WPS Resource Center
A tool for academics and practitioners interested in gender and conflict.
Moving Mountains
Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, Afghanistan has faced a grim confluence of crises—a failing economy, widespread poverty and famine, rampant human rights abuses, and a total erasure of the rights of women and girls. Devastating earthquakes and the deportation of Afghans from Pakistan have further compounded the challenges facing the country. The Taliban appear…
The WPS Index and the Gender-Climate-Security Nexus
The impacts of climate change, conflict, and gender inequality are increasingly intertwined. While there is a growing body of evidence recognizing that environmental and humanitarian crises disproportionately affect women and acknowledging the vital need to meaningfully include women’s voices in prevention and response efforts, research on the relationship between women’s status broadly and countries’ resilience…
Pathways to Education for Afghan Women and Girls
This month, Afghanistan’s schools opened for the start of a new academic year, but Afghan girls remain excluded from the classroom. The Taliban’s ban on girls’ education has lasted over a year and its implications are dire. Without the promise of a secondary education, increases in forced child marriage, gender-based violence, and depression disproportionately affect…
A New Lens on Forced Displacement
The Women Peace and Security (WPS) Index, published by Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security (PRIO GPS) draws on recognized data sources to measure and rank women’s inclusion, justice, and security across 11 indicators in 170 countries. This year, Norway, Finland, and Iceland…
How Did Conflict Affect Women’s Economic Opportunities in Sub‐Saharan Africa?
Prior research suggests that in times of conflict, women seek paid work for various reasons. But do these shifts last post-conflict? The authors analyze women’s labor force participation and employment trends in six conflict-affected Sub-Saharan African countries: Burundi, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Rwanda. The report finds there are significantly higher labor force participation…
Beijing+25: Accelerating Progress for Women and Girls
Beijing+25: Accelerating Progress for Women and Girls is a roadmap to advance global gender equality authored by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security (GIWPS), with support from The Rockefeller Foundation and in collaboration with Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. Marking the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, which took…
What Does the Status of Women Reveal about a Nation’s Pandemic Preparedness and Response?
This research note co-authored by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the PRIO Centre for Gender, Peace and Security investigates the relationship between women’s wellbeing and risk factors associated with an overwhelming COVID-19 outbreak. Are nations that perpetuate injustice, exclusion, and insecurity for women less prepared to handle an epidemic outbreak, like…
Women Building Resilient Cities in the Context of Climate Change
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2242 recognized climate change as an important consideration for the peace and security of women and girls. Women – marginalized in economic, political, and social spheres in many contexts – have even fewer available resources to cope with climate-related disasters as they face unique and often disproportionate risks. Yet despite…
How are the Domains of Women’s Inclusion, Justice, and Security Associated with Maternal and Infant Mortality Across Countries?
In SSM – Population Health, GIWPS’ Jeni Klugman and Jennifer Parsons collaborate with UCSD researchers to examine how women’s autonomy and empowerment in their homes, communities, and societies at large have been shown, through many direct and indirect pathways, to be associated with maternal and infant health. A novel global measure—the Women, Peace, and Security…
Advancing Women’s Agency in Conflict Settings through Health Work: A Comparative Evaluation of the Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation and the Panzi Foundation
The work of Dr. Hawa Abdi and Dr. Denis Mukwege present an interesting set of approaches to connecting international resolutions with practical, tangible change. Their work — leveraging their organizations’ success in providing medical care, especially to women, in conflict settings — to institute larger programming efforts aimed at increasing women’s empowerment and agency is…
Security, Basic Services and Economic Opportunity in South Sudan
Based on public opinion polling from November 2011 and February 2013, this report describes and analyzes the status and perceptions of women in South Sudan related to security, access to basic services and economic empowerment. Focusing on the critical period between independence and the outbreak of civil war, the paper identifies trends between the two…
Occasional Paper Series: Women and Transitional Justice
Jennifer Moore presents a useful framework for how to conduct qualitative research that focuses on the work of women-led, community-based organizations in Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Burundi, and in doing so helps construct a research model that can be adapted across contexts. Rebekka Friedman provides reflections on women’s experiences in culturally mediated grieving and recovery…