The gendered costs of stigma

How experiences of conflict‐related sexual violence affect civic engagement for women and men

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6232076
AutoresCheryl Koos (0000-0002-1259-7495, Department of Government University of Bergen Bergen Norway, autor de correspondencia), Richard Traunmüller (0000-0001-9487-091X, School of Social Sciences University of Mannheim Mannheim Germany)
Año2025
Volumen69
Número2
Páginas763-778
Fecha de publicación2025-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ajps.12863
OpenAlexW4396496416
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas65

A common understanding emphasizes the destructive effects of conflict‐related sexual violence (CRSV) on social cohesion and community life. Stressing the agency of survivors, we present an alternative argument. Our theory predicts that survivors seek to counteract the stigma attached to CRSV by contributing to the community in the form of civic engagement. Drawing on three original surveys from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, and Sri Lanka and relying on list experiments to reduce underreporting bias, we find that survivors of CRSV indeed show increased levels of civic engagement. This civic effect is consistent across the three contexts and very likely causal. We also rule out an alternative mechanism based on posttraumatic growth and dispel concerns that increased civic engagement comes at the expense of decreased intergroup relations. However, looking at sex differences, our results are more sobering. While in line with our prediction, they do not support the optimistic notion that survivors' mobilization results in female empowerment and the closing of existing gender gaps in civic behavior. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of CRSV, the legacy of violent conflict, and the gendered nature of politics

Affect (linguistics · Agency (philosophy · Argument (complex analysis · Civic engagement · Criminology · Democracy · Empowerment · Political science · Politics · Sexual violence · Shame · Sociology · Stigma (botany · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Medicine · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology · Social Psychology