Terrorist groups are using gender dynamics more effectively to get women involved in violent action than those trying to battle extremism, according to Nato.

Clare Hutchinson, the Nato secretary general’s special representative for women, peace and security since January, told a conference of female politicians in Vilnius that global terrorism is a transnational threat that requires a transnational approach, while avoiding simplistic assumptions about the role of women.

“We have to dismantle the assumption that women are always good and never bad,” she said, citing a long history of women being involved in terrorism since 1878, when Russian revolutionary Vera Zasulich shot the governor of St Petersburg and became the first person to be tried for terrorism.

We need to build women's voices into policy and public spaces Cheryl Frank

Many of today’s terrorist groups, said Hutchison, are building direct connections with women, who are often drawn into groups because they are in dire need. When there is no other support left for basics like water or food, and women can get that support only from a terror group, they take it and get drawn in, she said, adding that counter-terrorism projects are in danger of failing to see this, and that women’s involvement in terror is not always political. “Sometimes, it’s the simple fact that they need to feed their children,” she said.

Hutchinson said many groups exploit gender dynamics, especially online, using the tendency of women to communicate and connect.“They are building a direct connection with women,” she said.

Fauziya Abdi Ali, founder and president of Women in International Security in Kenya, agreed that violent extremists in countries were increasingly harnessing support from women and girls, often because in return they were helped

Fauziya Abdi Ali

It can also be difficult for women and girls who had been captured by extremists to return to their normal way of life. “In Nigeria, women may undergo a rehabilitation programme, but can end up returning to groups like Boko Haram, because they are going back to the same economic situation they left,” she said.

A 2017 study concluded that women are playing an increasingly significant role in terrorism, and Islamic State has been using increasing numbers of women to spearhead attacks. In early June, teenager Safaa Boular was found guilty of terrorist offences. Boular, who had plotted an attack on the British Museum in London, was part of the first all-female terrorist cell linked to Isis in the UK. Detectives involved in the case said it showed that young women within radicalised networks were no longer simply passengers or victims, but determined perpetrators of violence in their own right.

Cheryl Frank, head of the transnational threats and international crime division at the Institute for Security Studies, said women needed to play a larger role in policy-making to prevent terrorism. “Women continue to be relegated to the role of community-based actors,” she said. “We need to bring women’s voices into policy and public spaces. That is not happening at the moment.”

Frank also warned that millions of pounds are being poured into counter-terrorism preventive programmes, but more needs to be done to share information and learning around the world on the most effective ways to tackle terrorism.

Mara Marinaki, principal gender adviser at the EU external action service, said it was important not just to focus on the role of women, but to reconfigure traditional notions of violence and masculinity, that they were somehow entwined in being a “real” man.

She said there was an opportunity to reframe the rights and role of women and girls. “Countering violent extremism is a feminist agenda.”

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