Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T01:19:28.744Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Conflict, Peace, and the Evolution of Women's Empowerment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2019

Kaitlyn Webster ,
Chong Chen  and
Kyle Beardsley
Get access

Abstract

How do periods of conflict and peace shape women's empowerment around the world? While existing studies have demonstrated that gender inequalities contribute to the propensity for armed conflict, we consider how the anticipation and realization of armed conflict shape women's opportunities for influence in society. Some scholars have pointed to the role that militarization and threat play in entrenching male dominance, while others have argued that periods of warfare can upend existing gender hierarchical orders. We posit mechanisms by which the preparation for and experiences during war affect change in women's empowerment. We develop and test observable implications using cross-national data from 1900 to 2015. We find that, at least in the short and medium term, warfare can disrupt social institutions and lead to an increase in women's empowerment via mechanisms related to role shifts across society and political shifts catalyzed by war. Reforming institutions and mainstreaming gender during peace processes stand to have important legacies for gender power relations in postconflict societies, though much more may be needed for more permanent change.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 73 , Issue 2 , Spring 2019 , pp. 255 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Authors are listed in reverse alphabetical order with implied equal authorship. Earlier versions of this project were presented at research seminars hosted by the University of Toronto and Duke University, at the 113th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association in San Francisco (31 August–3 September 2017), and at workshops hosted by the Folke Bernadotte Academy in Vienna (3–4 October 2016), Oslo (19–20 January 2018) and San Francisco (7–9 April 2018). We are grateful for the constructive comments that participants at these conferences and workshops provided. We especially thank Sabrina Karim, Amelia Hoover-Green, Dara Cohen, Zoe Marks, Ragnhild Nordås, Erik Melander, Elin Bjarnegård, Angela Muvumba-Sellström, Louise Olsson, Oliver Kaplan, Alyssa Prorok, Mark Manger, Peter Feaver, and David Siegel. We are also grateful for the comments provided by the anonymous reviewers and the editors, Erik Voeten and Kenneth Schultz.

