International Relations and Security Studies - Assignment

International Relations and
Security Studies

TABLE OF CONTENTS
MAJOR ESSAY .............................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Security risks specific to gender..................................................................................................1
Factors causing gender based violence and sexual harassment...................................................2
Challenges for gender balance and security ................................................................................4
Recommendations for safeguarding from gender sensitive violence issues................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................8

MAJOR ESSAY
INTRODUCTION
The gender plays critical role in the security analysis and humanitarian development
strategies. There has been vast range of stereotypes associated with the habits, perspective,
behaviour and attitude on the basis of gender. The gender based security considerations are
important for both men and women. Thus, for providing the security to humanity and society it is
required that gender neutrality must be established by eliminating the gender differences based
on stereotypes (Hagen, 2016). The study will provide a brief description of the security
challenges in terms of physical and sexual violence on the basis of gender. It will also discuss the
various factors which encourages such gender biased discrimination. The report will also provide
suggestions for developing an effective framework for security risk management.
Security risks specific to gender
The physical and sexual violence is one of the major security risk and women are more
vulnerable to this security risk. The security threat is not limited to only some specific regions or
the localities but is also evident across the globe. During the situation of wars or displacement
the incidence of violence and harassments becomes more dominant. In the war front where it is
assumed that man are required to face the exposure of violence in the battle ground while women
are meant to satisfy the needs of man. Thus, as easy target of taking frustration women are at
high risk of sexual harassment. Such type of violence is not only demonstrated by only family
members but also by the other military forces and other personnels and groups which are active
during wars (Kirby and Shepherd, 2016). During peaceful environment also the sexual
harassment with women is quite common in societies.
Apart from the sexual harassment the use of physical violence against women is also
major concern for the health, safety and security of the women. These incidences of violence
have significant impact on the physical and psychological health of women. According to the
statistics of world health organisation around 70% of women worldwide have experienced the
sexual harassment for at least once in their life (Facts and figures: Ending violence against
women, 2018). As a result of these violence events many women commits suicide or are killed
due to severe health consequences which results form the violence.
The sexual harassment results in several health complications such as unintended
pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, pregnancy related complexities, anxiety
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disorders and stress and other poor health consequences. Though the fact cannot be denied that
male population does not suffer from the violence events but such perspective is usually
discarded by the social groups (Runyan, 2018). Since the percentage of violence against women
is so bigger and common as well that security risk assessments and policy makers usually pay
attention to only women victims.
However, in almost all the societies of the world it is strongly believed that man has
dominance over the power and control. It creates a wide gap in the equality among both the
genders and thus the physical violence has been a major and common concern from the
centuries. The severe impact of the sexual harassments and physical violence not only affects the
women health but it also influences the well being and upbringing of children. Women have been
assumed to take the responsibility of taking care of the child (Sloand and et.al., 2015). When
children witness such events it creates negative impact on the children and thus their growth and
psychological health is affected. The abusive perception of man towards women is not restricted
to specific groups or society. The same trends are observed globally. For instance in the refugee
camps the sexual harassments is very common. During the situation of conflicts and wars woman
are very easy target for the invaders. Among the war prisoners the man are exposed to deaths or
physical tortures while the women are mainly exposed to sexual harassments.
Factors causing gender based violence and sexual harassment
The increased instances of the physical abuse and violence against women is supported
by the majority of the factors. The social perception and attitude towards the women the key
factor which encourages such abusive and unacceptable practices towards women. The lack of
education is the key driver for this perception. Due to limited education and restricted thinking
many people assumes that women are mere objects and they are responsible for meeting the
needs of family and children (Sikweyiya and et.al., 2017). It is the strong belief that only man
has right and authority to control.
Thus, in order to prove this assumption most of the time women are harassed and
physically tortured so that male supremacy can be established in the society. As compare to
women the man tends to be more masculine and thus it becomes very easy for them to use
physical force against women. Whenever there is economic crisis or any kind of conflicts people
visualise women as easy target to take frustration and thus they are subjected to violence. One of
the irony related to the security assessment and prevalence is that though women have high
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