‘Pactantes y no pactadas’: Gender Mainstreaming and the Political Ceiling of Colombian Women's Role in the Havana Dialogues

ABSTRACT

This article aims to investigate women's inclusion in peace processes through the adoption of a gender perspective. It does so by productively combining two sets of literature: on gender mainstreaming and on peace processes and social contracts. It analyses this issue in the context of Colombia's peace negotiations with FARC, delving into the discourse of various involved actors in the Havana dialogues. Ultimately, the article argues that there was a ‘political ceiling’ to what women were able to achieve in their role as contractarians.

KEYWORDS:

• political ceiling
• peace process
• gender mainstreaming
• social contract
• Havana Dialogues
• Colombia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 A pen made from rifle bullets and named this way in a play between Spanish words for “bullet” (bala) and “pen” (bolígrafo).

2 As an exception, Interview 1 was conducted in Rio de Janeiro in late October 2018. All interviews but one were recorded and transcribed with authorization (Interview 8 was done through an email exchange). All interviewees were women except for number 7. This was not a deliberate choice but happened naturally as the vast majority of people involved with this agenda were women. Although it lacks a registry number, this fieldwork was carried out in accordance with the operative ethical standards of my institution at the time. Taking into consideration the high risks involved in political activism in Colombia, all interviewees have been anonymised, with partial information provided for analytical benefits.

3 See Alto Comisionado para la Paz 2018.

4 See, for instance, the Forging Resilient Social Contracts (2022) project at http://www.socialcontractsforpeace.org/.

5 This is a typology of gender mainstreaming first introduced by Rounaq Jahan (1995) and diversely appropriated and utilized by different feminist authors in their reflections and classifications of the concept.

6 The point on victims, on the other hand, seems to stand in a league of its own, considering it was the point that took the most time to be negotiated – over 18 months –, and was at the heart of women's lobbying for representation.

7 An in-depth discussion of the ‘gender ideology’ issue in Colombia is outside the scope of this article. Valuable analyses can be found in Corredor 2021; Muelle 2017; and Contreras 2017.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001.

Notes on contributors

Isa Lima Mendes

Isa Lima Mendes holds a PhD in International Politics from the Institute of International Relations of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), with an emphasis on Conflict, Violence and Pacification, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Houston, Texas, with minors in Economics and Latin American Studies. She is currently a Lecturer at IRI / PUC-Rio and a Researcher at the Global South Unit for Mediation (GSUM) and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Ibero-American Studies (Ei).