Gender (In)Equality and Rebel Sexual Violence

• In Event: Graduate Student Research Lightning Round: Social Movements, Conflict, Coalitions

Abstract

In this study, I argue that rebel groups are incentivized to engage in more sexual violence when confronting governments of more gender-equal societies because reports of rebel sexual violence in such communities lead to potentially greater public opprobrium on the state security system while undermining state power through emasculation. To evaluate this argument, I utilize panel data on gender equality (and inequality) and wartime sexual violence between 1989 and 2011. Using careful operationalizations of gender (in)equality and novel empirical analyses addressing oft-incomplete sexual violence data, I demonstrate that polity-level gender equality is associated with a significant increase in the prevalence of rebel sexual violence, whereas gender inequality correlates with a lower prevalence of rebel sexual violence. The argument and evidence presented in this study render gender (in)equality as a causal explanation for rebel sexual violence, contributing to the recent trend that brings gender analysis back into the study of gender-based violence.

Author

• Changwook Ju, Tulane University