This timely and accessible book addresses a relevant but too often unacknowledged issue—the relationship between state security and the security of women within the state. The authors rightly contend that the security of women is intimately tied to the security of the state, as well as the security of the wider international system. The authors begin with the argument that gender inequality is itself a form of violence against women. This violence includes the daily words and actions that subordinate and disrespect women, or what they label “microaggressions.” These microaggressions take three major forms including: (1) lack of bodily integrity and physical security, (2) lack of equity in family law, and (3) lack of parity in councils of human decision-making. These microaggressions and the wounds they inflict combine and layer upon one another to create a global situation of gender oppression. Violence begets violence and thus violence against women in the home and community begets violence in the state and international system. Ultimately the authors assert that security studies must take women into account because gender inequality has far reaching impacts at the local, national, and international levels. Unless steps are taken to address the widespread discrimination faced by women, the state will never be secure.
The authors use both qualitative and quantitative approaches, combining large-N analysis with individualized accounts rich in detail. The book is filled with testimonials, anecdotes, interviews, and stories about the dire situation faced by many women, but also of the many strides and successes women and men have achieved in attempting to change this global situation. After painting the micro-picture of gender-based violence, the authors address the larger macro-picture to provide an idea of the overall scale of gender inequality in the international system. Using multiple data sources, the authors rank countries on eleven clusters of indicators, such as the physical security of women, son preference and sex ratio, governmental participation by women, and discrepancy in education. These two perspectives—the micro and macro—provide a very clear sense of the widespread discrimination faced by women around the globe. The authors also attempt to explain this widespread inequality by employing a framework that draws on insights from evolutionary biology, developmental and social psychology, and political sociology.
After presenting the micro and macro perspectives as well as a theoretical framework for analyzing the link between women’s security and state security, the authors turn to their central claim: The roots of conflict and insecurity within a society can be explained by the treatment of women in that society. They derive six hypotheses from this claim and subject them to statistical analysis using data from their own data project, WomenStats. Each of the hypotheses is shown to be statistically significant and the authors conclude that the best predictor of a state’s peacefulness is its level of violence against women. The rest of the book is then devoted to addressing a variety of strategies, both top down and bottom up, to address gender inequality and advance the status of women locally and globally.
The authors do an excellent job of incorporating multiple methodologies to conduct a holistic analysis of the issue. Using quantitative methods they clearly illuminate the importance of women’s security to the state and vice versa and then they fill in the picture using a wealth of qualitative date. Some of the best parts of the book come from the authors’ articulation of the very intimate and personalized accounts of women’s insecurity. These accounts convincingly demonstrate that the oppression of women may be the one universal truth in our globalized world.
The authors also make a strong contribution to advancing alternative feminist methodologies. As they discuss, there is much debate as to whether quantitative approaches are compatible with feminism and feminist methodologies. Yet the authors convincingly make the argument that such methods are compatible and should be employed. Complementing their multi-method approach is the contribution of the WomenStats database. Their analysis provides a clear example of the potential this database has for further research into the relationship between gender and security. At certain points the book does read like an advertisement for their database; however, this is not necessarily without merit as WomenStats far surpasses other available data sources.
And true to feminist form, this book acts as a call to action. The authors are right in their claim that this book is not just an intellectual exercise. This is reinforced in the concluding chapters where the authors provide a myriad of strategies to address gender-based violence in all its forms. This is one of the major strengths of the book as the authors passionately encourage anyone and everyone that they can also take steps to address inequality. Just as the authors argue microaggressions add up to larger structures and systems of inequality, microactions can add up to larger movements of equality.
However, in the process of painting a global picture of women’s inequality, the authors run the risk of essentializing women. Even as they attempt not to treat women as a monolithic category, they cannot help but do so. Their discussion of women writ large often leads to the assumption that women are a homogenous group with one common interest, glossing over the many ways that women conflict with one another and the reality that sometimes women have more in common with men in their communities then they do with other women. This lack of intersectionality, particularly given the wide range of data the authors present, is disappointing. An intersectional approach is required given the multiple intersecting identities individuals embody. It must also be acknowledged that certain men in society may also face discrimination, as well as individuals that identify with a gender different than their sex.
The other major drawback of the book is its tendency to focus on the Global South and, in particular, the Middle East and Islamic regions. The propensity, particularly in the West, to demonize the Islamic world is a critique that has been levied by multiple voices and the authors recognize this bias as well. The authors clearly show—and explicitly state—that no country in the world has achieved true gender parity. They also explicitly state that there is nothing within Islam per se that contributes to greater gender inequality. Yet, at the same time, the Islamic world seems to be overrepresented in their examples. Even more telling is the fact that out of the multiple clusters of indicators the authors rank countries on in chapter three, they have two specifically devoted to issues in the Islamic world (including required dress code and public intermingling) and no corollary indicators of practices found in the West. There are multiple examples of Western practices that non-Westerners find oppressive and discriminatory and it would have lessened the apparent bias if these had been acknowledged and addressed.
However, these critiques do not lessen the overall take away point, nor do they detract from the very important evidence the authors present in support of their claims. The authors clearly achieve their goal of clearing the initial research hurdle of determining whether the relationship between the security of women and the security of the state is statistically significant. In doing so, they open up a whole new avenue of inquiry for both gender and security scholars.
