We are happy to re-post an important text written by our alumna Claudia Westwood. The piece was originally posted on the ELN website. Claudia is currently one of 14 UC Fellows who collaborate with the European Leadership Network on their Go Big initiative.
This summer, I left the world of academia and took my first steps into the field of international security. I consider myself an empowered woman. In both my undergraduate and master’s degrees, women outnumbered men on the course. My thesis supervisors were both admirable and accomplished women. While acutely aware of the gender hierarchies that exist in the world, I have graduated from higher education without feeling that any specific opportunities were denied me because of my gender. In reality, emboldened women entering the field of security now are still very much constrained by both external and internal hurdles.
The presence of women helps elevate the concerns and priorities of other women in the industry and ensures that the best of the population are given opportunities in the workforce. More than this, representative leadership benefits the functioning of security organisations. The actors that analysts seek to understand, influence, and reach are diverse, and a variety of voices within an organisation increase its efficacy. Different perspectives enrich conversations and lead to more nuanced policy; meaning everyone has a stake in increasing representation.
Despite gender initiatives in international security, women still aren’t at the table. Structural obstacles in the field have typically accounted for low representation in panels, think tanks and organisations overall. Underrepresentation is found in academic institutions, in low female representation on reading lists, in citations, and university lecturing positions, and in military and governmental sectors, this divide remains. Only 13% of Defence Ministers worldwide are women. In the EU, the proportion of foreign ambassadors who were female peaked at just 22% in 2014.
The Lowy Institute found barriers to seniority for women in international relations and security to be both horizontal and vertical. Vertically in that women often felt overlooked for promotions and assignments because of their gender, and horizontally, that women were more likely to be found in positions perceived as ‘softer’, such as corporate, public policy, or human security, rather than operational or intelligence roles. Moreover, Women in International Security Washington (WIIS) found that many think tanks appeared to show bias against hosting events around a single woman (global leader, president), while the same was not true for their male counterparts. Similarly, women on panels were often given moderating positions, rather than featured as expert speakers.
Please click here to read the rest of the article on the ELN website.
