Current projects

Peace, Gender and Care in Cambodia

Funder: Monash University, Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Enterprise)


Co-Investigators: Monash GPS (Dr Eleanor Gordon) and Women Peace Makers (WPM), Cambodia (Suyheang Kry)


Project Summary: Monash GPS and WPM Cambodia have conducted research on the intersection of gender, peace and care in Cambodia. Research was conducted in 2024-25 with key stakeholders in Cambodia, including the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA); National Peacekeeping Force, Mines and Explosive Remnants of War Clearance; and representatives of civil society organisations and
international organisations, including the UN. The aims of the research were to:

  • Reflect on the impact of caring responsibilities on the meaningful participation of women in peace and security work, namely peacebuilding and peacekeeping.
  • Discuss the interconnections between gender, care and peacebuilding, and discuss the utility of employing a care lens in peacebuilding and peacekeeping policy and practice.
  • Provide input to key stakeholders discussing the development of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) National Action Plan (NAP) regarding the intersection of gender, care and peacebuilding, particularly the impact of unpaid care work on the participation of women and the effectiveness of security and peace programming, policy and practice.

Research findings underscore the critical importance that women can and do have in security and peace work, not least because of their unique experiences and needs as well as the diversity of skills, knowledges and capacity they possess. It highlights the significant barriers to women’s engagement that arise through care work. It proposes recommendations to better support care-givers in peace and
security work to address these barriers and, thus, advance efforts to progress peace, security and development.

Peace, Gender and Care in Cambodia English Report

Peace, Gender and Care in Cambodia  Khmer Report

Peace, Gender and Care in Cambodia English Brief

Peace, Gender and Care in Cambodia Khmer Brief

Civil-Military-Police Cooperation: Connecting Gender Inclusion, Gender Responsiveness and Operational Effectiveness

Funder: Australian Civil-Military Centre (ACMC), Government of Australia
GPS Co-Investigators: Eleanor Gordon (lead), Jennifer Wittwer, Llani Kennealy, Ross Hendy,Richard Fosu

The Australian Civil-Military Centre (ACMC), Government of Australia, and Monash GPS are undertaking research to investigate the links between gender inclusion, gender responsiveness and operational effectiveness in responses to conflict and crises that involve civil-military-police cooperation. The project is being co-designed by key stakeholders including the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP), as well as ACMC and Monash GPS, to ensure the research is practically focused and outcomes driven. The project will examine the connection and correlation between gender diversity in military and police organisations and gender responsiveness in deployments and operations, and in particular the impact on:

  • Civil-Military-Police Cooperation: Assessing the impact on cooperation with civilian actors engaged in conflict and crisis response.
  • Community Impact: Analysing the ability to engage with diverse communities affected by conflict and crisis, and respond to their different needs.
  • Operational effectiveness: Evaluating whether integrating a gender perspective (inclusion and responsiveness) has measurably enhanced operational outcomes.

The aim of the project is to identify and disseminate good practice and recommendations to enhance gender-inclusive and gender-responsive civil-military-police cooperation in conflict and crisis response, with the overarching aim of strengthening civil-military-police cooperation to better respond to current and emerging security threats. It will identify how to:

  • Build upon and connect efforts to advance gender inclusion and gender responsiveness in deployments and operations.
  • Improve civil-military-police cooperation in conflict and crisis response.
  • Engage and respond to the needs of diverse communities impacted by conflict and crisis.
  • Enhance operational effectiveness of conflict and crisis response efforts.

Advancing the Meaningful Participation of Women in UN Peace Operations by Supporting Personnel with Caring Responsibilities

Funder: Global Affairs Canada (Government of Canada)

GPS investigators:  Eleanor Gordon, Katrina Lee-Koo, Lauren Lowe, Richard Fosu.

Global Consultants and Partners: Irine Gayatri (National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN); WGCDR Llani Kennealy (Retd); Joana Osei-Tutu, Acting Deputy Director of the Women, Youth, Peace and Security Institute, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC); Jane Townsley, former President and Executive Director of the International Association of Women Police (IAWP); Anushka Chavan (India Consultant); Jennifer Grover (Founder and Director of A.C.T. for a Better Day, Ltd.); Council for Strategic and Defence Research (CSDR), India; BRIN; and KAIPTC.

Project summary: This project is the first of its kind to identify the causes and consequences of marginalizing women with caring responsibilities from military and police organizations (security institutions) in troop and police contributing countries (T/PCCs) and UN peace operations. The objective of this project is to propose ways to reduce this marginalization, thereby improving the meaningful participation of women, enhancing operational effectiveness and advancing gender equality. The project duration is 3 years. A multi-method approach will be employed, including key informant interviews across 7 fieldwork sites: UN HQ, 3 T/PCCs (Indonesia, India and the United Kingdom) and 3 UN peace operations (UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo(MONUSCO) and UN Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS)). Findings, including best practice and lessons learned, will inform a series of comprehensive recommendations, advocacy tools and an organizational toolkit that can be used to better support the recruitment, retention, promotion, training and deployment on peace operations of women in military and police organizations.

Outputs:

Read more here

Afghan Women Educational Projects and Initiatives

GPS Lead: Parisa Sekandari

Project summary: In response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, Monash GPS launched two projects to support Afghan women's education: "Broken Dreams: The Psychosocial Impact on Afghan Girls," an essay collection documenting the experiences of nine young women, and the "Afghan Girls Training Project," a one-month online education program. These initiatives aim to empower Afghan women through education, fostering resilience and providing essential research and writing skills. "Broken Dreams" offers a unique perspective on the psychosocial impacts of Taliban rule, highlighting both the challenges and the strength of Afghan girls. The "Afghan Girls Training Project" will commence in July 2024, providing an intensive program designed to equip young Afghan women with vital skills for advocacy and personal development. These initiatives underscore the critical role of education in empowering Afghan women to rebuild their lives and advocate for their rights.

Read more here

Who Cares in Peacebuilding

Funding partner: DVCR (RTA Grant)

GPS investigators:  Eleanor Gordon, Katrina Lee-Koo, Lauren Lowe

Project summary: On the inaugural International Day of Care and Support (29 October), Monash GPS issued a joint statement and launched a global survey on care work and peacebuilding, with partner universities (Warwick, Sydney and RMIT) and senior members of the international community engaged in peacebuilding (including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Swisspeace, Saferworld, International Peace Institute (IPI), UN Department of Peace Operations (UNDPO), UN Women, and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC)). This initiative aims to raise awareness - and encourage action to address - the marginalisation of peacebuilding practitioners with caring responsibilities and the subsequent impact this marginalisation has on peacebuilding outcomes. Findings from the global survey will be launched in 2024.

Outputs: 

English , French and Spanish.

Read more here

Read the Concept Note here

Young women’s regional leadership in the face of global challenges in Asia and the Pacific

Funding partner: World YWCA & Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

GPS investigators: Katrina Lee-Koo, Eleanor Gordon

Project summary: This project investigates how young women in the Asia Pacific region are impacted by core security challenges and how they engage as leaders to address these challenges. These four challenges are violence against women and girls, conflict and political violence, the climate crisis and Covid-19 and its impacts. The research seeks to amplify the voices of young women, to ascertain the specific and unique ways in which these challenges impact them, as well as barriers to and opportunities for their leadership in addressing these challenges. Over 400 young women engaged in the research project - co-led by regional YWCA offices in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Thailand, under the direction and support of the World YWCA and Monash GPS.

Previous Projects

Misogyny, hostile beliefs and the transmission of extremism: a comparison of the far-right in the UK and Australia

Funding partner: Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST)

GPS investigators: Alexandra Phelan, Jacqui True, James Patterson

Research partner: RUSI UK

Project summary: Online social media networks and forums can provide ideal channels for individuals across ideological spectrums engaging with extremist ideologies to transnationally interact with like-minded individuals, and social media platforms have created a paradoxical illusion of intimacy and anonymity, where individuals can explore extremist ideologies while making virtual affiliations that seem as real as physical relationships. The project will investigate the role of online channels on three different levels, 1) the misogynistic views and hostile/sexist beliefs that are held and espoused at the individual level, 2) in-group dynamics, with particular focus on how women and men are positioned within the group itself and their roles, and 3) the general politicised ideologies that frames both these beliefs and roles and offers a “sense of meaning” that shapes participation. By comparing far-right extremism in the UK and Australia, this project will improve knowledge of the role of online channels in amplifying gender ideology, misogyny and hostile beliefs across transitional networks. It will examine how these dynamics manifest in the offline space, including whether there are offline sites that reinforce gender identity and ideology, justifying violence and hostile beliefs.

Gender Responsive Alternatives on Climate Change

Funding Partner: Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade Gender Action Program with Action Aid Australia

GPS investigators: Maria Tanyag, Jacqui True

Project Website: https://actionaid.org.au/programs/gender-responsive-alternatives-for-climate-change/

Project summary: This project seeks to address the global gendered impacts of climate change, recognising that women are often disproportionately impacted compared with men by climate change and related crises as a result of gender inequality in access to power and resources. Increasing evidence suggests that climate change is changing weather systems and is driving humanitarian disasters of an unprecedented scale. These disasters present increasing challenges for women living in poverty and exclusion. Without addressing power imbalances that render women either invisible or marginal in climate change policy and planning, women face a cycle of increased vulnerability.

This research collaboration represents a major innovation through the development of a gender-responsive framework to strengthen women’s voice and leadership in responding to climate change and related-crisis. This creates an opportunity to increase learning around how to ensure interventions targeting climate change and emergencies are transformative for long-term resilience and gender equality. The intention of the framework is not only to inform stakeholders on ways to better respond to the gender impacts of climate change in the short and medium terms, but to create an integrated and coherent approach to addressing women’s security that seeks to bridge the current fragmentation that exists across humanitarian, security and development agendas in policymaking and on the ground.

Online Publications:​

Enhancing the Role of Military Gender Advisors

Funding partner: Australian Department of Defence Strategic Policy Grants Program

GPS investigators: Katrina Lee-Koo & Eleanor Gordon

Project summary: This project reviews the efficacy of military Gender Advisers (GENADs) within the Women, Peace and Security and Gender Perspective frameworks in both operations and internally to armed forces organisations. The review looks at successes, challenges and opportunities to develop the GENAD capability globally and draws from over 50 interviews with current and former GENADs and colleagues across the world.

Mobilising Young Women’s Leadership and Advocacy in the Asia Pacific (MYWLAP)

Funding Partners: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) & World YWCA

GPS investigators: Katrina Lee-Koo & Lesley Pruitt

Project summary: This project will create a comprehensive database for the information gathered by YWCA, to monitor and evaluate the framework of the MYWLAP project’s effectiveness, and analyse MYWLAP’s ‘theory of change’ approach. It will also evaluate the successful elements of the model, as well as potential for improvements, and whether and how the program could be deployed effectively in other locations. The Young Women’s Leadership Project will focus on nine countries across the Asia Pacific: Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Monash GPS and YWCA aim to fulfil several objectives including: to ensure young women are knowledgeable and skilled to lead a positive change in their community, through the sharing of information in human rights, sexual and reproductive health rights, violence against women and gender; and, to support young women in the Asia Pacific as a driving force in influencing women’s rights policies.

Online Publications:

Diversity in International Security Studies

Funding partner: International Studies Association

Project summary: This project investigates how gatekeeping and knowledge construction shape who is permitted to participate in security studies, and the broader national security workforce more broadly. Using a multimethod approach, the project examines diversity within global security studies through surveys, staff analyses, author counts in 15 major security studies journals, and more. It also engages directly with junior security studies scholars through mentoring programs, to better understand what types of mentoring programs are most effective at helping historically excluded groups to participate fully in the field.

Monash Korean Studies Beyond Borders: Creating a Global Hub for a New and Diverse Korean Studies

Funding partner: Academy of Korean Studies

GPS investigators: Maria Rost Rublee

Project summary: An application for funding to support the education, research and engagement activities of the Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub (MUKSRH). This is an application for an 5-year extension of the previous 5 years of AKS Core Universities support. The funding supports the continued development of MUKSRH and Korean Studies at Monash. GPS Affiliate Maria Rost Rublee’s role in the project is helping to enhance the diversity of applicants to Korean Studies, evaluating research and engagement activities, and engaging a diverse spectrum of students in Korean Studies by enhancing the international relations aspect of the program.

