Tell Me More: UN Recommendations and Post-conflict Women’s Representation

• In Event: New Directions in Understanding Peacekeeping

Abstract

This article explores the role of international actors in influencing women’s representation within post-conflict political parties. Although women’s representation tends to increase in societies after conflict settlement, the mechanisms by which this occurs, particularly within political parties formed as an outcome of the settlement, remain underexplored. I argue that international actors assisting peace implementation processes can influence the extent to which post-conflict political parties promote women representatives, especially in places where women have been highly victimized during the war. To test the expectations, I compile data on the presence of women representatives and UN missions in post-conflict parties and data on sexual violence from the ACLED Project. If expectations are correct, results will serve as evidence that international political efforts have the potential to influence the behavior of domestic actors in post-conflict contexts. These results would have important policy implications, as increasing women’s representation may help address issues of women’s victimization more effectively in the post-conflict period.

Author

• Gladys Zubiria, Rice University