Motivation

Last week I mentioned that there was a move to recruit more female peacekeepers for UN missions given the incidents of sexual abuse by peacekeepers and that I thought there was a place patrolled exclusively by female peacekeepers. While there is an all-female unit of peacekeepers in Liberia, not all peacekeepers there are women. The units main goal is to support the local police force. They also hope their presence will encourage Liberian women to join the police force so that at least 20% of police officers are female. All female police-units are common in India, the home state of this group of peacekeepers. Reading the article, I think its interesting how people are quoted as noting the “natural gifts” women have to be caring will make them better peacekeepers. At the same time, MacKinnon’s argument that sexuality defines women and is the source of female subordination is also illustrated by the reporters patronizing comments at the end of the article. I also have more thoughts on the intimacy/independence distinction as it relates to the military but I’ll save that for a later post or class.