Conflict and Gender Leadership: Female Mayors in Colombia

• In Event: Gender, Representation, and Leadership

Abstract

Are female-led communities differentially affected by conflict? In this paper, I examine this question in the context of the Colombian conflict of the second half of the XX-th century. I exploit close races for the mayor’s office where a woman was involved and find that municipalities where a female mayor was (narrowly) elected experienced a decrease in guerrilla attacks. This effect amounts to 60% of the average incidence during the sample period, and is robust throughout a wide series of specifications. Surprisingly, I find that the decline is not driven by ideological factors and cannot be explained solely by the partisan affiliation of either the elected mayor or the runner-up. I find evidence that points towards the importance of female negotiation skills in explaining the drop in conflict violence. Finally, I show that the effect propagates to nearby municipalities and persists in time, which suggests that female mayors were able to affect conflict dynamics beyond their direct influence.

Author

• Francisco Eslava, University of British Columbia