening performances, and yet the women still faced unequal treatment. Although the Women’s Soccer team filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the outcome was meaningless: a simple formal apology and the Federation’s promise to bargain for better pay and the improvement of employment opportunities for women in the field. A promise that is yet to be fulfilled.

Women are being paid unfairly all across the board—not just in sports. According to data compiled by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in 2017, though American women make up almost half of the workforce, they only received 80.5 cents for each dollar made by men, creating an unsettling wage gap of 20 percent. While this may not seem to be a very significant figure, it seems blasphemous that the land of opportunity is ridden with such inequities. Women are paid less than men for the same work or even when they accomplish more, as seen with the scenario of the United States (U.S.) Women's National Soccer Team. For women of color, the reality is worse: Latinas make 53 percent, African Americans make 61 percent, and Native Americans make 58 percent of their male counterparts’ salaries with Asian women being the only outliers earning 85 percent (but only 75.5 percent of Asian men’s earnings). 

But, is unequal pay legal? To put it simply: no. Section 206 (d)(1) from the Equal Pay Act of 1963 clearly states:

 No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate…on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 serves to embolden these ideals by legislating protection against discrimination in the workplace based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Unfortunately, employers have found a loophole, constantly exploiting both the vagueness of the bill due to its lack of exploration through court cases and its lack of enforcement. For instance, the administrative interpretations of the EPA have defined skill as "experience, training, education, and ability" needed, effort as "the measurement of the physical or mental exertion needed for the performance of a job," and responsibility as "the degree of accountability required in the performance of the job, with emphasis on the importance of the job obligation." Wages have been interpreted to mean "all payments made to or on behalf of the employee as remuneration for employment," including most fringe benefits. Yet, the fact remains that these interpretations are simply words with no means of enforcement. Additionally, one cannot overlook the gray areas within the text itself--what “experience” and “effort” truly mean remains unclear as there is no objective test to determine the levels of each, ultimately leaving its discretion up to the employer.

Moreover, a man or a woman, who feels he or she have been subjected to equal pay discrimination, may sue his or her employer. However, our American justice system idolizes the presumption of innocence, or that one is “innocent until proven guilty.” While due process of law is necessary to maintain equal standards and to uphold our laws, it is often laborious and sometimes impossible for the employee or the Secretary of Labor to prove that the plaintiff was indeed performing the same work as a male-counterpart, which again becomes entrapped in the folly of subjectivity. On top of that, while a woman may indeed seek a lawsuit, there will always linger the stigma and fear of retaliation, and the fear of job security often binds women into silence.

That isn’t to say that the Equal Pay Act and subsequent acts have been futile; their impact has gradually narrowed the gender wage gap. However, women literally still pay the price for matters out of their own hands, still bearing the burden of such inequities despite their out-performance of men, something legislators recognize and continue to fight for. According to CNN reporter Caroline Kelly, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin recently introduced a bill that would “withhold federal funding for the hosting of the 2026 men's World Cup until the men's and reigning champion women's national soccer teams receive equal pay.” Even just this year, the House in a 242-187 vote passed the H.R.7. - Paycheck Fairness Act of 2019, which would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to remedy discrimination in the payment of wages based on sex, yet the Senate continues to show no further action.

Although it has been proven many times that the gender pay gap exists in every country worldwide, the issue isn’t being taken seriously, partly due to misinterpretations of the data at hand. For example, according to Mark J. Perry of the American Enterprise Institute, the gender pay gap is at best a common misconception with no substantial evidence that men and women working in the same position with the same background receive unequal pay. Rather, a gender earnings gap exists due to many different factors. For example, men are more likely than women to have more years of uninterrupted experience due to women being more apt to take maternity leave or quit their job and relocate for their partners. 

What Perry seems to be suggesting here is that women truly do not deserve equal pay because their work is simply not equal. Again, however, it is important to consider the subjectivity within these observations, starting with the fact that women employees are present in all of the fields he lists as examples. Women have always been discriminated against within the typical household and being dependent on their husbands or fathers further restricts their freedom to pursue higher education, a trend that is beginning to change. In 2015 alone, 72.5 percent of females were enrolled in degree-seeking programs, compared to 65.8 percent of men paralleling similar increases among low-income and women of color. Such increasing opportunities for females in education and the fields of humanities and STEM will only serve to disprove Perry’s point—women are seeking change for themselves.

However, there is no magical antidote. Multiple plans have been discussed, like the one proposed by California Senator Kamala Harris, which would fine companies that fail to disclose their pay data. This is where the real trouble lies: the gender pay gap is a smaller issue in the grand scheme of things, and passing such narrow-scoped legislation simply does not go far enough. Rather, the solution is to reinforce the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment under which all persons are guaranteed the equal protection of the laws, implicitly including the right to equal pay. The first step would be to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Proposed in 1923, this would guarantee equal legal and civil rights for all American citizens regardless of gender. While the ERA has faced much political backlash, it has quietly been regaining support. According to Article V of the Constitution, one of the ways an amendment can be ratified is through the ratification by three-fourths of the states. In February of this year, Virginia became close to fulfilling the required number by becoming the 38th state. But while the amendment passed the Senate, the House vote rendered it moot with a tiebreaker vote. However, women refuse to be discouraged. Organizations such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) are one of many initiatives that continue to advocate for the ratification of the ERA. It will take a coalition of all women, akin to the recent #MeToo movement, for change to occur. This is necessary as it would ensure that when the ERA is ratified one day, its purpose does not become nullified or diluted, it would be properly enforced.

From the beginning, minorities and those in power in the United States have been at odds— the outcries for equal pay among the U.S. Women’s National Team are not the first nor will they be the last. When a significant part of the population is denied equal pay, equal rights, and equal opportunity, the oppressed are not the only ones affected. Rather, the entire basis of democracy is at risk. And that is something all of us equally have a stake in.

The State of Women in National Security

Many are familiar with the “Women in STEM” initiatives that are percolating throughout all levels of education in the United States and elsewhere. From Michelle Obama to Karlie Kloss, celebrity advocates of the inclusion of women and girls in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have drawn international attention to the lack of female representation and the need to improve diversity. Though, statistically, women pursue social science degrees at higher rates than they do STEM degrees in the United States, there has been a quieter, yet steadily growing, movement to promote the inclusion of women at the highest levels of political decision-making, especially in contexts pertaining to national security. Groups like The Leadership Council for Women in National Security and #NatSecGirlSquad have increased in membership and notoriety in recent years while other, less specialized women’s empowerment organizations have made a point to add national security as an area of concern. As gender inclusion initiatives across the board become more popular, what has drawn attention to the national security field in particular?

Each organization states their purpose slightly differently, but the common circumstance they seek to remedy is the low percentage of women in high-ranking national security positions in the public and private sectors. As the Leadership Council for Women in National Security puts it, “The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough women from which to choose for national security positions, the problem is that hiring managers—often men—lack diversity in their own networks, and leaders fail to make gender diversity a top priority.” At the same time, #NatSecGirlSquad aims to support women in developing skills that might mean the difference between getting hired or not. In their own words, they are “focused on building expertise among women, confidence in that expertise, and creating systems to institutionalize success.” Still, the reasoning for the focus on national security in particular can seem opaque. If one were to replace the words “national security” in the above statements with any other professional field, they would still hold true. 

The beginnings of conversation of women in security can most clearly be traced to the 20th century trope of women as successful peacemakers. Francis Fukuyama popularized the notion of women as benevolent peacebuilders in his 1998 essay, “Women and the Evolution of World Politics.” His argument that women are biologically less inclined to be violent or support violence is controversial at best in today’s academic conversation, yet it has guided researchers to further investigate the concept of women as peacebuilders. The International Peace Institute published a study in 2015 drawing correlations between the percentage of women at the so-called “table” of peace negotiations and the longevity and success of the resulting agreements. According to the study, a peace deal is 35 percent more likely to last 15 years if women take part in its creation. This statistic and others like it have been advertised by the United Nations and other prominent international organizations as rallying cries for women to be offered spots in political decision-making bodies.

Though, on their face, narratives promoting women as benevolent peacemakers are supportive or even complimentary of women’s ability to create sustainable peace, they may be harmful to the integration of women into the public and private security sectors in a meaningful way that reflects true equality. These narratives may uplift women in the short term in calling for the immediate hire of more female professionals to senior positions in the peacebuilding sphere, but run the risk of pigeonholing women into roles in what some consider “soft security,” or preventative peace measures which refrain from intrusive military tactics, as opposed to “hard security,” which focuses on weaponry and combat. The New York Times noted that when women do hold roles in security, they “have been more welcomed in offices involved with arms control and nonproliferation, which center on negotiating limits on weapons rather than developing or using them.”

If, however, putting more women in peacebuilding roles means longer lasting peace deals and therefore a less violent world, is ushering women into these roles worth the imperfect gender equality? Rather than take the statistics on female peacebuilders on their face, one should consider the wider scope of research on diversity in the workplace. According to a 2014 MIT study, greater diversity of all kinds in a workplace increases productivity. This suggests that women’s involvement in peace deals leads to greater success not because women are somehow more inclined to be less violent, as Fukuyama argues, but because any increase in diversity of the demographic of diplomats and those making peace deals will improve the success rates.

A recent call for “gender parity in national security appointments” by the Leadership Council for Women in National Security has garnered national support, even being adopted by the official 2020 platforms of fifteen of the twenty-odd Democratic presidential candidates. If adhered to, this pledge could provide a meaningful shift in the demographics of the national security field. However, fluid definitions of national security may render any resulting policy less disruptive in its implementation. Progress on this front should be celebrated warily. Considering women were banned from many combat positions in the United States Military until as recently as 2015, issues will undoubtedly arise in subtler ways. Women who, by the design of the United States government, were unable to serve in combat roles for most of the nation’s history may have their experience deemed less appropriate for high ranking defense positions.

According to men and women working in the national security field at present, quota policies alone may not be enough to improve the day-to-day of women looking to advance their careers. A source working in the industry told the Washington Post that there is a “culture of assumption perpetuated by both men and women that women don’t have a role to play in security and foreign policy.” These implicit biases are perhaps the most difficult to overcome. Senior United States Foreign Service Officer, Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, explained to NPR that she still faces unwelcome reactions to her presence at meetings that she feels are a result of her race and gender.

In discussing the progress and achievements of cisgender women asking for representation in the security field, it is also vital to acknowledge efforts by the current presidential administration to ban transgender women and other transgender individuals from serving in the United States military completely. Gender representation in national security attaining any level of attention from national media sources should be considered progress. However, as in any fight of its kind, the struggle for gender equality in the field of national security will be long and arduous.

It is critical for those concerned with the state of women in national security to seek a cultural shift within the industry simultaneous to the pending policy changes. Former senior Pentagon official, Michèle Flournoy, who was expected by many to have been Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of Defense, explained that her male mentors in the field were able to guide her career in a way that allowed her to avoid the same discrimination many other women face. While passing legislation supporting measures such as gender parity in political appointments, security education for young women and girls, and more equitable hiring processes is essential in the pursuit of equality, these processes inevitably take time. There is no reason, however, for men and women currently in the field to wait for these policy changes to be implemented before starting to mentor more young women and support them as they work their way through the security sphere.