In this book, author Barbara K. Trojanowska takes a broad interdisciplinary look at the women, peace, and security agenda and situates it within the larger issue of gender equality. Through in-depth case studies and interviews, the author draws on a range of voices to arrive at what she calls three dominant paradigms of gender equality. The result is an analysis that goes far beyond traditional understanding of the women, peace, and security agenda tied to UNSCR 1325 to address the transformational structural changes that need to happen if women are truly to be equal participants in the conversation about peace and security.

- Joyce P. Kaufman, Whittier College,

In a world where the international goal of gender equality is facing increasing backlash, Finding Gender Equality in the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda is essential reading. Trojanowska’s empirically rich, intersectional analysis will challenge your understanding of gender equality itself and demand attention to the messy international politics of promoting it.

- David Duriesmith, University of Sheffield,

In this valuable contribution, Barbara K. Trojanowska brings depth and clarity to our understanding of the notion of gender equality within the women, peace and security agenda. The richly-detailed accounts from multiple sites of advocacy and policymaking would be of interest to researchers as well as practitioners.

- Soumita Basu, South Asian University,

Finding Gender Equality in the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda: From Global Promises to National Accountability by Barbara Trojanowska is an absorbing read. It brought home to me how important it is for us as academics and civil society advocates to consider the political wheeling and dealings that influence the meaningful implementation of the women, peace, and security agenda. I am so impressed by the clear articulation of how the masculinist environments and cultures of masculinity can co-opt and hence dilute the goals of gender equality as embedded in the women, peace, and security agenda. Particularly, for civil society activists here in Australia, it will be useful in our work to keep in mind the approach the book takes to gender equality "as an unfixed policy goal which is context specific and shaped by political environments in which it operates, and by other competing and co-existing priorities of institutions and stakeholders." Finally, the book draws our attention to the challenges of taking an intersectional gender lens - especially translating rhetoric into action.

- Anu Mundkur, Flinders University; Co-Founder, Equalis,

It is so exciting to see the concept of gender equality in the WPS agenda addressed as a central concern in this book. Gender equality, the original goal of the WPS agenda and its intended outcome, has too often become an elusive concept, marginalised to appease security actors and lost in the instrumentalism that has subsumed the agenda since its inception. Here, Barbara K. Trojanowska delivers what the WPS field of scholarship has been waiting for: a fulsome analytical account of the trajectory of the idea of ‘gender equality’ in the WPS agenda, its positioning in the resolutions and relative to their aims and a comprehensive assessment of where and how implementation of the agenda contributes to gender equality. This is such an important contribution, bringing scholarly attention back to the most important imperative of the WPS agenda, the achievement of gender equality. A must read for students, scholars and activists engaged on WPS thinking and action.

- Aisling Swaine, University College Dublin,