Legislative Gender Diversity and the Resolution of Civil Conflict

• Date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912918785459
• Author: Reed M. Wood,Rebecca H. Best,Sarah Shair-Rosenfield
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912918785459

Political Research Quarterly

2019, Vol. 72(1) 215 –228

© 2018 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912918785459

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Article

In recent years, policy makers, academics, and activists

have expressed interest in the role gender plays in the

dynamics of peace and conflict. The international com-

munity increasingly advocates for the inclusion of women

and gendered perspectives in conflict-resolution strate-

gies, peace negotiations, peacebuilding, and peacekeep-

ing operations. The perspective that gender inclusivity

promotes peace is reflected in United Nations Security

Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325. Adopted in 2000,

the resolution calls attention to the important roles women

can play in conflict resolution and peace maintenance. In

part, the resolution is premised on the notions that women

are more vulnerable than men during wars and better

suited than men to achieve and sustain peace (Charlesworth

2008, 350–51; UN Security Council 2000). Since its

adoption, forty-eight countries have implemented

national action plans that incorporate core tenets of

UNSCR 1325, and numerous international and regional

organizations such as the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization and the African Union have developed pro-

grams to encourage and help members to implement its

provisions.

In spite of both the increased interest in gender diver-

sity and inclusivity in the peace process and efforts to

more fully incorporate women, there is limited system-

atic evidence that incorporating women into peace pro-

cesses and political decision making exerts a substantial

beneficial influence on the desired outcomes (e.g., con-

flict resolution, violence amelioration, and postconflict

stability). We, therefore, join the handful of existing stud-

ies (e.g., Koch and Fulton 2011; Shair-Rosenfield and

Wood 2017) that have sought to evaluate the role of gen-

der inclusivity in promoting peace and resolving conflict

by considering whether and how the presence of women

in positions of national political authority affects the like-

lihood that intrastate conflicts terminate via negotiated

settlement. In contrast to previous research that has

focused on the relationship between gender diversity and

conflict onset or escalation (Caprioli 2005; Melander

2005a), we focus our attention on how female representa-

tives may be positioned to alter the trajectory of a conflict

after it begins and to successfully contribute to its

conclusion.

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland

provides a useful example of this dynamic. In that case,

representatives from the Northern Ireland Women’s

Coalition (NIWC) worked to keep negotiations toward

785459PRQXXX10.1177/1065912918785459Political Research QuarterlyBest et al.

research-article2018

1University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, USA

2Arizona State University, Tempe, USA

Corresponding Author:

Sarah Shair-Rosenfield, School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona

State University, P.O. Box 873902, Tempe, AZ 85287-3902, USA.

Email: Sarah.shair-rosenfield@asu.edu

Legislative Gender Diversity

and the Resolution of Civil Conflict

Rebecca H. Best1, Sarah Shair-Rosenfield2,

and Reed M. Wood2

Abstract

Policy makers and scholars have shown increased interest in gendered approaches to peacemaking, even as evidence

of women’s impact on peace processes has remained unclear. In this paper, we explore the influence of gender

diversity among decision-making elites on the outcome of ongoing civil conflicts. Specifically, we argue that increased

female representation within the national legislature increases the likelihood that a conflict terminates in a negotiated

settlement. However, the impact of legislative female representation on conflict termination is conditioned by the

power of the legislature vis-à-vis the executive, suggesting that gender diversity exerts a greater impact in states with

more authoritative legislatures. We evaluate our hypotheses using data on the manner of conflict termination and

the proportion of women in national legislatures between 1945 and 2009. Our results show support for the central

argument, suggesting that increasing female representation within legislative bodies increases the likelihood of war

termination via negotiated settlement.

Keywords

women, conflict resolution, civil war, negotiated settlement, legislative authority