ABSTRACT

The Indian government has presented itself as a champion of gender mainstreaming in UN peacekeeping. At the same time, the domestic security sector in India continues to create a gender-segregated environment and experiences of uniformed women in the field show remaining barriers for gender equity. Given this contradiction, the article examines the ambivalence inherent to Indian gender mainstreaming of peacekeeping units. We argue that transnational norms, such as gender mainstreaming, are embedded in larger norm bundles, and we combine the literature of norm localization and norm contestation in our conceptual framework to illustrate how India localizes parts of the gender mainstreaming norm bundle whilst contesting others. We find that India’s localization of the gender mainstreaming norm has meant to pursue an asymmetric gender-parity approach between different branches of the Indian security forces and that it has fomented a division of labour within the police corps. Moreover, we illustrate how India contests the idea of placing women in security-sensitive areas, in combat roles, and gender-integrated police units.

摘要

印度政府已经成为联合国维持和平中性别主流化的倡导者。同时，印度的国内安全部门继续创造性别隔离的环境，身穿制服的妇女在实地的经验表明，性别平等仍然存在障碍。鉴于这种矛盾，本文探讨了印度将维持和平部队纳入性别主流的内在矛盾。我们认为，诸如性别主流化之类的跨国规范已嵌入更大的规范束中，并且我们在我们的概念框架中结合了规范本地化和规范竞争的文献，以说明印度如何在对其他性别主流化规范束进行局部化的同时进行竞争。我们发现，印度将性别观点纳入主流规范的本地化意味着在印度安全部队不同部门之间奉行一种不对称的性别均等办法，并煽动了警察部队内部的分工。此外，我们说明了印度如何反对将妇女安置在安全敏感地区，战斗角色和性别综合警察部队中的想法。