Why Women Rebel: Greed, Grievance, and Women in Armed Rebel Groups

Henshaw, Alexis

doi:10.1093/jogss/ogw008

Cited by 37 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Why do women want to fight? It has been argued that women join rebel groups because of economic grievances (Cunningham, 2003; Eager, 2008; Henshaw, 2016). Moreover, Eriksson Baaz and Stern (2012, p. 719) argue that many women soldiers in Congo joined the army because of poverty and some because of failed femininity, such as an inability to bear children.…”

Section: War As a Window Of Opportunity To Increase Women’s Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, women have been observed to join ethnically based armed groups, but often in support roles (Eager, 2008; Henshaw, 2016; Thomas & Bond, 2015). Kurdish women soldiers who have participated in ground combat were also nationalistically motivated to join the Peshmerga, though they frequently combined nationalism with striving for gender equality.…”

Section: War As a Window Of Opportunity To Increase Women’s Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Muslim Mothers in Ground Combat Against the Islamic State

Nilsson

2017

Armed Forces & Society

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This study analyzes the experiences and identities of Kurdish women fighting the Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq as part of the Peshmerga Army. The case is especially interesting because these women have engaged in ground combat and because there is an empirical gap in knowledge, especially concerning Muslim women’s experiences as soldiers. Wars bring great destruction but can also catalyze social change. While seeking balance between their identities as good mothers and professional soldiers, many Kurdish women see their war participation as a chance to increase their agency and improve equality in society, as combat operations create a window of opportunity to change perceptions of women’s roles. Women soldiers still face prejudices and feel that they must prove their worth as fearless warriors in ground combat. However, interviewed soldiers said that they were not striving for equality but equivalency, stressing those qualities that women in particular can contribute in battle.

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Section: War As a Window Of Opportunity To Increase Women’s Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: War As a Window Of Opportunity To Increase Women’s Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Muslim Mothers in Ground Combat Against the Islamic State

Nilsson

2017

Armed Forces & Society

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“…Recent research has begun to consider the structural and strategic determinants of women participating as fighters in armed intrastate conflict (Henshaw, 2016;Thomas & Bond, 2015;Thomas & Wood, 2018;R. M. Wood & Thomas, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female Combatants and Wartime Rape: Reconsidering the Role of Women in Armed Conflict

Mehrl

2020

Armed Forces & Society

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Whereas existing research posits that the presence of female fighters in armed groups decreases their propensity for wartime rape, one recent study tests this claim quantitatively and is unable to detect a statistically significant effect. This leads the author to conclude that female combatants do not decrease rape. Using that study’s original data, this article reexamines the evidence for the relationship between female rebel combatants and wartime sexual violence. Replications of the original models suggest that they make strong functional form assumptions regarding numerous independent variables and time dependence and that relaxing them results in substantively different findings. Namely, women’s participation in armed groups decreases groups’ use of wartime rape. In support of Loken’s organizational theory of rape, results also suggest that this effect is moderated by group norms. These findings contribute to the literature on female participation in rebel groups and beyond.

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“…Explanations for female combatant participation have stressed supply- and/or demand-side dynamics. On the supply-side, women are shown across a range of conflicts as having taken up arms to assuage economic or religious grievances that might affect their communities rather than serving personal interests (Mason, 1992; Coulter et al, 2008; Henshaw, 2016b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We expect that there is an important exception when rebel groups depend upon methods of forced recruitment. As can also be true for child and male participants, female participation in rebel groups is often involuntary (Brett, 2002; Mazurana et al, 2002; Henshaw, 2016b). Although women may continue to possess some agency (McKay, 2005; Wood, 2017), methods of forced recruitment are highly likely to undermine the benefits their participation brings to the group.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female combatants, forced recruitment, and civil conflict outcomes

Braithwaite

Ruiz

2018

Research & Politics

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Women participated as combatants in almost 40% of civil conflicts that occurred between 1979 and 2009. We offer a novel argument about the effect of female combatants upon the outcomes of the civil conflicts that they join. Groups that recruit female combatants are more likely to achieve victory in their conflicts than are groups that do not recruit female combatants. However, when rebel groups rely upon forced recruitment, they risk undermining the benefits associated with female combatants, lowering their likelihood of victory relative to that of the government. We test this conditional argument using multinomial logistic regression models on a sample of 194 rebel groups globally from 1979 to 2009. We find that female participation appears to decrease the likelihood of government victory in civil wars; this effect holds primarily in instances in which female participation could plausibly be thought of as voluntary. Forced female participation, by contrast, appears to increase the likelihood of a government victory.

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Why Women Rebel: Greed, Grievance, and Women in Armed Rebel Groups

Cited by 37 publications

References 35 publications

Muslim Mothers in Ground Combat Against the Islamic State

Muslim Mothers in Ground Combat Against the Islamic State

Female Combatants and Wartime Rape: Reconsidering the Role of Women in Armed Conflict

Female combatants, forced recruitment, and civil conflict outcomes

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