Gendering Peace Mediation

Funding partner: Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project

GPS investigators: Jacqui True, Karin Aggestam, Gina Heathcote, Jenna Sapiano

Project summary: Contemporary peace mediation practice and design result in the negotiation of fragile peace settlements that are likely to collapse within five years from the time they are signed.  There is empirical evidence that peace is more durable when women participate in peace processes; however, the current structures and institutions of peace mediation make the exclusion of women possible. First, this project aims to interrogate existing boundaries to women’s participation in peace processes and identify reasons for the failure of peace mediation to address the gendered foundations and impacts of conflict. Second, the project will identify practical mechanisms and generalisable lessons from women’s mediation networks, and national and grassroots-based women mediators to inform and transform high-level mediation processes. The objective is to generate an evidence base for rethinking peace mediation design and practice at the international level.

Gender Analysis of Violent Extremism and the Impact of COVID-19 on Peace and Security in ASEAN: Evidence-based Research for Policy Responses

Funding partner: UN Women

GPS investigators: Alexandra Phelan, Jacqui True, Irine Gayatri, Amporn Marddent, Janine Gamao and Yolanda Riveros Morales.

Project summary: The project builds on the long-standing partnership between GPS and UN Women. The GPS team will partner with other ASEAN country experts in Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines to examine the key changing trends and dynamics of violent extremism in the context of COVID-19, including recruitment, propaganda, and/or spread of misinformation and disinformation to fuel misogynist and hostile beliefs to justify and legitimise violence against women in the ASEAN region. This will build knowledge and evidence to inform the implementation of gender-responsive prevention of violent extremism strategies, and support ongoing regional efforts and collaboration in ASEAN countries, addressing a variety of cross-border challenges from pandemic response to rising intolerance and extremism.

Analyses of Australia's Second National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security 2021-2031

Project summary: Our Monash GPS researchers provided thematic analyses of Australia's second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) (2021-2031). Themes covered in the report include: feminist credentials in the new NAP Australia, monitoring and evaluation, women's participation in peace processes, sexual and gender-based violence in fragile and conflicted-affected settings, countering and preventing violent extremism, inclusive economies, climate change, humanitarian action, stabilisation and disaster management, health emergencies, young women, and children.

Analyses of Australia's second national action plan (NAP) on women, peace and security (WPS) 2021-2031

Enhancing the Role of Military Gender Advisors

Funding partner: Australian Department of Defence Strategic Policy Grants Program

GPS investigators:  Katrina Lee-Koo & Eleanor Gordon

Project summary: This project reviews the efficacy of military Gender Advisers (GENADs) within the Women, Peace and Security and Gender Perspective frameworks in both operations and internally to armed forces organisations. The review looks at successes, challenges and opportunities to develop the GENAD capability globally and draws from over 50 interviews with current and former GENADs and colleagues across the world.

A Global Review of the Development of Military Gender Advisor Capabilities

Investing in Women: Gendered Impacts of MSME Policy Responses to COVID-19 in South East Asia

Project summary: This study aimed to uncover the gendered outcomes of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) policy responses to the pandemic in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. In collaboration with researchers from each of the three countries and based on field work conducted from July 2021 to January 2022, the study examined the different experiences of women and men in the MSME sector. Specifically, the study examined how women and men have been consulted in policy design; the extent to which policy responses included gender analysis in design or application; factors influencing priorities in designing policy; the gender breakdown of beneficiaries of the policy support; the types of support measures which benefitted women the most; and the lessons or recommendations at could be drawn from these three country case studies.

Project publications:

Caring for carers: addressing the marginalisation of peacebuilding practitioners with care responsibilities

GPS investigators: Eleanor Gordon

Project summary: The experiences and marginalisation of peacebuilding practitioners with caring responsibilities has a direct negative impact on the type of peace, security and justice being built in conflict-affected environments. This is in large part because organisations engaged in peacebuilding often fail to respond to the needs of their staff with caring responsibilities, which leads to their early departure from the field, and negatively affects their work while in post. This marginalisation also occurs in the broader international development sector and has similar resultant individual, organisational and sectoral harms. This project investigated this problem, the exacerbating factors, and challenges to overcoming it by engaging with current, former and aspiring peacebuilding and international development practitioners as well as organisations engaged in the sector. Contextual variation and ways in which to address this problem are also scoped. Initial research offers a theory of change demonstrating how caring for carers can both improve the working conditions of employees of international organisations in particular, as well as the effectiveness, inclusivity and responsiveness of peacebuilding interventions. A guide for employers is also provided on how to take the caring responsibilities of their employees into account when developing human resource policies and practices, designing working conditions and planning interventions.

