WPS Resource Center
A tool for academics and practitioners interested in gender and conflict.
WPS Index 2025/26
Progress for women’s rights and wellbeing has stalled globally, according to the 2025/26 Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Index. WPS Index scores reveal that global progress on women’s status has largely stagnated since tracking began in 2017, with declines in certain regions. “As wars and conflicts reach a historic peak, progress on women’s status nears…
WPS Index 2021/22
The global advance of women’s status has slowed and disparities have widened across countries, according to the third edition of the Women, Peace and Security Index (WPS Index) released today at the United Nations. The WPS Index, published by Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace…
Advancing Women’s Participation in Post-Conflict Reconstruction
The post-conflict transition period offers a critical window of opportunity to mainstream gender in four areas of post-conflict reconstruction: governance and political systems, economic recovery and environmental sustainability, justice and the rule of law, and security sector reform. The joint report, commissioned by the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations, …
Views on Women’s Inclusion, Justice and Security in the United States
In August 2020, GIWPS commissioned YouGov and PerryUndem to conduct a nationally representative survey exploring American views on women’s status and opportunities and the state of gender equality in the United States. Across themes such as women’s leadership, economic opportunities, and safety, we find that women and people of color are much more likely to…
The Best and Worst States for Women: The US Women, Peace and Security Index 2020
The US WPS Index offers the most comprehensive measurement of women’s rights and opportunities across 50 states and the District of Columbia. It goes beyond women’s inclusion in the economy and politics to capture key aspects of justice and legal protections, as well as women’s security against violence in their homes and in their communities.
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…
Women’s Financial Inclusion and Economic Opportunities in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States
It is well established that women’s participation is essential for growing economies—and that inclusive growth is critical to creating sustainable peace. Yet women face the most severe economic exclusion in fragile and conflict-affected countries—precisely the nations that critically need their participation. This GIWPS report focuses on financial inclusion as an important tool to economically empower…
Connecting Informal and Formal Peace Talks
Women remain dramatically absent from formal peace processes. As of 2015, women made up only 2 percent of mediators, 5 percent of witnesses and signatories, and 8 percent of negotiators in peace processes, reflecting the often exclusive nature of formal peace processes. However, as has been noted in works on peace processes, women are not…
Rebuilding Nepal
April 25, 2018 – Today marks three years since a massive earthquake and violent aftershock leveled Nepal, killing 9,000 people, injuring an additional 22,000 people, and affecting roughly one quarter of the country’s population. The earthquake struck while Nepal was attempting to implement a political transition and rebuild following the resolution of its ten-year civil war in 2006. Following…
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…
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…