Not a Care in the World: An Exploration of the Personal-Professional-Political Nexus of International Development Practitioners Working in Justice and Security Sector Reform
The marginalisation of international development employees with caring responsibilities has a direct negative impact on the type of security and justice being built in conflict-affected environments. This is a sector which visibly seeks to address gender equality issues while at the same time is critiqued for the gender inequalities within it. Despite recent statements that the UN has reached 50-50 gender parity at its highest echelons, there remain significant gender imbalances in the organisation. Furthermore, efforts to reach out to women to help rectify these imbalances, have sometimes done more harm than good. This was evidenced by a 2020 promotional video launched by UNOCHA on #whatittakes to be a humanitarian, which generated outrage for its use of gendered messages, sexist language, and stereotypes.
It is these gendered assumptions and biases, combined with other barriers to engagement, advancement, and training which lead to the marginalisation of carers. For example, UN personnel data shows a dip in the proportion of female international professional staff members as compared with men in the mid-30s age group, the age at which many women in this sector choose to have children. Across the whole UN system, women outnumber men up to the 35-40 age range and thereafter, men outnumber women. There are also over five times more male consultants and individual contractors engaged in UN field operations than females.
Our paper starts from these observations to analyse the individual, organisational and societal harms which result from not ‘caring for the carers’ in international development. Based on 8 life story interviews with current or former practitioners working in justice and security sector reform with international development organisations, we identified a series of barriers to engagement of current or former employees with caring responsibilities for children specifically. These include: gendered biases and assumptions about the professional competence, commitment, and productiveness of those with caring responsibilities for children (often women); lack of structures, policies, and practices to support those with caring responsibilities (e.g. flexible time, financial support for childcare, or adequate provisions while on mission); environments perceived to be unsuitable for raising children – not just because of security concerns that may be present in post-conflict environments but also because of a transitory, often permissive, and sometimes toxic work culture. This work culture feeds, and is fed by, a false assumption that peacebuilders/aid workers are, and indeed should be, unencumbered – i.e. without the ties that come with caring responsibilities. From this toxic work culture and entrenched gender inequalities also emerge recent sexual abuse and other safeguarding scandals.
We found that these barriers adversely affect not only those forced to choose between caring responsibilities and their career in this sector, but also the work that these organisations are trying to do in building security and justice after conflict. When peacebuilders are from a narrow demographic community – in part, we argue, because of the departure of women when they assume caring responsibilities, which principally occurs when they have children and is compounded by gendered assumptions about security work and care work – they can have a detrimental impact on security and justice outcomes. This is particularly the case for those who are not reflected in the demographic of the epistemic community, as the specific needs and experiences of those beyond this community are less likely to be heard and so not be attended to. Consequently, the peace being built is unlikely to be inclusive, equitable or, ultimately, sustainable. Moreover, the result is that a diversity of knowledge, experience, and skills is often missing from such organisations, which leads them to become more removed from the environments in which they are engaged. This ultimately causes harm for the supposed beneficiaries of these programmes and calls into question the credibility of international development organisations who fail to take such issues into account while at the same time advocating for gender equality elsewhere.
Read the full article here: “Not a care in the world: an exploration of the personal–professional–political nexus of international development practitioners working in security and justice sector reform“
Eleanor Gordon is a senior lecturer in politics and international relations in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. She has worked for 20 years in the field of conflict, security and justice, including 10 years with the UN and other international organisations in conflict-affected environments. Her research and practice focus on inclusive ways in which to build security and justice after conflict.
Briony Jones is an Associate Professor in International Development in the Politics and International Studies Department of the University of Warwick. She is also Deputy Director of the Warwick Interdisciplinary Research Centre for International Development and Co-Chair of the European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group in Human Rights and Transitional Justice. Her research focuses on transitional justice, citizenship, human rights, post conflict intervention, and the politics of knowledge, with 10 years of experience collaborating with policy makers and practitioners.
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