Having written women into peacebuilding processes as active agents, feminist analysis turned to the question of how women were perceived and represented within peacebuilding spaces. Narratives around women’s par­ticipation in peacebuilding generally emerged alongside women’s participation in politics. Though the interests of politics are not often aligned with the interests of peace, the two however remain deeply intertwined. Policies led by politicians can make or mark peace outcomes. Simi­larly, the presence or absence of peace often determines what directions politicians take or policies they support. In this vein, it is important to note that women’s activism for peace must leverage on women’s participation in politics and governance, not as a matter of inclusion alone, but as a strategy to disrupt patriarchal power and advance transformative agendas. Globally, feminist perspectives on women’s political participation are interconnected through resistance to exclusion and insistence on gender justice. 11 Notwithstanding, feminist priorities differ across regions, reflecting women’s lived realities and political struggles. In Middle Eastern and North Africa, feminists confront authoritarianism, religious conservatism and colonial pasts 12 , while feminists in Sub-Saharan Africa emphasize collective rights, community wellbeing and the endur­ing impact of colonial legacies in the political process 13 . The persistent absence of significant numbers of women within political structures_ parliaments, senates and other governing bodies_exposes the systemic disregard of women’s specific experiences and needs. Even when women’s numerical presence is high, as is the case of the Rwandan parliament, feminists continue to question whether representation translates into genuine influence, given the patriarchal nature of political structures. This critique is in line with feminist resistance to structural violence, which systematically affects women and their communities. Beyond numerical representation, it is important to examine how women are perceived in both political and peacebuilding spaces, and what platforms genuinely en­able their effective participation. The common narrative of women as victims of war became the dominant framing of women’s participation in war and peacebuilding. The media is very effective in portraying dehumanizing images of women as they focus on stories of destitution, while overlooking the resilience and transformative agency embedded within those same stories. Notions such as “rape as a weapon of war” become popular in a seemingly dystopian space where the act is not perceived as a struc­tural issue rooted in patriarchy but rather as a reflection of womanhood in violent conflict spaces. Feminist critique however advanced more concrete discourses by rejecting the notion that rape was a private crime between a soldier and a woman, but rather a deliberate tactic used for dom­ination 14 . Furthermore, feminist discourse on rape advanc­es an intersectional lens by recognizing how age, class, religion and ethnicity compound the vulnerabilities that women face in war 15 . This has been the case of women in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon, where poor women in remote villages have disproportionately suffered rape at the hands of both state and non-state actors during the conflict. In addition, what feminist scholars refer to as militarized forms of masculinity exposes how soldiers are socialized to perceive women as symbols of national honour, making them natural enemies during wars 16 . Therefore, it is essential to critically address notions of justice and how existing conflict mechanisms, often grounded in military options may lead to more abus­es against women during conflict. 17 Evidence from the ongoing Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon, reveal varied forms of torture against women under the guise of justice. Many cases have been reported where non-state actors called“Amba Boys” have killed young girls as punishment for having intimate relationships with military officers. On the other hand, young women have been arrested and imprisoned by state forces for having similar relations with non-state actors. These realities underscore that women’s experiences of conflict are far from uniform, it is therefore erroneous to assume a universal model of women’s agen­cy, as differences in geography, religion, ethnicity, class, and caste shape both gender norms and women’s lived experiences in distinct ways 18 . Recognizing the diversity of women's experiences, as highlighted by Cockburn(ibid), demands inclusive political participation that reflects intersectional realities rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Drawing from women’s challenges to peace and security, including domestic vio­lence and gender-based violence across cultural, structural and systemic levels, it becomes imperative to explore how these sectors interconnect because they are led and shaped by men who conform to sociocultural dictates of leadership. Therefore, women recognize that peacebuild­ing cannot be disentangled from politics, because en­trenched political structures define and determine policies that influence their representation and participation in formal processes. The age long roles of women as media­tors within the home and community is indicative of their ability to lead well in formal spaces. It is therefore imper­11 Phillips, A.(1998). Feminism and politics. Oxford University Press. 12 Al-Ali, N. Secularism, gender and the state in the Middle East: The Egyptian women’s movement. Cambridge University Press, 2018. 13 Tamale, S. Decolonization and Afro-Feminism. Daraja Press, 2020. 14 Brownmiller, S. Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. New York: Simon C Schuster, 1975. 15 Zarkov,Dubravka.The Body o fWar: Media, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Break-up of Yugoslavia.Duke University Press, 2007. 16 Enloe, Cynthia. Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. University of California Press, 2000. 17 Richters, 2004; Hamber,2009. 18 Cockburn, Cynthia.“TheGenderedDynamicsofArmedConflictandPoliticalViolence.”In Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conffict and Political Violence, edited by Caro­line O. N. Moser and Fiona C. Clark, 13–29. London: Zed Books, 2001. 7 Gender Justice Competence Center Sub-Saharan Africa