MIRERC 042/2025: Women, Peace and Security Agenda and Male Allyship

Abstract

Executive Summary
The WPS is an agenda that was initially underpinned by transformative feminist goals for
gender equality. These underpinnings are being challenged by a shift in Global North politics
where increased conservative, far-right populist and authoritarian governments, largely
linked to an anti-gender agenda are exploiting the mobilising potential of misogyny. The
shifting politics is resulting in increased military spending and a militant rhetoric in a project
of ‘masculine restoration’ (Kandiyoti, 2019). In addition, shrinking civic spaces, Sweden’s
shift from feminist foreign policy to ‘ traditional Swedish values’ (an important development
actor signifying backsliding on gender equality focus), and a global decline in peacebuilding
funding are significantly limiting progress made on gender equality. The WPS however
continues to be mainstreamed by donors to tackle gender inequality despite the increasingly
regressive everyday politics in multilateral/donor spaces.
In view of the challenges outlined, this project seeks to investigate differences in how men
and women promote WPS and gender equality, better understanding how the agenda is
translated through the prism of male allyship. The research broadly asks: How do male allies
make meaning of their promotion of women’s rights, through the WPS for example, in a
context of increasing retrenchment of these rights? Taking an interpretive approach, the
research will analyse how the WPS is interpreted by male advocates and community
members in an urban settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. The research more broadly navigates the
contradictions between delivering WPS goals while operating in a context where there is a
backsliding on women’s rights and a more general retrenchment on gender equality in the
West.