Deconstructing women, peace and security : a critical review of approaches to gender and empowerment / edited by Sandra Cheldelin and Martha Mutisi.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Women's participation in peace and security efforts -- The need for conceptualising gender as a social structure in policy construction -- Analysing the regional, national and NGO discourse in bringing women into peace processes : lessons from Burundi, South Sudan and Uganda -- Implementation of gender quotas in politics and governance -- Women's lives after warfare -- Domestic violence legislation -- Reclaiming women's agency in conflict and post-conflict societies : women's use of political space in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa -- Egyptian women as catalysts of change in the Arab Spring -- Gendering truth-seeking commissions : Kenya -- Gender mainstreaming : Liberia -- The 'peace dividend' : the experiences of peace for women in post-conflict Burundi, Uganda and South Sudan -- The impact of women's political participation in Rwanda -- Impunity for conflict-related sexual violence : insights from Burundi's former fighters -- Gender and empowerment : seven essential variables.

The book offers a critical review and analysis of many gender-based efforts implemented since 2000, including empowerment policies, strategies, and an in-depth study of four particular cases. It calls out the need for conceptualising gender as a social structure in policy construction. The book's critical review of rights and protection of women and empowerment efforts is organised around initiatives in nearly a dozen African countries. The data are also informed (and confirmed) outside the continent in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Indonesia. Drawing on the authors' unique expertise, this captivating book assesses the 'good intentions' of policies designed and implemented with core beliefs they will be good for women and provides an insightful analysis of what is (and is not) working.