From Global Policy to Local Knowledge: What is the Link between Women's Formal Political Participation and Gender Equality in Conflict‐affected Contexts?

Abstract

We report findings from a systematic review of literature on women's formal political participation in fragile and conflict-affected states. In many postconflict contexts, quotas for women's formal participation are introduced as part of restructuring the political and social landscape. While many women take part in formal politics, many more still experience inequalities determined by their gender positions. Our analysis assesses the evidence used to substantiate the support for the prevailing global policy prescription for women's participation in formal political structures and the impact of this on general gender equality. We explore the association and relevance between the available knowledge, evidential claims based on these and the prevailing policy and practice to advance gender equality. Good policies require in-depth knowledge about the field within which policies intervene. One of our central findings is that the research continues to produce knowledge about the mechanisms that help to elect women rather than knowledge on the gender outcomes of these processes within the larger society. Policy Implications• Do not assume that once women are elected gender-equality outcomes are a foregone conclusion. Knowledge is needed to identify mechanisms and local pathways that are effective in producing desired gender outcomes.• Policy makers should consider the link between available knowledge and their policy aims. Knowledge is needed on the conditions in postconflict situations under which women participate in political systems and on how quotas are interacting with these existing relations.• Policy makers need to consider factors that (dis)enable and/or motivate women to participate in formal and informal political processes and to assess the circumstances under which international peace building strategies and the implementation of gender policies help or hinder women's peace building efforts. Does women's formal political participation increase gender equality in fragile and conflict-affected contexts? If the answer to this question could be surmised from the groundswell of international policy, practice and activism to increase women's formal political participation, it would certainly be affirmative. From the UN's first call 20 years ago to establish targets for increasing the proportion of women in political leadership positions, to their emergence as a measure of gender equality within the Millennium Development Goals, increasing women's formal political participation has become a central issue for democratic governance and gender equality. Supporting women's political participation is also becoming a central strategy in bilateral aid policies (see DFID, 2011). However, as the recent scholarship argues, the research in the field has focused mostly on processes of creating quotas for elections and mechanisms of elections, leaving questions as to the link between these processes and gender equality at large unanswered (Bush, 2011;Franceschet et al., 2012).In this article we reflect on the findings of a sy...

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