Counterterrorism as a Gendered Institution

Women and the Paradox of Inclusion
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-13942-3
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Gender and Security

This book analyses Britain’s counterterrorism strategy (CONTEST), examining how women have been integrated into, and impacted by, counterterrorism policy and practice over the two decades since 9/11.

Using a Feminist Institutionalist approach, it argues that although women have become increasingly visible across CONTEST, this inclusion has not transformed the gendered assumptions underpinning British counterterrorism. Using case studies, such as the Bethnal Green girls, what emerges is not an absence of gender sensitivity, but a paradox of inclusion, whereby increasing efforts to integrate women into counterterrorism have simultaneously generated new forms of exclusion and securitisation. The book develops an original feminist institutionalist framework that conceptualises CONTEST as a gendered institution. Drawing on more than 800 policy documents, legislation, parliamentary inquiries and interviews with senior policymakers and practitioners, it traces the gendered design, implementation and outcomes of Prevent, Pursue, Protect and their oversight architecture. By examining the interactions between security actors and CONTEST’s institutional mechanisms, it demonstrates that institutional change emerges not only through formal reform but through the everyday practices and decisions of those implementing counterterrorism. In doing so, the book offers a new understanding of how counterterrorism institutions evolve, why gendered assumptions persist despite repeated reform, and how genuinely transformative gender-sensitive counterterrorism might be achieved.

This book will be of much interest to students of gender studies, counter-terrorism studies, UK politics and security studies.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional Reference, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Patel, Sofia

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Nationale und Internationale Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Sozialpolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Gewalt Terrorismus, Religiöser Fundamentalismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Gendering Britain’s Counterterrorism Institutions Chapter 3: Prevent Chapter 4: The Institutional Mechanisms of Protective Security: Pursue and Protect  Chapter 5: Oversight Infrastructure Overlooking Gender  Chapter 6: Conclusions and Findings Annex 1 Annex 2 Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Sofia Patel is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, UK, where she also completed her PhD. She is an interdisciplinary feminist researcher whose work sits at the nexus of feminist security studies, postcolonialism and critical terrorism studies. Her research focuses on the politics and governance of gender, violence and (in)security.