Counterterrorism as a Gendered Institution

This book analyses Britain’s counterterrorism strategy (CONTEST), examining how women have been integrated into, and impacted by, counterterrorism policy and practice over the two decades since 9/11. Using a Feminist Institutionalist approach, it argues that although women have become increasingly visible across CONTEST, this inclusion has not transformed the gendered assumptions underpinning British counterterrorism. Using case studies, such as the Bethnal Green girls, what emerges is not an absence of gender sensitivity, but a paradox of inclusion, whereby increasing efforts to integrate women into counterterrorism have simultaneously generated new forms of exclusion and securitisation. The book develops an original feminist institutionalist framework that conceptualises CONTEST as a gendered institution. Drawing on more than 800 policy documents, legislation, parliamentary inquiries and interviews with senior policymakers and practitioners, it traces the gendered design, implementation and outcomes of Prevent, Pursue, Protect and their oversight architecture. By examining the interactions between security actors and CONTEST’s institutional mechanisms, it demonstrates that institutional change emerges not only through formal reform but through the everyday practices and decisions of those implementing counterterrorism. In doing so, the book offers a new understanding of how counterterrorism institutions evolve, why gendered assumptions persist despite repeated reform, and how genuinely transformative gender-sensitive counterterrorism might be achieved. This book will be of much interest to students of gender studies, counter-terrorism studies, UK politics and security studies.