The unsung ‘sheroes’: studying the role of women as decision makers in curbing conflicts

This study examines how women’s political participation influences both the incidence and duration of armed conflict using a panel of 136 emerging and developing economies from 1960 to 2020. Employing random-effects logistic regressions on twelve binary conflict indicators, I find that a one-unit increase in the V-Dem women’s participation index reduces conflict probability by approximately 4 to 22 percentage points, with the largest effects for internal armed conflict and governmental disputes, and the smallest for territorial-ethnic conflicts. An IV-2SLS framework reinforces the causal relationship. The concave profile of conflict-onset effects highlights that initial gains in female representation deliver the steepest risk reductions, while sustained improvements yield growing extensions of stability. A series of robustness checks confirms the findings.