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Combining the work of peacekeeping and parenting can lead to dilemmas in the work/life balance of individual soldier/parents. Simultaneously, ideals of 'peacekeeping masculinities' can potentially be used in struggles for gender equality in peacekeeping. Our aim is to discuss whether and how 'peacekeeping masculinities' is a useful concept and tool to increase our thinking on what it means to be both a 'good soldier' and a 'good parent'. We ask two questions: 1. (How) can the notion of 'peacekeeping masculinities' help us analyze the relation between bodies and binaries in peacekeeping and parenting? 2. (How) can an intersectional approach to 'peacekeeping masculinities' help us analyze dilemmas in gendered negotiations between peacekeeping and parenting? We argue that peacekeeping masculinities and intersectionality often are used as buzzwords, instead of directly related to clearly identified struggles for gender equality. This provides limits to their usefulness. Since military life and civilian life are both separate and related fields, it is useful to combine a focus on peacekeeping and parenting to make better use of the notion of peacekeeping masculinities. We illustrate the argument with interviews with male and female soldier/veteran-parents from the Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF), who have been on international peacekeeping missions.

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Why should a feminist study the military? This question was posed by Cynthia Enloe in her groundbreaking 1983 book Does Khaki Become You? The Militarisation of Women's Lives. As Enloe (1983) argues, the military is central to the social order more generally and for the perpetuation of patriarchy in Western democracies, which makes the study of the military the task of any feminist. In her argument, the continuous extension of the military and its values into all areas of everyday life, something that Enloe (1993) and other feminists identify as militarization, does not only legitimize the warring of nations. It also legitimizes a larger gender order of hierarchal relations between men and women (and other gendered bodies).35 years on, Enloe's original question and answer are still as important as ever. The transformation of the military in many Western democracies in the aftermath of feminist activism, societal change, and political reform (like the UN Security Council