Where are the Women?

This week’s events involving the UN and a recent discussion I attended led by the Executive Director of Women In International Security (WIIS), Jolynn Shoemaker discussing the role of women in the UN, really got me thinking.

Where are the women?

There is a serious lack of women in high profile UN positions, especially non-western women, who are an untapped and potentially powerful resource to staff and lead peacekeeping missions. From the discussion I learned that women in general are underrepresented in management positions and rarely appointed at the highest levels of leadership. In Jolynn Shoemaker's report she highlights the fact that in 60 years of UN peacekeeping—1948 to 2008—only seven women have ever held the highest position, Special Representative of the Secretary general (SRSG) and of the current 17 missions, there is only one female SRSG. These astonishing facts makes you wonder is the UN really making a concerted effort to hire and retain women in jobs at the UN.

I think the lack of women in senior positions in UN reflects the fact that there are significant cultural and institutional impediments that exist to woman’s entry and advancement within the UN. You can find Shoemaker’s report on the WIIS website. One striking feature of her findings was when women were dismissed from the recruiting process for s senior level position were frequently told that they were not qualified for the position because they did not have military experience, yet of the 16 missions headed by men only three have military experience. Sounds like the recruitment process needs to be a lot more transparent.

Another interesting component of the report is that women tend to self-eliminate based upon their self-perceived inexperience. Yet of the men interviewed for the report none claimed to self-eliminate for their lack of experience. Maybe the UN needs to clarify what the actual qualifications for UN peacekeeping are and not stress military experience, when in reality its not that crucial to have a successful SRSG.

Another popular reason women sited for self-elimination was the UN’s failure to accommodate families because SRSG positions are designed as non-family duty posts, despite the fact that staff from other UN agencies are permitted to bring spouses and children to the very same locations. UNICEF is an example of a UN organization that accommodates families. One interviewee in the report summarized the situation as, “To be successful in the UN, one must be single, widowed, or divorced.” That’s pretty damn discouraging for a large proportion of potential SRSG’s.

With so few women in visible UN positions, there is an incredible amount of pressure on a woman heading missions to succeed. This is extremely troublesome because many missions are doomed to failure from the beginning. Many reasons can be sited for failed missions like poor on-ground planning, failed military operations, uncoordinated agencies, bad communication between local government and UN peacekeepers to name a few reasons why a mission might not work, but I fear that regardless of the actual reason to why a mission failed, it will be attributed to the woman running the show. I think this has a lot to do with a woman’s perceived inability to be forceful, take a hard line, or gain the respect of her male counterparts even if that is not the case.

The issue of not enough women peacekeepers raises another concern that is very specific to the current peacekeeping mission in Liberia led by the SRSG Ellen Magrethe Loj. Loj is currently the only female SRSG. Women have dominated the current Liberian peacekeeping process, but why are the women being concentrated in only one specific mission. Oddly enough the UN experimental police force comprised of only Indian women was implemented in Liberia first. Maybe it has something to do with Liberia having a female president.

The UN whether intentional or not is saying women can only work well with other women. I have to wonder why one specific peacekeeping location is completely female dominated but other missions have very few women. What is the purpose to concentrate all eligible women in one place? What if God forbid something goes wrong with the Liberian mission, Liberia will then forever used as an example of why women should not work in high profile peacekeeping missions. Of course I hope this does not happen and this mission sets a precedent for the UN as to how powerful and committed female UN workers are, whether part of the policing brigade or the SRSG of the mission. It does make me nervous to know all attention is being focused on these remarkable women, but then again maybe I am setting them up for failure and what I should be really doing is applauding all of their brilliant efforts.

Jolynn Shoemaker’s report brings light on many issues that have been over looked for far too long. The UN has recently made a concerted effort to draw from a broader more in-depth pool of applicants and to create committees to increase female participation. Transparency within the recruitment process is growing, but we have yet to see if these processes will become institutionalized. I can only hope fairer employment practices become the norm for the UN for those of us going into the field in the future. The success of future peacekeeping missions is be established now.