Theme Panel: The Gendered Consequences of Armed Conflict

The Gendered Consequences of Armed Conflict

A growing body of empirical research suggests that exposure to violence and civil war increases prosocial attitudes and behavior. However, little attention has been given to the gender-related aspects of the violence that populations experience or to the gendered consequences of this violence, which extend far beyond the conflict itself. This panel consists of four papers that place neglected actors and audiences, in particular women, front and center by focusing on the gendered consequences of armed conflict. In a quantitative cross-national study, Beardsley, Chen, and Webster examine the extent to which armed conflict upends or contributes to gender hierarchy. Koos develops a micro-level theory on the social consequences of conflict-related sexual violence and tests this theory using a large-scale survey on conflict and post-conflict behaviors in Sierra Leone. Using a mixed methods approach, Lindsey examines how previous exposure to armed conflict shapes punishment preferences for sexual and domestic violence drawing from a series of 80 focus groups in eastern DR Congo. Morgan-Collins and Theuerkauf study the long-term social and political consequences of rape by Soviet soldiers after World War II in Germany.

Participants:
Ragnhild Nordaas, PRIO (Chair)
Amelia Hoover Green, Drexel University (Discussant)

 Papers:
Conflict, Peace and the Evolution of Gender Hierarchy
Kyle Beardsley, Duke University (Author)
Chong Chen, Duke University (Author)
Kaitlyn Webster, Duke University (Author)

Decay or Resilience: The Effect of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
Carlo Koos, University of Konstanz (Author)

After Conflict: Social Norms for Punishing Sexual and Domestic Violence
Summer E. Lindsey, University (Author)

Post-War East Germany: Long-Term Consequences of Sexual Violence
Mona Morgan-Collins, University of Pennsylvania (Author)
Ulrike Gisela Theuerkauf, University of East Anglia (Author)