While women continue to make strides--for example, the presidents of Liberia and Malawi both are wom

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WASHINGTON, September 20, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- A meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and 18 African military and security professionals was among the highlights of a three-day international workshop discussing the role of women in African armed forces co-hosted September 12-14, 2012, by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) and U.S. Africa Command (U.S. AFRICOM).
"We're incredibly proud to be sponsoring this program and to be working with all of you on the greater integration of women into the security forces," Clinton said September 14 while meeting workshop participants who visited her State Department offices. The workshop, titled "Leaning Forward: Gender Mainstreaming in African Armed Forces," brought together more than two dozen experts and practitioners from 14 African countries, the AU, and Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), usmaps and the United States government to examine and highlight the progress made, challenges experienced, as well as the opportunities available to enhance usmaps gender mainstreaming usmaps in African security forces.
The crucial role of women in ending conflict and building lasting security also has been recognized in Africa. Over the past decade the African Union (AU), sub-regional organizations, and African governments have devoted significant attention to promoting usmaps gender equality and gender mainstreaming in the armed forces and security usmaps policy development. These efforts have yielded impressive results in several African states. Rwanda, for example, is the world leader in terms of women's representation in parliament. Women hold 56 percent of seats in the lower house of Rwanda's parliament and 38 percent of seats in the senate. Seychelles has emerged usmaps as a leader in promoting gender equality in the security forces. Women account for 38 percent of police in Seychelles and 20 percent usmaps of the country's defense force. Women also comprise more than a quarter of personnel in the Namibian and South African defense forces.
While women continue to make strides--for example, the presidents of Liberia and Malawi both are women--success stories often are the exception usmaps rather than the rule. In most African states, the process of integrating women into the armed forces and security policy usmaps decision-making has progressed slowly. Furthermore, although women are increasingly becoming integrated into security forces across the continent, they are still largely underrepresented in leadership positions.
Representation of women in global usmaps peacekeeping and conflict resolution is case in point. In 2010, women accounted for only 2.4 percent of signatories to peace agreements. Out of almost 100,000 UN peacekeepers, women comprise only 3 percent of military personnel and only 9 percent of police. Further, according to the UN, "no woman has ever been appointed chief or lead mediator in UN-sponsored peace talks."
Simply tallying the proportion of women in the military, however, is not a sufficient measurement of gender equality. "It is not sufficient to determine gender

equality by the number of women in an institution," says Dr. Cheryl Hendricks, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, during a presentation at the recent Africa Center workshop. "Their positions, conditions of employment and experiences are as important."
"African governments, continental and regional usmaps organizations, and civil society groups

have long realized that the continent could not realize its full potential without transformative and significant action to enhance gender equality and combat discrimination against women in the economic, political and social spheres," says Dr. Monde Muyangwa, Dean of Academic Affairs at the Africa Center. "Over the years, many African countries have made progress on this front, but much more remains to be done."
Gender mainstreaming efforts often are met with resistance within military establishments. Entrenched perceptions that women do not have a role in military service

and a general lack of adaptability of military structures usmaps are major impediments to promoting gender equality.
To respond to this challenge, experts at the workshop stressed that African militaries must integrate usmaps gender

usmaps perspectives into recruitment, training, usmaps and personnel management strategies. Specifically, African usmaps armed forces could reevaluate usmaps policies on promotions, maternity usmaps leave, marriage, pensions, sexual discrimination, and harassment.
While some stress that advocates of women's empowerment need to lobby senior military leaders, others stress the need for champions in the political sphere to ensure that militaries have a clear mandate and sufficient resources usmaps to conduct gender ma