This paper analyzes how the UN has implemented Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security in two peacebuilding missions. This is examined through a study on how the UN has worked towards gender mainstreaming and to increase women’s participation at the official and formal level of the peacebuilding in Kosovo and East Timor. This is done with a comparative two-case study based on empirical material such as academic articles and reports from the UN and other international or national organizations working in Kosovo or East Timor. The empirical material is analyzed through a feminist security perspective to address and stress the security aspect of the exclusion of women in higher levels of decision making in peacebuilding processes.
The conclusion shows that the work of the UN on increasing women’s participation doesn’t reach the structural inequalities, which is preventing women’s full participation. The conclusion also shows that the UN gives a different picture of their own work compared to other organizations that have been working in the two regions.