References

Anderson, Miriam J. 2015. Windows of Opportunity: How Women Seize Peace Negotiations for Political Change. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Miriam J., and Swiss, Liam. 2014. Peace Accords and the Adoption of Electoral Quotas for Women in the Developing World, 1990–2006. Politics and Gender 10 (1):33–61.Google Scholar
Barnes, Tiffany D., and O'Brien, Diana Z.. 2018. Defending the Realm: The Appointment of Female Defense Ministers Worldwide. American Journal of Political Science 62 (2):355–68.Google Scholar
Barrett, Frank J. 1996. The Organizational Construction of Hegemonic Masculinity: The Case of the US Navy. Gender, Work and Organization 3 (3):129–42.Google Scholar
Bauer, Michal, Blattman, Christopher, Chytilova, Julie, Henrich, Joseph, Miguel, Edward, and Mitts, Tamar. 2016. Can War Foster Cooperation? Journal of Economic Perspectives 30 (3):249–74.Google Scholar
Beber, Bernd, Gilligan, Michael J., Guardado, Jenny, and Karim, Sabrina. 2017. Peacekeeping, Compliance with International Norms, and Transactional Sex in Monrovia, Liberia. International Organization 71 (1):1–30.Google Scholar
Beck, Nathaniel, Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede, and Beardsley, Kyle. 2006. Space Is More Than Geography: Using Spatial Econometrics in the Study of Political Economy. International Studies Quarterly 50 (1):27–44.Google Scholar
Berry, Marie E. 2015. When “Bright Futures” Fade: Paradoxes of Women's Empowerment in Rwanda. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 41 (1):1–27.Google Scholar
Berry, Marie E. 2018. War, Women, and Power: From Violence to Mobilization in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bjarnegård, Elin, and Melander, Erik. 2011. Disentangling Gender, Peace and Democratization: The Negative Effects of Militarized Masculinity. Journal of Gender Studies 20 (2):139–54.Google Scholar
Bjarnegård, Elin, and Melander, Erik. 2013. Revisiting Representation: Communism, Women in Politics, and the Decline of Armed Conflict in East Asia. International Interactions 39 (4):558–74.Google Scholar
Blumberg, Rae Lesser. 2001. Risky Business: What Happens to Gender Equality and Women's Rights in Post-Conflict Societies? Insights from NGO's in El Salvador. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 15 (1):161–73.Google Scholar
Buhaug, Halvard, and Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede. 2008. Contagion or Confusion? Why Conflicts Cluster in Space. International Studies Quarterly 52 (2):215–33.Google Scholar
Carpenter, Charli. 2005. Women, Children and Other Vulnerable Groups?: Gender, Strategic Frames and the Protection of Civilians as a Transnational Issue. International Studies Quarterly 49 (2):295–334.Google Scholar
Choi, In. 2001. Unit Root Tests for Panel Data. Journal of International Money and Finance 20 (2):249–72.Google Scholar
Cockburn, Cynthia. 2010. Gender Relations as Causal in Militarization and War: A Feminist Standpoint. International Feminist Journal of Politics 12 (2):139–57.Google Scholar
Connell, Robert W., and Messerschmidt, James W.. 2005. Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept. Gender and Society 19 (6):829–59.Google Scholar
Coppedge, Michael, Gerring, John, Lindberg, Staffan I., Teorell, Jan, Altman, David, Bernhard, Michael, Steven Fish, M., Glynn, Adam, et al. 2016. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project Codebook v6. Available at <https://www.v-dem.net/media/filer_public/d1/24/d124efd5-7ff5-4175-a1ed-f294984084d0/v-dem_codebook_v6.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Cueva Beteta, Hanny. 2006. What Is Missing in Measures of Women's Empowerment? Journal of Human Development 7 (2):221–41.Google Scholar
Elliott, Lorraine M., and Cheeseman, Graeme. 2004. Forces for Good: Cosmopolitan Militaries in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. 1987. Women and War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Enloe, Cynthia. 1989. Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Enloe, Cynthia. 1993. The Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Enloe, Cynthia. 2016. Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Gibler, Douglas M., and Tir, Jaroslav. 2013. Territorial Peace and Democratic Clustering. The Journal of Politics 76 (1):27–40.Google Scholar
Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede, Salehyan, Idean, and Schultz, Kenneth. 2008. Fighting at Home, Fighting Abroad: How Civil Wars Lead to International Disputes. Journal of Conflict Resolution 52 (4):479–506.Google Scholar
Goemans, Henk E., Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede, and Chiozza, Giacomo. 2009. Introducing Archigos: A Dataset of Political Leaders. Journal of Peace Research 46 (2):269–83.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Joshua S. 2001. War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hanmer, Michael J., and Kalkan, Kerem Ozan. 2013. Behind the Curve: Clarifying the Best Approach to Calculating Predicted Probabilities and Marginal Effects from Limited Dependent Variable Models. American Journal of Political Science 57 (1):263–77.Google Scholar
