1 – War-time Sexual Violence in Kosovo: estimating the incidence of traumatic experiences and their impacts on political participation, gender attitudes and societal values.
Julie Litchfield
School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies, University College London and University of Sussex Business School
Abstract: We study the gendered effects of wartime sexual violence and other traumatic wartime experiences on political participation. We challenge the dominant discourse in the economics literature that ascribes an increase in political participation to the so -called post traumatic growth hypothesis and instead argue that changes in political participation need to be understood in context, depending on the nature of the post-war political arena and in relation to changes in views on gender roles and other relevant attitudes. We use primary data collected in Kosovo in late 2023 and we demonstrate that while war violence increases political participation overall, it does so differentially across gender and depending on the type of violence experienced. We also evidenced limited post-traumatic growth among the victims of violence of all genders, and challenging patriarchal gender norms as a potentially more fruitful way to increase the political participation of victimised women.
2 – Polygyny and Conflict
Simon Hug
University of Geneva; University of Milano-Bicocca
Abstract: Whether and how polygyny and related phenomena affect conflict has become a hotly debated issue in the literature. On the one hand some scholars suggest that polygyny makes civil wars, respectively inter-communal violence, more likely, while others argue that not polygyny in itself, but the treatment of women in society more broadly is related to conflict. The underlying studies differ, however, with respect to conceptual and measurement issues, as well with regard to the postulated mechanisms. Relying on group-level data combined with detailed information on polygyny as practiced by groups we shed new light of the effect of the latter on conflict. More specifically we find in our global sample that, when controlling for a series of theoretically motivated mediators, polygyny has a very small and possibly even negative effect on conflict onsets.
3 – Can safety net programs in fragile settings empower women? Evidence from the northern Republic of Congo.
Wolfgang Stojetz
ISDC – International Security and Development Center
Abstract: