Gendered Effects of Conflict Violence on Political Engagement?
P13-4
Presented by: Miceal Canavan, Oguzhan Turkoglu
Recent studies suggest that gender affects how individuals respond to conflict violence. This paper proposes that differences in men and women's post-conflict political engagement may be due, in part, to the type of violence used against them during conflicts. In particular, given the psychological impact of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and the shame and stigma associated with it in many societies, this may reduce engagement in post-conflict political life. Women are disproportionately the victims of CRSV, which may account for asymmetric gender effects of conflict violence found in some contexts. We test this argument through a combination of new experimental data and existing survey data from multiple conflicts, where we find no gendered effect of general conflict violence. Conversely, we find that women who are victims of conflict-related sexual violence have lower rates of post-conflict political engagement. These findings highlight the importance of considering how different patterns of conflict violence affect post-conflict political engagement.