Higate, Paul. 2003. Military Masculinities: Identity and the State. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Higate, Paul, and Henry, Marsha. 2009. Insecure Spaces: Peacekeeping, Power and Performance in Haiti, Kosovo and Liberia. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Hill, Danny, and Karim, Sabrina. 2017. Measuring and Conceptualizing Gender Equality. Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, February, Baltimore, Maryland.Google Scholar
Huber, Laura, and Karim, Sabrina. 2018. The Internationalization of Security Sector Gender Reforms in Post-Conflict Countries. Conflict Management and Peace Science 35 (3):263–79.Google Scholar
Hudson, Valerie M., Ballif-Spanvill, Bonnie, Caprioli, Mary, and Emmett, Chad F.. 2012. Sex and World Peace. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Hudson, Valerie M., Caprioli, Mary, Ballif-Spanvill, Bonnie, McDermott, Rose, and Emmett, Chad F.. 2009. The Heart of the Matter: The Security of Women and the Security of States. International Security 33 (3):7–45.Google Scholar
Hudson, Valerie M., and Boer, Andrea Den. 2002. A Surplus of Men, a Deficit of Peace: Security and Sex Ratios in Asia's Largest States. International Security 26 (4):5–38.Google Scholar
Hughes, Melanie M. 2009. Armed Conflict, International Linkages, and Women's Parliamentary Representation in Developing Nations. Social Problems 56 (1):174–204.Google Scholar
Hughes, Melanie M., and Tripp, Aili Mari. 2015. Civil War and Trajectories of Change in Women's Political Representation in Africa, 1985–2010. Social Forces 93 (4):1513–40.Google Scholar
Isis-WICCE. 2008. A Situation Analysis of the Women Survivors of the 1989–2003 Armed Conflict in Liberia. Kampala: Isis-WICCE.Google Scholar
Johnson, Kay Ann. 2009. Women, the Family, and Peasant Revolution in China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Johnson-Sirleaf, Ellen. 2009. This Child Will Be Great. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Jones-Demen, Annie. 2009. Dynamics of Gender Relations in War-Time and Post-War Liberia: Implications for Public Policy. In War to Peace Transition, edited by Omeje, Kenneth, 99–120. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Karim, Sabrina, and Beardsley, Kyle. 2017. Equal Opportunity Peacekeeping: Women, Peace, and Security in Post-Conflict States. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kronsell, Annica. 2012. Gender, Sex and the Postnational Defense: Militarism and Peacekeeping. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lacina, Bethany, and Gleditsch, Nils Petter. 2005. Monitoring Trends in Global Combat: A New Dataset of Battle Deaths. European Journal of Population/Revue Européenne de Démographie 21 (2):145–66.Google Scholar
Lederach, Angela J. 2015. Mothers at the Tree of Frustration: Locating Healing in Liberia. In Gender and Peacebuilding: All Hands Required, edited by Flaherty, Maureen P., Byrne, Sean, Tuso, Hamdesa, and Matyok, Thomas G., 53–68. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, Megan, and Foster, Alana. 2017. Masculinity Nostalgia: How War and Occupation Inspire a Yearning for Gender Order. Security Dialogue 48 (3):206–23.Google Scholar
Mageza-Barthel, Rirhandu. 2015. Mobilizing Transnational Gender Politics in Post-Genocide Rwanda. New York: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Malešević, Siniša. 2010. The Sociology of War and Violence. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marshall, Monty G., and Jaggers, Keith. 2002. Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2002. Available at <http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4.htm>..>Google Scholar
Mason, T. David. 1992. Women's Participation in Central American Revolutions: A Theoretical Perspective. Comparative Political Studies 25 (1):63–89.Google Scholar
Meintjes, Sheila, Turshen, Meredeth, and Pillay, Anu. 2001. The Aftermath: Women in Post-Conflict Transformation. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Melander, Erik. 2005a. Gender Equality and Intrastate Armed Conflict. International Studies Quarterly 49 (4):695–714.Google Scholar
Melander, Erik. 2005b. Political Gender Equality and State Human Rights Abuse. Journal of Peace Research 42 (2):149–66.Google Scholar
Moran, Mary H. 2010. Gender, Militarism, and Peace-Building: Projects of the Postconflict Moment. Annual Review of Anthropology 39:261–74.Google Scholar
Pankhurst, Donna. 2003. The “Sex War” and Other Wars: Towards a Feminist Approach to Peace Building. Development in Practice 13 (2–3):154–77.Google Scholar
Pankhurst, Donna. 2012. Gendered Peace: Women's Struggles for Post-War Justice and Reconciliation. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1988. The Sexual Contract. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Pettersson, Therése, and Wallensteen, Peter. 2015. Armed Conflicts, 1946–2014. Journal of Peace Research 52 (4):536–50.Google Scholar
Plümper, Thomas, and Neumayer, Eric. 2006. The Unequal Burden of War: The Effect of Armed Conflict on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy. International Organization 60 (3):723–54.Google Scholar
