Negotiating gender role expectations: understanding the gendered experiences of women mediators in Africa

Abstract

With United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, the United Nations recognized the vital role that women play in promoting the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Though there is much focus on women and peace in the architecture of the WPS agenda, its nature, composition, and focus points are often based on Global North considerations. This article aims to address that gap by contributing toward a holistic understanding of women mediators in Africa. Valuing African women’s shared lived experiences as mediators addresses an underexplored area of research and necessitates a decolonial feminist theoretical framework that challenges existing colonial, patriarchal, and gendered notions present in practices of mediation. A qualitative research design was used to collect data via 12 semi-structured participant interviews with women mediators from Africa, after the identification of the literature gap during a state-of-the-art review on the topic. Their gendered, often contradictory experiences as women mediators are explored further in three themes: mediation as a patriarchal space, women as “natural” peacebuilders, and conflicting gender roles and expectations. Direct quotes from their narratives reflect the diverse theories and practices of gender-conscious mediation by women in Africa, as well as their social circumstances and personal experiences, highlighting the diversity of experiences in women’s peacebuilding.