Women's economic rights and sexual violence in civil conflict
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3917657 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tiffany D Barnes (0000-0001-6211-3527, University of Texas at Austin, USA), Jesse C Johnson (0000-0002-8776-4091, University of Texas at Austin, USA, corresponding author), Anne Marie Mcatee (Vanderbilt University), Gargi Vyas (Creighton University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1646-1662 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Peace Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00223433241305907 |
| OpenAlex | W4408418823 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 51 |
One of the most shocking aspects of civil war is the prevalence of sexual violence committed by armed groups. Recent research identifies many of the factors driving this horrific phenomenon. What is generally lacking, however, is an understanding of the factors that can prevent conflict-related sexual violence. We argue that women's economic rights are key. Women's economic rights provide women with the ability to flee dangerous war zones, work in less vulnerable environments, and access to safe housing. We test our claims using a global sample of civil conflicts from 1989 to 2019. We find evidence that the presence of robust women's economic rights is associated with significantly lower levels of observed sexual violence in civil conflicts, even after controlling for a variety of potential confounders. Additionally, we probe the possibility of egalitarian gender norms driving our results by examining the relationship between women's political empowerment and conflict-related sexual violence. We find no relationship between women's political empowerment and conflict-related sexual violence. Importantly, we continue to find a negative relationship between women's economic rights and conflict-related sexual violence even when accounting for women's political empowerment, suggesting women's economic rights have an independent effect on conflict-related sexual violence. Our findings highlight the importance of enhancing women's economic rights in the global fight against wartime rape. Providing women with greater economic agency has the potential to curb sexual violence in conflicts around the world
Civil Conflict · Computer security · Criminology · Injury prevention · Medical emergency · Occupational safety and health · Poison control · Political science · Sexual violence · Spanish Civil War · Suicide prevention · Computer Science · Engineering · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology
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The Political Economy of Violence against Women
Making Sense of Sensitivity
Extreme War Rape in Today’s Civil-War-Torn States
Reframing conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence
Gender and vulnerable employment in the developing world
Punish or tolerate? State capacity, military oversight, and wartime sexual violence
Transition to Adulthood of Female Garment-Factory Workers in Bangladesh
Variation in Sexual Violence during War
A latent variable approach to measuring wartime sexual violence
The Political Economy of Gender
Natural Resource Exploitation and Sexual Violence by Rebel Groups
Rebel Leader Ascension and Wartime Sexual Violence
Gender and the Pathways to Participation
UN Peacekeeping and Protection from Sexual Violence
Does Peacekeeping Really Bring Peace? Peacekeepers and Combatant-perpetrated Sexual Violence in Civil Wars
Conflict-related Sexual Violence and Rebel Group Fragmentation
Do States Delegate Shameful Violence to Militias? Patterns of Sexual Violence in Recent Armed Conflicts
Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and the Perils of Impunity
The Plight of the Forgotten Ones
Sexual Violence by the State
Rebel Child Soldiering and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and the Re-Escalation of Lethal Violence
The Relationship between Contributors’ Domestic Abuses and Peacekeeper Misconduct in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations
Foreign Fighters and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
Wartime Sexual Violence in Guatemala and Peru
International Politics and the Spread of Quotas for Women in Legislatures
Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
United Nations Peacekeeping and Civilian Protection in Civil War
Is There More Violence in the Middle
Making the Most of Statistical Analyses
What Stops the Torture
Democracy and the Violation of Human Rights
Gender and genocide in Rwanda
Responding to sexual violence
Understanding women's experience of violence and the political economy of gender in conflict
Security Forces and Sexual Violence
Organized violence 1989-2020, with a special emphasis on Syria
Military socialization, disciplinary culture, and sexual violence in UN peacekeeping operations
Sexual violence in armed conflict
Explaining sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping missions
The ties that bind
Armed Conflict 1946-2001
The commander's dilemma
The political consequences of wartime sexual violence
Explaining Rape during Civil War
Rape as a Practice of War
Armed Groups and Sexual Violence
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |