Civil Military Co-operation Centre of Excellence

On Wednesday 24 February, the Gender Meeting of Experts, hosted by CCOE, started with more than 20 participants from ten different nations, representing various military and civilian organisations.

In his opening speech the Director of the CCOE placed Gender firmly within the Comprehensive Approach as an essential element of CIMIC. He sees the Gender Meeting as a key benchmark in the mainstream of CCOE’s conceptual development and the pursuit of its aim to create a more comprehensive understanding of the topic Gender in its military relevance. Additionally he stated that Gender is an issue in CCOE’s doctrinal development, training and education since several years already.

The two days conference's format is a dynamic and challenging one: several key note speakers, syndicate workgroups and plenary moderated discussions set the framework conditions. After the first introduction of all participants it became clear, that the most expected outcome of this Gender Meeting is a concrete action, a practical implementing of the outputs in doctrinal development and training.
Supported by the moderator, Mrs. Karin Grimm from Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), the lecture from Mrs. Charlotte Isaksson from the Swedish Armed Forces Directorate led to the first conclusions: Gender issues are not a punctually task, but a common effort of all players involved. A knowledge gap between Gender experts and the troops on the ground must be overcome. The main goal is to derive a common military concept to integrate Gender in missions. And finally, Gender is not only an issue for army forces, but for air force and navy components as well.
Mrs. Gunhild Hoogensen from the Tromsø University will summarize the outputs of the Gender Meeting of Experts and provide an academically analysis of the results. Publications are to be expected within the next two months.

NATO Definition of Gender: “The term gender refers to the social differences and social relations between women and men. The term gender therefore goes beyond merely the sex of the individual, to include the way social relationships are socially constructed. A person’s gender is learned through socialisation and is heavily influenced by the culture of the society concerned. The gender of a person may result in different roles, responsibilities, opportunities, needs and constraints for women, men, girls and boys.”