Female Rebels and Women’s Post-conflict Economic Empowerment

• In Event: Gendered Labor and War

Abstract

Recent research asserts a connection between women’s labor force participation and women’s participation in conflict. These studies show that the degree to which women are represented in the pre-war labor market influences the odds that women will be recruited into violent political organizations. Yet, scholars have yet to flip this relationship on its head by examining whether women’s participation in war influences their post-war employment. There is reason, however, to believe that such a relationship exists. Women’s active roles during conflict are believed to yield post-conflict social transformations. Indeed, recent work finds a clear relationship between women’s wartime experiences and women’s postwar political empowerment. To date, however, scholars have yet to examine the connection between women’s conflict participation and women’s post-conflict economic empowerment. This paper fills this lacuna, investigating whether women’s wartime roles deepen women’s labor force participation rates as well as other metrics of economic empowerment. I argue that when women take on greater labor within rebel organizations, they are primed to fulfill greater roles in the post-war economy.

Author

• Jakana Thomas, University of California San Diego