Project outputs: Caring for Carers Toolkit

Monash GPS (Dr Eleanor Gordon) and Warwick Interdisciplinary Research Centre for International Development (WICID) of the University of Warwick (Associate Professor Briony Jones) developed a Toolkit providing an overview of the marginalisation of peacebuilding and development practitioners with care responsibilities and the resultant individual, organisational and sectoral harms. It is aimed at organisations engaged in peacebuilding and broader international development and provides a comprehensive set of recommendations to better support employees with care responsibilities and thereby contribute to more inclusive, responsive and effective peacebuilding and development programmes. The Toolkit was published by the WICID Methods Lab, Warwick University Press and Monash GPS, and jointly launched by Monash GPS and WICID in June 2021.

You can find this toolkit here and access our toolkit series here:

Gender and Exclusionary Buddhist Protectionism in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar

GPS investigators: Jacqui True, Helen Stenger, Alexandra Phelan, Duanghathai Buranajaroenkij, Prakirati Satasut, Hashitha Abeywardana, Ashika Gunasena, Vindhya Fernando

Research Partners: FHI 360, Mahidol University and Chrysalis

Funding Partner: This study is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Networks for Peace program.

Project summary: The research project investigates the gender dimensions of exclusionary Buddhist protectionism in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Exclusionary Buddhist protectionism refers to movements or groups that support discrimination and/or violence against perceived “enemies” of the faith and similarly-supported authoritarian governments as a mechanism to protect the Buddhist nation. We are keen to understand how social constructions of gender identities, gender symbolism and gender relations in communities may reinforce or challenge exclusionary Buddhist protectionism. This knowledge is really important for identifying ways to support and promote sustainable peace in all three countries.

Towards Inclusive Peace: Mapping Gender Provisions of Peace Agreements

Funding partner: Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT)

Project Type: Australian Research Council’s Linkage Project Scheme

GPS investigators: Jacqui True, Katrina Lee-Koo, Sara Davies, Nicole George

Project summary: The three-year project, “Towards Inclusive Peace: Mapping Gender Provisions of Peace Agreements”, will investigate how peace agreements can advance women’s rights and participation after post-conflict and political transitions. Women’s participation in peace processes increases the likelihood of a successful peace agreement, but does it consolidate peace and lead to greater participation by women in the governance of the country? This project examines the relationship between women’s presence in the processes of peacemaking, the inclusion of women’s rights and gender provisions in peace agreements, and the outcomes for women’s participation in post-conflict governance of countries with successful peace agreements. Post-conflict and political transitions are major opportunities to advance women’s rights and participation: this project investigates how those opportunities can be harnessed and supported in implementation of peace agreements.

Project outputs:

Mapping Women's Access to Justice in Asia and the Pacific: Bridging the Gap Between Formal & Informal Systems Through Women's Empowerment

Funding Partner: UN Women

GPS investigators: Jacqui True, Sara Davies, Melissa Johnston, and Maria Tanyag

Project summary: Professor Jacqui True (Monash) and Professor Sara Davies (Griffith) lead the project, which maps women's access to formal and informal justice systems when they experience violations of their rights in five countries in the Asia and Pacific region (Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu). This project will also identify the main stakeholders engaged in facilitating access or providing services in the justice sector in order to incorporate their views and insights on the gaps between formal and informal systems and enhancing access to justice.

Adolescent Girls in Crisis

Funding partner: Plan International Australia

GPS investigators: Katrina Lee-Koo, Eleanor Gordon & Hannah Jay

Project summary: This project draws together practitioner experience, scholarly research skills, and community engagement to generate research on the needs and capacities of adolescent girls in crisis. It uses a grounded, feminist research approach which centres the lived realities of adolescent girls as the primary site for building knowledge about the threats to their security, and how those threats should be addressed. As such, the project acknowledges both the vulnerability and agency of adolescent girls in crisis and looks for ways in which the humanitarian sector can support them. It will recommend programmatic responses to girls’ insecurity that addresses needs and responds to opportunities to support girls’ empowerment. Carefully navigating the ethical concerns surrounding working with adolescent girls in crisis, the research project will promote a safe, community-engaged approach that addresses immediate response and prevention. Three case studies were investigated: the crisis in South Sudan, the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh and the Lake Chad crisis (Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria).

Online Publications:

Gender after Conflict: Global Approaches to Incorporating a Gender Perspective in Post-conflict Environments

GPS investigator: Katrina Lee-Koo

Project Type: Australian Research Council Discovery Project

Project summary: A three-year ARC-funded Discovery Project led by Katrina Lee Koo Gender after Conflict examines the international community’s work to address the gendered politics of armed conflict in the transitional processes of establishing peace and security. Focusing on Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, the project asks how international initiatives such as the United Nations Women, Peace and Security agenda are adapted by states and NGOs to local, conflict-affected regions. It uses feminist methodologies to firstly examine the strengths and weaknesses of the UN’s agenda and its adaptation by major states like Australia, and secondly to analyse the impact of the agenda in the region as experienced by local women. The purpose of this research is to use this analyse to advance and better implement the goals of the WPS agenda.

The Gender Dynamics of Security and Defense Sector Reform

GPS investigator:  Eleanor Gordon

Project Type: Field-Based Research

Project summary: This project draws from work as a practitioner and field research in post-conflict environments. This project explores the extent to which Security Sector Reform (SSR), specifically Defense Reform, and the subsequent security and defense structures, are responsive to the needs of both men and women and representative of them. The focus is on post-conflict environments where women engaged in large numbers in combat roles during the conflict, particularly in insurgent forces. This focus will help shed light on assumptions about a woman's place, skill set and aptitude (which tend to marginalize women in the defense sector and broader security sector) and how such assumptions shift between war and peace.

Gendered Agricultural Livelihoods in Post War Sri Lanka

GPS investigator: Samanthi Gunawardana

Project Type: Monash-Oxfam Partnership

Project summary: In partnership with Oxfam Australia in Sri Lanka, this project examines rural women’s participation patterns in agricultural livelihoods. The objective of this participatory action research project is to examine constraints to women’s access to sustainable livelihoods and enhance more equitable participation and recognition of their contribution in post war Sri Lanka across three communities. It includes an analysis of how different forms of violence can hinder economic empowerment.

Gender Constructs and Role Adoption in Violent Extremism

Investigators: Alexandra Phelan, Jacqui True

Funding Partner: Victorian Government

Project summary: This project examines how constructs of masculinity and femininity facilitate or challenge role adoption in far-right, far-left and radical Islamist violent extremism. It examines the interplay of gender identity, socio-economic status, and ideological beliefs in determining individual radicalisation pathways.

Motivations for women and men to join violent extremist groups may be similar, but men and women participate in violent extremism differently and pathways in radicalisation are distinct. Extremist groups explicitly tailor their recruitment strategies to address these distinct motivations of women and men. A gendered understanding of ideological and material motivations is thus crucial to effectively counter and prevent violent extremism (see True et al 2019). Women play multiple roles in violent extremism, as sympathisers, mobilisers, logistical managers, preventers, and perpetrators.

Existing research examines how these roles differ amongst far-left, far-right and radical Islamist ideological tendencies. However, it does not investigate or explain why violent extremist networks/organisations target men and women with gender-specific online messaging and recruitment strategies. The research addresses this knowledge gap by investigating how gender influences role adoption in far-right, far-left and radical Islamist networks, and how online gender-messaging challenges or reinforces these roles. The report investigates how gendered online messaging influences role adoption by 1) Mapping online content to produce a typology toolkit for intelligence/risk assessment; and 2) Researching the three target groups via content analysis, legal analysis and interviews.

Framework for a gendered analysis of countering violent extremism (CVE) policy and programs in Victoria (Framework)

GPS investigator: Jacqui True

Funding Partner: Department of Justice and Community Safety (Victoria)

Project summary: this project developed a framework supporting the application of a gendered analysis of countering violent extremism (CVE) policy and programs in Victoria (Framework).

The Framework will contribute to the increased effectiveness of policy and programs by:

  • promoting gender sensitive practices in policies, program and service delivery

  • facilitating an increased understanding of the experiences of women and men and their roles and relationships in relation to violent extremism

  • ensuring Victorian Government staff who lead CVE policy and program development and delivery understand gender analysis and how to apply it and integrate it into their work.

Gender Equality and Violent Extremism: A Research Agenda

GPS investigators: Jacqui True, Eleanor Gordon, Melissa Johnson

Funding Partner: UN Women with funding from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Research Partner: Eirene Associates (Morocco)

Project summary: Monash Gender, Peace and Security Centre has won a competitive UN bid to establish a new research agenda in North Africa (Libya, Morocco and Tunisia) on the gendered dynamics of violent extremism in North Africa including gender analysis of extremist recruitment and mobilization, impacts of violent extremism and terrorism, and efforts to prevent and counter their threat in the region. Monash GPS will partner with Eirene Associates (Morocco), and together will build the research capacity of national research institutes/organisations in each of the countries in North Africa. The 18 month project will create an evidence base to inform effective, gender-sensitive P/CVE policy and programming.

A Gender Sensitive Approach to Preventing Violent Extremism in Asia and the Pacific

GPS investigators: Jacqui True, Eleanor Gordon, Katrina Lee-Koo, Kerry O'Brien, Muhammad Iqbal, Melissa Johnston and Yasmin Chilmeran

Partner Investigators: Centre for Law, Gender and Society, Gadjah Mada University, Oxfam Bangladesh, GZO Peace Institute (GZOPI), Ateneo University, Manila, the Philippines

Funding Partner: UN Women

Project summary: The research project will analyse the role that women, as well as men, can and do play in promoting or preventing violent extremism in three countries: Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines. The research will also investigate how notions of masculinity and femininity are used by violent extremist groups to radicalise and recruit men and women in these countries.

Read more on Preventing Violent Extremism.

Research Dialogue | Gender and P/CVE: the role of civil society organisations

GPS investigator: Jacqui True

Funding Partner: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)

Project summary: This project is a collaboration between Deakin University and Monash University’s Gender, Peace and Security Centre to facilitate a two-day Research Dialogue conducted during the Global Counter-terrorism Forum (GCTF) Countering Violent Extremism Working Group Plenary and Workshop on Gender and P/CVE: the role of civil society organisations.

Project output:

National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security: Eight Countries in Focus

GPS investigators: Katrina Lee-Koo, Barbara Trojanowska

Funding Partner: The Australian Civil Military Centre (ACMC)

Project summary: The report provides a comparative analysis of seventeen NAPs to identify best practice and emerging approaches to engaging increasingly complex global realities. It begins with an analysis of the global issues that challenge WPS implementation, follow by a technically focused comparative analysis of the details of NAPs. The annexes provide the reader with ready-access to the specific of each NAP, coded by  issues, country, and feature.

Report: NAPs on WPS: Eight Countries in Focus

Monash Warwick Alliance Accelerator Grant

GPS investigators: Samanthi Gunawardana, Melissa Johnston, Shirin Rai, Juanita Elias and Nicola Pratt, Jacqui True

Project summary: In the immediate aftermath of conflict, much of the labour to support households is carried out by women and girls, and as infrastructure deteriorates because of a lack of investment, the pressures on women’s health and well-being increase and their participation in public life decreases.

The state provisioning of social infrastructure at this time, via macroeconomic and social reform policies, often does not reflect the gender specific impacts of these policies. This leads to what has been called ‘depletion through social reproduction’, which occurs when the gap between the outflows —domestic, affective and reproductive labour — and the inflows — medical care, income earned and leisure time — falls below a threshold of biological, financial and affective sustainability.

Professor True, Monash University and Professor Rai, University of Warwick will lead a team from both institutions to pilot research which will explore the impact of social reproductive costs in the absence of a well-developed social infrastructure supporting women within households in the face of conflict and displacement. The pilot will clarify concepts, develop research networks on the ground, and help us ask better questions towards further research. It will also inform analysis of the challenges and the opportunities in times of transition from conflict for gender sensitive economic reform, taking seriously women’s agency and potential.

Project publications:

Impact of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence on the Dynamics of Conflict

GPS investigators: Sara E. Davies, Jacqui True

Project Type: Australian Research Council Discovery Project

Project summary: This project aims to understand the impact of sexual and gender-based violence on the dynamics of conflict. With an innovative mixed method design it will study all reported incidences of sexual and gender-based violence in 41 conflict-affected countries between 1998 and 2018. It will generate new knowledge establishing how and when crimes of sexual and gender-based violence affect the onset and intensity of conflict. The expected outcomes of this project include the identification of the most high-risk situations, the phases of violence, and the improvement of risk assessments for such violence. The project will significantly benefit the prevention of sexual and gender- based violence in conflict-affected situations globally.