Tool 7: Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector and Gender Box 9: The Austrian Parliamentary Commission for the Federal Armed Forces Austria provides a good example of the challenges and advances in committee oversight. The Austrian Parliamentary Commission for the Federal Armed Forces represents the democratic principle of the Austrian legal system in the military sphere. The institution is an independent monitoring body of the National Council of the Austrian Parliament. The Commission was originally headed by the Minister of Defence, which greatly limited its independence, but over the years it has developed into an independent body that is no longer subject to directives from the minister. Now, even when members of the Commission lose their parliamentary seats, they serve their full six-year term on the Commission. In 2016 the Commission started a special gender initiative, the goal of which is to mainstream gender throughout the armed forces. A particular focus is to ensure the advancement of women at all decision-making levels. Austria has a conscripted army that has opened up to women only over the last two decades. Since 1998 women have had the option to volunteer for service in the armed forces. In 2018 women constituted 10–13 per cent of the armed forces. In 2018 the Commission was dominated by male MPs: none of the chairpersons and only two of the members were women. The Commission’s limited diversity is explained by the fact that Austria’s political parties tend to nominate their respective speaker on the defence sector as candidates. These, in turn, tend to be exclusively male. Thus institutional cultures need to change for the Commission to become gender-responsive. Sources: “The Austrian Parliamentary Commission for the Federal Armed Forces”, website of the parliament of Austria; interview with MP Michael Hammer, Executive Director of the Austrian Parliamentary Commission for the Federal Armed Forces, Austria, 9 October 2018; interview with Gisela Wurm, member of the Austrian Parliamentary Commission for the Federal Armed Forces and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Gender Equality (2008–2017), Austria, 13 October 2018; interview with MP Otto Pendl, Director of the Austrian Parliamentary Commission for the Federal Armed Forces, Austria, 13 October 2018. To embrace gender equality as a value for all parliamentary work, male and female parliamentarians need to work together to transform institutional culture and overcome long-held prejudices. Male MPs can be incentivized to participate in gender equality committees in greater numbers. Female MPs can be prioritized for committees on which women are underrepresented, including committees mandated to oversee defence and security. Nonetheless, it would be wrong to assume that women MPs automatically adopt more gender-responsive and gender-inclusive approaches to security sector oversight. Both men and women have inherent gender biases, and may be equally unaware of the security needs and potential vulnerabilities of people within communities with which they have little personal contact. While quotas and other measures for ensuring gender-balanced parliaments and committees are an important first step, it is imperative that all members of parliamentary committees receive capacity-building support to address potential gender bias and become aware of the security-related needs, challenges and vulnerabilities of women, men, boys and girls. 33