Civil War, Gender Norms, and Educational Outcomes in Post-Conflict Societies: Evidence from South Sudan

How do evolving gender norms during conflicts shape educational access, experiences, and outcomes in post-conflict settings? This study explores the complex intersections of gender norms and conflict in shaping the educational outcomes in South Sudan. Drawing on annual data covering enrollment, dropout, completion, conflict events, and conflict fatalities, we construct two additional composite indices of Conflict Intensity and the Gender Norms Index (GNI) and apply multiple linear regression to assess their effects on gendered educational outcomes. The findings reveal that while conflict disrupts schooling broadly, gender norms exert a more decisive influence, particularly on female dropout and completion rates. Conflict intensity aligns with major declines in total enrollment during the peak phases of civil war, but GNI shows stronger predictive power in models of female educational attainment. The additional analyses of time-series and correlation further underscore that structural gender inequality, not conflict alone, accounts for persistent disparities in outcomes in South Sudan. The conclusion is that transforming gender norms is as critical as securing peace in rebuilding equitable education systems in post-conflict societies.