Historically, female presence in international PSOs has been very low and research has shown that while there is an increase of women serving in civilian capacities, men still dominate serving in military and police capacities. Research shows that the integration of gender is lacking a wider commitment to take gender seriously in peace efforts. Women’s vulnerability is typically addressed in terms of how the presence of PSOs affect women in the host countries. However, I argue for the urgency in addressing the vulnerabilities of women working within PSOs governed by masculine norms. TIPH is a particularly interesting subject of study in relation to PSOs due to its all-civilian mandate.
The aim of this dissertation is to gain understanding into the gender dynamics of TIPH by investigating women’s experiences in the mission, by highlighting the particularities of women’s vulnerabilities and resistance. Theories of gender and hegemonic masculinity provide the theoretical framework and methodologically, a qualitative three-pronged approach is used for analysing (1) personal observations, (2) narratives from interviews and end of mission reports, and (3) analysis of relevant documents.
The study finds that gender-perspectives were not successfully integrated into the mission and that women’s vulnerabilities were most apparent in the day-today operations as they were exposed to the masculine norms that permeated and dominated TIPH. The study further finds that women continuously resisted these norms, firstly through their mere physical presence in the mission and any time they challenged status quo by raising their concerns, and secondly through the narratives and experiences they have shared since returning from TIPH.
This study makes an important contribution to the limited body of research on TIPH by adding a perspective that has been missing up until this point – the resistance and vulnerabilities of female seconded observers.