People can suffer disproportionate or differential impacts from the use or proliferation of weapons based on their sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation, inside or outside of armed conflict. Men tend to make up the majority of direct victims of armed violence. Sometimes, they are targeted just for being men. Women and LGBTQ+ people, however, can face differential impacts from the use of weapons such as exacerbated social and political inequalities and pressures from the increase in female-headed households; inequalities in access to survivor assistance; and higher risk of sexual and gender-based violence.

There is a stark disparity in the level and volume of participation of women, men, and non-binary or gender non-conforming people in disarmament and arms control discussions, negotiations, and processes. Recent research has shown that at any given intergovernmental meeting on disarmament, only about one quarter of participants are likely to be women and almost half of all delegations are likely to be composed entirely of men. This under-representation is fueled in part by the tendency to treat women as vulnerable victims, usually grouped together with children and the elderly—this framing reinforces persistent constructions of women as the “weaker sex” in need of protection by “powerful” men and enable women’s continued exclusion from authoritative social and political roles. Meanwhile, the framing of all military-aged men as “potential” or actual militants entrenches a tendency to support “violent masculinities”—a social construction in which masculinity is linked with preparedness to use military action and to wield weapons. There is also a tendency to reinforce the gender binary in efforts to increase women's participation without reflecting non-conforming people. An intersectional feminist approach to diversity is necessary, in which not just sex but also gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, ability, and other factors are taken into consideration.

The framing of women as weak and vulnerable is also often used to construct an idea of peace as being irrational and unrealistic. The devaluation of certain perspectives, ideas, and interests because they are marked as “feminine,” coupled with the equation of masculinity with violence, gives war positive value as a show of masculine power. This means that even if women do participate in negotiations or discussions on matters related to peace and security, their positions or ideas are often forced to conform to the dominant perspective in order to be taken seriously. This is not to say that women bring one perspective to a conversation and men bring another. It rather highlights the gendered understandings of war and peace, disarmament and armament, strength and weakness, which dictate what is considered “acceptable” by the dominant perspective in such conversations. In order to help promote the above perspectives and ideas, Reaching Critical Will tries to disseminate as much information from feminist activists, scholars, and others working to shed more light on the relationship between gender, militarism, and war. We launched a Gender and Disarmament database in January 2020. It features a wide range of resources such as reports, articles, books and book chapters, policy documents, podcasts, legislation or UN documents, and will be constantly updated including based on user feedback and suggestions. We ourselves write, speak, and educate as widely as possible on these issues. RCW is also engaged engaged with preventing gender-based violence by addressing arms transfers and the proliferation and use of weapons. Together with partner organisations, we successfully advocated for the Arms Trade Treaty to be the first ever treaty to recognise the link between gender-based violence and the international arms trade. We are working to provide information to diplomats, export officials, and civil society groups on how best to implement the ATT with a view to preventing gender-based violence. We have published a paper on this topic, and another analysing the ATT, UN Programme of Action on small arms and light weapons, and other multilateral instruments from a gendered perspective.