Melissa Johnston's "Building Peace, Rebuilding Patriarchy" examines the complex interplay of gender, class, and power in post-conflict Timor-Leste. The book analyzes the impact of various gender interventions, revealing how well-intentioned initiatives can inadvertently reinforce existing inequalities. Johnston uses a feminist political economy framework to understand the uneven outcomes of these interventions, highlighting the role of kinship structures and elite consolidation. The study challenges conventional approaches to peacebuilding, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of local contexts and power dynamics. Ultimately, the book offers critical insights into the limitations of top-down approaches and the importance of addressing structural inequalities for lasting peace.
Over the two decades since the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, peacebuilding interventions around the globe have increasingly incorporated gender perspectives. These initiatives have used both development programs and gender mainstreaming to advance women's empowerment, with the aim of making peacebuilding more effective as well as building more stable societies and efficient economies. This goal has been manifested in a wide range of programs and projects-or "gender interventions"—including economic empowerment measures, gender quotas, gender-responsive budgeting, and legal reforms. Yet, the results have been uneven, provoking a sizable debate among scholars and practitioners seeking to explain the shortcomings and improve the outcomes.
In Building Peace, Rebuilding Patriarchy: The Failure of Gender Interventions in Timor-Leste (Oxford University Press, 2023), Dr. Melissa Johnston explains why gender interventions often fail to help those who most need them, using the case of Timor-Leste, a country subjected to high levels of peacebuilding and gender interventions between 1999 and 2017. Looking at three types of gender interventions—gender-responsive budgeting, the law against domestic violence, and microfinance initiatives—Dr. Johnston argues that these reforms have produced mixed results because they reinscribe entrenched class and gender hierarchies in their implementation.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.
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New Books in Sociology