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…
Women’s Empowerment as a Path to Peace
This study explores the relationship between gender inequality and violent conflict at a societal level. The results reveal that narrowing of gender gaps in education, employment, financial inclusion, and political participation, as well as reduced rates of adolescent fertility and intimate partner violence, are significantly associated with lower levels of organized violence. This suggests that advancing gender…
Lessons from the Past
In the Malaysian jungles in the mid-1950s, it would have been conceivable for a Malayan Communist Party insurgent – battling the Malayan government and British counter-insurgency forces – to hear the voice of his mother. During 1956, over “600 separate voice messages were recorded and more than 2,200 flights were made by aircraft broadcasting” messages…
Promoting Inclusive Policy Frameworks for Countering Violent Extremism
Pakistan continues to face threats of violent extremism as the government grapples with political and social instability. Numerous terrorist organizations operate within the nation’s borders and continue to launch devastating attacks against the Pakistani people and those in neighboring countries. Despite the launch of the government’s military counter-terrorism operation, Zarb-e-Azb, in 2014, the country has…
Women, Deradicalization, and Rehabilitation
With the rise of violent extremist groups around the world, questions around how to disengage and reintegrate participants from these groups back into their societies have risen to the fore. To date, female participants have been relatively neglected, despite evidence of their growing numbers. Europol’s 2016 EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report found that the…
Avoiding the Pitfalls of Prevent
Prevent, one of four strands of the UK government’s counter-terrorism strategy, aims to ‘stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.’ Established in 2003, Prevent has included numerous initiatives that have specifically focused on women, for example in the context of mosque reformation and the inclusion of ‘moderate voices,’ or the creation of women’s stakeholder groups…
Election-Related Violence Against Women in Nigeria
“The 2014-2015 election period in Nigeria is creating unrest and concern over increasing rates of election-related violence against women. 2014 was reportedly “the most violent year” for women in Nigeria, in large part due to Boko Haram’s targeted kidnapping of and attacks against women and girls. They are also known to have coerced women and…
Women and Countering Violent Extremism
While the role of women and the importance of gender mainstreaming in peace building is becoming increasingly accepted (most notably through the adoption of and momentum generated by UNSCR 1325, as well as corresponding national action plans created by countries across the globe), the role of women in violent extremism remains an understudied issue. Much…
Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Women’s Violence in Global Politics
Mothers, Monsters, Whores provides an empirical study of women’s violence in global politics. The book looks at military women who engage in torture; the Chechen ‘Black Widows’; Middle Eastern suicide bombers; and the women who directed and participated in genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda. Sjoberg & Gentry analyse the biological, psychological and sexualized stereotypes through…