Reingold, Beth. 2003. Representing Women: Sex, Gender, and Legislative Behavior in Arizona and California. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Rosen, Stanley. 1995. Women and Political Participation in China. Pacific Affairs 68 (3):315– 41.Google Scholar
Sarkees, Meredith Reid, and Wayman, Frank Whelon. 2010. Resort to War: A Data Guide to Inter-State, Extra-State, Intra-State, and Non-State Wars, 1816–2007. Washington DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Schroeder, Theresa. 2017. When Security Dominates the Agenda: The Influence of Ongoing Security Threats on Female Representation. Journal of Conflict Resolution 61 (3):564–89.Google Scholar
Shair-Rosenfield, Sarah, and Wood, Reed M.. 2017. Governing Well After War: How Improving Female Representation Prolongs Post-conflict Peace. The Journal of Politics 79 (3):995–1009.Google Scholar
Shayne, Julia Denise. 1999. Gendered Revolutionary Bridges: Women in the Salvadoran Resistance Movement (1979–1992). Latin American Perspectives 26 (3):85–102.Google Scholar
Singer, J. David. 1988. Reconstructing the Correlates of War Dataset on Material Capabilities of States, 1816–1985. International Interactions 14 (2):115–32.Google Scholar
Singer, J. David, Bremer, Stuart, and Stuckey, John. 1972. Capability Distribution, Uncertainty, and Major Power War, 1820–1965. In Peace, War, and Numbers, edited by Russett, Bruce M., 19–48. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Sjoberg, Laura. 2016. Women as Wartime Rapists: Beyond Sensation and Stereotyping. New York: NYU Press.Google Scholar
Sjoberg, Laura, Kadera, Kelly, and Thies, Cameron G.. 2018. Reevaluating Gender and IR Scholarship: Moving Beyond Reiter's Dichotomies Toward Effective Synergies. Journal of Conflict Resolution 62 (4):848–70.Google Scholar
Stacey, Judith. 1983. Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Stiehm, Judith Hicks. 1982. The Protected, the Protector, the Defender. Women's Studies International Forum 5 (3–4):367–76.Google Scholar
Stiehm, Judith Hicks. 2010. Theses on the Military, Security, War and Women. In Gender and International Security: Feminist Perspectives, edited by Sjoberg, Laura, 17–23. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stinnett, Douglas M., Tir, Jaroslav, Diehl, Paul F., Schafer, Philip, and Gochman, Charles. 2002. The Correlates of War (COW) Project Direct Contiguity Data, Version 3.0. Conflict Management and Peace Science 19 (2):59–67.Google Scholar
Sundström, Aksel, Paxton, Pamela, Wang, Yi-Ting, and Lindberg, Staffan I.. 2017. Women's Political Empowerment: A New Global Index, 1900–2012. World Development 94:321–35.Google Scholar
Thomas, Jakana L., and Wood, Reed M.. 2018. The Social Origins of Female Combatants. Conflict Management and Peace Science 35 (3):215–32.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 1992. Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1990. Cambridge: Oxford Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tir, Jaroslav, and Bailey, Maureen. 2018. Painting Too “Rosie” A Picture: The Impact of External Threat on Women's Economic Welfare. Conflict Management and Peace Science 35 (3):248–62.Google Scholar
Tripp, Aili Mari. 2015. Women and Power in Post-Conflict Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Urdal, Henrik, and Che, Chi Primus. 2013. War and Gender Inequalities in Health: The Impact of Armed Conflict on Fertility and Maternal Mortality. International Interactions 39 (4):489–510.Google Scholar
Urdal, Henrik, and Che, Chi Primus. 2015. War and Gender Inequalities in Health. In Gender, Peace and Security: Implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1325, edited by Gizelis, Theodora-Ismene and Olsson, Louise, 116–37. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Vella, Francis, and Verbeek, Marno. 1999. Estimating and Interpreting Models with Endogenous Treatment Effects. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 17 (4):473–78.Google Scholar
Viterna, Jocelyn. 2013. Women in War: The Micro-Processes of Mobilization in El Salvador. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Robin Murphy. 2003. The Wars Within: Peoples and States in Conflict. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2008. The Social Processes of Civil War: The Wartime Transformation of Social Networks. Annual Review of Political Science 11:539–61.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2015. Social Mobilization and Violence in Civil War and their Social Legacies. In The Oxford Handbook of Social Movements, edited by Porta, Donatella Della and Diani, Mario, 452–66. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Reed, and Ramirez, Mark D.. 2018. Exploring the Microfoundations of the Gender Equality Peace Hypothesis. International Studies Review 20 (3):345–67.Google Scholar
Wood, Reed M., and Thomas, Jakana L.. 2017. Women on the Frontline: Rebel Group Ideology and Women's Participation in Violent Rebellion. Journal of Peace Research 54 (1):31–46.Google Scholar
Wooldridge, Jeffrey M. 2010. Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Webster et al. supplementary material

Webster et al. supplementary material 1

Download Webster et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 300.9 KB