The Institutional Politics of WPS: Three Lessons on Resistance from Feminist Pedagogy

Civil society activists famously pushed the UN Security Council to pass a resolution on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in the year 2000, and the agenda has since become remarkable for how successfully it has been institutionalized in formal state bodies and international organizations. Twenty-five years since its adoption, the agenda is now under threat from intensifying anti-gender politics across the world. In this chapter, Holvikivi proposes that WPS scholars and practitioners can learn important lessons for contending with this threat from other fields of study and activism. The chapter outlines three key lessons for dealing with resistance to WPS work, drawing on work in feminist pedagogies and anti-gender politics.