Making violent women visible in the WPS agenda

While the global agenda on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) has a stated focus on building women’s agency as well as ensuring women’s protection, implementation efforts have generally focused on a vision of women as victims. This narrative overlooks the reality that women are frequently agents of political violence, acting as supporters or combatants in the majority of contemporary armed groups. By seeing these women and making their voices heard in peace processes and post-conflict transitions, we can craft outcomes that are more inclusive. The inclusion of these women’s voices may also create more effective long-term efforts at conflict prevention.