Description
The increasing backlash against women's inclusion in peace processes exemplifies a critical dimension of today's polycrisis: the intersection of democratic backsliding, authoritarian resurgence, and erosion of hard-won participatory gains around gender equality. Despite normative advances in women's inclusion in peace processes since UNSC Resolution 1325, a formidable backlash threatens these hard-won gains today. As democratic backsliding accelerates globally and anti-gender movements gain traction from Afghanistan to Western democracies, understanding resistance to inclusive peace processes becomes increasingly urgent. Anti-gender movements increasingly weaponize peace processes as sites of resistance against inclusion. This research, drawing on interviews with 50 women negotiators and mediators across multiple conflict contexts, moves beyond empiricist accounts of "women's participation" to examine the structural dynamics of exclusion. By delving into the root causes of resistance to inclusion, such as competition for power, patriarchal ideology, and social identity threats perceived by dominant groups, this study reveals how resistance to inclusive peace processes reflects and reinforces broader authoritarian trends. The framework proposed here connects micro-level exclusionary behaviors that we observe in negotiation processes to macro-level democratic erosion, demonstrating how gendered resistance in peace negotiations serves as both symptom and mechanism of the polycrisis.
