UNITED NATIONS, Jun 2 (IPS) - Even as U.N. peacekeeping operations in the world’s battle zones continue to expand, women soldiers, police and civilian support staff remain a small minority – something that sorely needs to change, U.N. officials say.

Today, there are more than 113,000 peacekeepers, including 90,000 military and police personnel, serving in 18 U.N. operations in four continents.

But women make up only eight percent of the U.N. police force and about two percent of the soldiers provided by member states. The ratio of women deployed as civilians in peacekeeping operations is higher, at 30 percent, but still not equally representative.
"We help women of these nations to understand and see that they have a voice and can be part of the peacekeeping process themselves, and that is what the U.N. is trying to promote."

The subverted message here is that before women were in the army, and really, until there are balanced numbers, which shouldn't be necessary, since we are all human and capable of peacekeeping if we are working for an ideal of humanity at ease and writ large across the world...

It also could be suggesting that without women present, men became "the voice that silences (or silenced) women".

These scenarios can only perpetuate structural violence against women, and this is not the way to frame this issue.