Recent research has directed attention to the transformative potential
of war for female empowerment. As a disruptive shock, armed conflict can
create a window of opportunity for advancing the societal role of
women. We complement this research agenda by looking at how conflict
severity and termination condition the outcomes for women in the
aftermath of civil conflict. We expect that both level of violence and
mode of resolution affect subsequent female empowerment, where severe
conflicts ending by a negotiated settlement have the greatest
transformative potential. Consistent with expectations, we find that
post-conflict improvements in female empowerment occur primarily after
high-intensity civil conflicts. However, subsequent tests reveal that
this effect is driven largely by conflicts terminated by peace
agreements. The greatest improvement in female empowerment is seen when
peace agreements have gender-specific provisions. These results support
calls for a sustained effort toward mainstreaming gender issues in
conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes.
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