The Legacy of Female Combatants: Female Combatants Electoral Success in Colombia

• In Event: Post-Conflict Elections and Peace

Abstract

How do voters perceive female ex-combatant candidates for political office? Previous research has found that women’s inclusion in rebel groups can improve perceptions of the group, leading the public to view the group as more moral and just. Moreover, female rebels are often assumed to be less violent than their male counterparts. In some countries, former rebels – both male and female – have achieved electoral success, at times using their previous experience as part of their platform. Yet, after wars, these positive connotations associated with rebel women can shift, as rebel women may be increasingly villainized for their participation that violated traditional gender norms. We explore how these complex and at times contradictory connotations impact the candidacy of female ex-combatants by exploring how female ex-combatants are evaluated as candidates relative both to non-combatant men and women and to fellow ex-combatant men. While female ex-combatants may be less favored than a female (and male) candidate without a violent legacy since their participation in the group violates traditional gender norms, they will be viewed as more favorable than male ex-combatant rebel candidates due to gendered ideas about the roles of females and males in rebel groups that often assumes that women engage in less violent and less selfish behavior. We test this argument using a conjoint experiment from Colombia. Additionally, we explore how respondent beliefs about the potential behavior of male and female rebels moderate how rebel gender impacts their willingness to view a female rebel favorably compared to a male ex-combatant. This study has implications not only for the study of gender and conflict but also for the understanding of women’s roles in and gendered effects of democracy, demographic and substantive representation, and post-conflict reconstruction.

Authors

• Laura Huber, University of Mississippi

• Elizabeth L Brannon, Indiana University