The Gendered Legacies of Wartime Trauma

• In Event: Origins and Legacies of Violence

Abstract

Violence against women and gender-based inequities are pervasive threats to public health, fundamental human rights, and both economic and political development. Despite growing attention to these issues, causal evidence of the specific mechanisms that drive gender-based discrimination remains limited. This paper provides support for one such mechanism by linking declassified data on U.S. aerial bombing missions with geo-referenced surveys fielded in more than two thousand Cambodian villages. Using an instrumental variable approach to facilitate causal inference, I demonstrate that residents of heavily-bombed communities adopt more restrictive attitudes and behaviors regarding women's empowerment. Moreover, these outcomes---which include increases in male approval of domestic abuse and suppressed levels of female political participation---endure via intergenerational contact. In short, the gendered legacies of military violence are highly persistent in conflict-affected communities and remain detectable even among residents born long after the conclusion of conflict itself.

Author

• Brandon Merrell, Yale University