Feminist Action at the Negotiation Table: 2010-2016 Colombian Peace Talks with Elizabeth Corredor, Bryn Mawr College

Oct 30, 2023 | Women and Public Policy Program
Rubenstein 414ab (ellwood Democracy Lab) + online
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Gender mainstreaming and peacemaking are fundamentally about spurring institutional change. Much of the literature on gendering peace negotiations does not explicitly address the institutional nature of these spheres. Using a feminist institutionalist framework, Dr. Corredor analyzes the 2010–2016 Colombian peace talks to uncover the endogenic formal and informal processes that both enabled and constrained feminist work and the eventual incorporation of a gender perspective within the final agreement. She shows that Colombia’s exceptional gender perspective in its 2016 peace agreement was due not just to the inclusion of women at the negotiation table but also paradoxically because of and despite continued gendered logics that prioritized the masculine over the feminine. These findings demonstrate that to understand gender mainstreaming outcomes in peace processes we must not simply account for how many women and which women are at the table, but also for the gendered logics within negotiation spaces.