"Add Women and Stir?" The Successes and Failures of Feminist Peacemaking: A Case Study of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition


Mary-Catherine Croshaw, York University

In recent decades there has been a significant focus, in both academia and the international community, on the necessity of involving women in peace processes. There is an emerging consensus that when women are involved in peacemaking, the resulting agreements are more likely to address the relationship between the conflict and social issues such as education, health, and housing (Cowell Meyers, 2014). Evidence also suggests that when women are involved in negotiations, conflict-related sexual violence is more like to be addressed (Roberts et al., 2010). However, the inclusion of women in peacemaking is no guarantee that issues which do not directly pertain to cessation of armed conflict will be addressed; conflict-related sexual violence in particular is still left off the table more often than not (Ashe, 2020). According to Roberts et. Al. (2010), only 18 of 300 peace agreements pertaining to 45 conflicts since World War II address sexual and gender-based violence. It is therefore necessary to investigate the conditions under which feminist peacemaking experiences the greatest success, and the mechanisms through which the unique forms of violence faced by women during war remain marginalized despite the inclusion of women in peacemaking processes. Through a framework of critical gender analysis, this paper will analyse the successes and failures of the Northern Ireland women’s coalition (NIWC) in the northern Irish peace process of the 1990s, and discuss what this case can reveal about the strengths and limitations of feminist peacemaking. Through the case study, this paper will problematize the “add women and stir” approach to peacemaking, a framework which assumes that simply including women in the peacemaking process will result in outcomes which effectively address the unique security needs of women in conflict resolution (Dharmapuri, 2011). The “add women and stir” approach is a foundational principle of un resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security, and forms the basis of approaches to inclusive peacekeeping in the international community; this paper will demonstrate that the mere presence of women in negotiations is not nearly enough to secure agreements that effectively address the security needs of women. The NIWC is celebrated in Ireland and in the international community for securing significant reforms in areas such as housing and education as part of the good Friday Agreement but failed to get provisions addressing sexual violence included in the agreement despite significant effort on their part (Cowell Meyers, 2014). The group was also unsuccessful in their attempts to secure criminal justice reforms that would strengthen repercussions for gender-based violence. This paper will discuss how the NIWC was able to achieve success on issues that impacted all of their society, and will examine the conditions of the northern Irish peace process which hindered the group’s ability to address any form of gendered violence. In this regard, the paper will explore in detail the impact of backchannel negotiations by heavily masculinized paramilitary groups; the systemic misogyny faced by the founding members of the NIWC as they mobilized to bring women’s issues to the negotiation table; the intimidation and violence NIWC members faced from the majority male delegation during peace talks; and the impact of a culture of militarized masculinity, which asserts that “traits stereotypically associated with masculinity can be acquired and proven through military action” (Eichler, 2014), on the framing of the conflict and its resolution. Further, the paper will demonstrate how and why these conditions resulted in a peace agreement that is completely silent on the forms of violence faced by northern Irish women during the conflict despite great effort on the part of the NIWC. Ultimately, this paper will demonstrate how and why the “add women and stir” approach largely failed in Northern Ireland, and will discuss what can be done differently to ensure that feminist challenges to war and violence are not steamrolled by the same systems of violence and hate which fuel conflict around the globe.

This paper will be presented at the following session: