Explaining the Variation in Gender Composition of Personnel Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Operations

• Author: Julia M. Macdonald,James H. Lebovic,Kerry F. Crawford
• Published date: 01 April 2015
• Date: 01 April 2015
• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X14523416
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article
Armed Forces & Society
2015, Vol. 41(2) 257-281
Explaining the Variation
ª The Author(s) 2014
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in Gender Composition of
DOI: 10.1177/0095327X14523416
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Personnel Contributions
to UN Peacekeeping
Operations
Kerry F. Crawford1, James H. Lebovic1,
and Julia M. Macdonald1
Abstract
How do we account for the dearth of female contributions to UN peace operations
(UNPOs)? For answers, this study examines conditions that led the United Nations
to move to reduce the gender imbalance in UNPO personnel and provides
descriptive evidence that points to the continuing underrepresentation of women in
these operations. To interpret this evidence, the study presents theoretical expla-
nations for the varying contributions of personnel to UNPOs—including the political
and socioeconomic character of the contributing states, international reputations
and norms, and various demand-side influences exerted by missions—and then tests
these explanations with a cross-sectional time-series model that accounts for female
personnel contributions to each mission in the 2010–2011 period. Although offering
significant support for domestic political explanations, the findings indicate that
gender diversity is not a primary goal of most contributors and is largely a
by-product of force sizes.
Keywords
peacekeeping, gender, United Nations
1 Department of Political Science, the George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
Corresponding Author:
James H. Lebovic, Department of Political Science, the George Washington University, Monroe Hall,
Room 473, 2115 G. Street NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
Email: lebovic@gwu.edu

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Armed Forces & Society 41(2)
With the end of the Cold War, the United Nations (UN) greatly expanded the scope,
nature, and number of its global peace operations. Whereas United Nations Peace
Operations (UNPOs) traditionally involved keeping combatants apart after they had
ceased fighting, the United Nations of the post–Cold War period moved actively into
combat and accepted ambitious peace- and nation-building missions that were
intended to stabilize post-conflict regions, monitor the progress and enforcement
of peace agreements, and—at times—take an active role in rebuilding society for
long-term peace. Now, over two decades removed from the Cold War’s end, UNPO
personnel contributions stand at their all-time highest post–Cold War levels, as do
the number of countries contributing to peace operations. Yet, this trend toward
increased participation masks a profound imbalance in contributions: the UN force
remains a predominantly male force as female personnel still constitute less than 4
percent of the total number of UN peacekeepers.
The United Nations has taken the personnel imbalance as a call to action,
contending that the dearth of female personnel deprives peace operations of a valu-
able resource for addressing new challenges in security, conflict resolution, and
peacebuilding.1 Indeed, one such challenge relates directly to the gender composi-
tion of the peacekeeping force: scholars and practitioners alike have documented
a disturbing connection between the presence of an all-male peacekeeping force and
sexual exploitation and violence in post-conflict situations that impresses a need to
improve the gender balance of the UN force.2 Given the UN call for more female
peacekeepers, as backed by such evidence of abuse, the responsiveness of member
states—in the form of personnel contributions to these missions—can say much
about the determinants of interstate behavior. How well, then, can we account for
the variation in the cross-national contribution of female personnel to UN missions?
We consider two political explanations. First, the political character of a govern-
ment could determine its level of participation in UN operations. Democratic or
gender-rights observant governments are conceivably more inclined to consider
female participation when contributing UN peacekeepers. Perhaps these govern-
ments—given their legitimizing principles, domestic protections and agendas, and
normative predispositions—strive for greater gender diversity in their police and
military units, which will carry into international missions. Second, a government’s
relationship to international institutions could affect its participation in UN missions.
When active in the formulation and implementation of conventions regarding gender
equality, governments might contribute female personnel to these operations out of
concern for their ‘‘reputations’’ in the international community or a sense of ‘‘appro-
priateness.’’ By contributing female personnel, a country can signal its deference to
gender equality to domestic and foreign audiences.
We proceed as follows. First, we examine the push within the international com-
munity to contribute female personnel to UNPOs—especially in light of an observed
link between all-male peacekeeping forces and instances of sexual exploitation—
and the data on the gender composition of the UN peacekeeping force which reveal
the depth and scope of the underrepresentation of women in peace operations.

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Crawford et al.
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Second, we offer theoretical explanations for UN member-state contributions of
personnel to UNPOs including the political and socioeconomic character of the
contributing states, international reputations and norms, and various demand-side
influences. Third, we specify a cross-sectional time-series logistic model (with
contributor-mission-year as the unit of analysis) that competitively tests the various
explanations for female personnel contributions to each mission in the 2010–2011
period. Fourth, we test the model. We conclude ultimately that the contribution of
female personnel to UNPOs is driven by the democratic nature and rights observance
of member states but that gender diversity is not a primary goal of most contributors
and is largely an unintended by-product of force sizes.
Background: Mission Failures and the UN Response
Over the last decade, the United Nations sought to increase the participation of
women in UNPOs. In this, it was reacting to widespread concerns about the absence
of women from peace negotiations and decision-making positions in post-conflict
societies, a growing awareness of the use of sexual violence in civil conflicts, and
revelations of sexual offenses committed by male-dominated UN peacekeeping
forces.
Beginning in 1992, reports began to surface that an all-male UN peacekeeping
force deployed to Cambodia had engaged in sexual assaults, the solicitation of pros-
titutes, the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, and extramarital affairs
with civilians.3 While these initial reports did not result in immediate action by the
United Nations, the subsequent revelation in 2004 of sexual exploitation of civilians
carried out by UN forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo prompted an
institutional review of all reports received during prior UN missions.4 This
review, and others, revealed the presence of sexual abuse and exploitation not
only in Cambodia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo but also—from the
early 1990s through to the mid-2000s—during operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Kosovo, Timor Leste, and West Africa.5 The incontrovertible conclusion drawn
from the report is that such abuse was persistent, far-reaching, and widespread.
In 1999, the United Nations deployed the first of its gender units (in Kosovo and
East Timor) to facilitate more productive interaction between female civilians and
peacekeepers and expand the role of women in post-conflict reconstruction. These
units also signaled the beginning of a new phase of UN activism to address problems
of sexual abuse, sexual violence, and gender imbalance in peace operations, fuelled
by civil society pressure for greater inclusion of women in all matters of peace and
security and by gender mainstreaming efforts within the UN bureaucracy.6 Accord-
ingly, the United Nations reached an important milestone, in October 2000, when the
UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325. This marked the first time that the
Security Council recognized war’s disproportionate impact on women and called for
efforts to improve women’s participation in all matters related to conflict mitigation
and peacebuilding.

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Armed Forces & Society 41(2)
Allegations of exploitation and abuse of civilian women by UN peacekeepers
before and after the adoption of UNSCR 1325 prompted institutional reviews of per-
sonnel conduct.7 These reports led the UN General Assembly to adopt Resolution
57/306, in April 2003, urging the Secretary General to address sexual exploitation
resulting from the presence of UN peacekeepers in post-conflict zones. Then in
2005, the UN General Assembly and Secretary General Kofi Annan commissioned
a comprehensive review of sexual exploitation in peacekeeping missions. The result-
ing review (compiled by Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan) was pre-
sented to the General Assembly in March 2005. Its findings exposed prevalent
sexual exploitation and abuse in these operations and called for organizational
efforts to eliminate exploitation during peacekeeping missions, through improved
standards—within the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO)—
of conduct, investigative processes, command responsibility, and individual
accountability with regard to sexual exploitation and abuse.8
The UNDPKO subsequently released a policy directive on increasing gender
equality in UNPKOs.9 In 2008, the Security Council...