12 Gender and Security Toolkit To address gender bias, prevent discrimination and adopt a comprehensive gender approach to security, it is important to understand intersectionality – that is, how gender identities and expectations interact with other societal markers such as ethnicity, race, religious background, age, social class, sexual orientation, marital status, disability and the situation of people in different positions of power and privilege, discrimination and exclusion. Intersectionality is to be found “when a person identifies as belonging to more than one marginalized group, [which] compounds the level of vulnerability experienced”.1 It is necessary for any work on gender and security to consider how gender intersects with ethno-religious background, age, social class, sexual orientation, marital status, race, ethnicity, disability and other demographic identifiers, in different places and at different times.* Effective and efficient security sector institutions are representative of the diverse populations they serve, including (although not limited to) women, men and LGBTI persons. Parliamentary oversight has key roles to play in achieving gender equality within the security sector for several reasons. Ê If security institutions are to function within a framework of gender equality, the creation of an adequate legal and policy framework is essential. Ê Just and effective legislation must consider the security needs, and access to security, of different groups of individuals: women, men, girls and boys have different experiences of security. Ê Gender analysis of national laws and policies and their impact on the delivery of public services is necessary to ensure practices that match the needs of the full spectrum of society. This section explores in greater depth four key reasons why promoting gender equality and integrating a gender perspective are critical for parliamentary oversight of the security sector: Ê to uphold and comply with international and regional human rights standards Ê to ensure that laws and regulations concerning security and justice are inclusive and address diverse needs Ê to achieve gender-equitable budgeting for the security sector Ê to ensure that parliamentary oversight is itself diverse and inclusive. 3.1 To meet international and regional legal and normative standards for gender equality Parliaments’ oversight of the security sector must be guided by and reinforce international norms and standards related to human rights, gender equality and the rule of law, such as those enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW – see Box 3) and developed through the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (see Box 7 on page 23). Since the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, gender mainstreaming – the process of ensuring that policies and practices meet the needs of men and women equitably – has been hailed as a key strategy in the achievement of gender equality.2 Gender mainstreaming can help to address the needs of all women, men, boys and girls, as well as people of diverse backgrounds, including different gender identities, age, disability, etc. Furthermore, it can help identify areas where affirmative action or other measures might enable rectification of the ongoing impact of historical and present-day gender-based discrimination. * Gender, gender roles, gender stereotypes, masculinities and femininities, gender equality, intersectionality and diverse sexual orientation and gender identity and expression are discussed in more depth in Tool 1, “Security Sector Governance, Security Sector Reform and Gender”. Conducting intersectional gender analysis is discussed in Tool 15, “Integrating Gender in Project Design and Monitoring for the Security and Justice Sector”.