Women empowered by war—evidence from a natural experiment during World War II

Does war increase or decrease gender equality? Existing research is inconclusive. We argue that wartime violence generates prosocial change and cooperation across gender, class, and political lines that, combined with the disruption of traditional gender roles, accelerates women’s political empowerment after the conflict ends. We test this using a natural experiment analyzing 14 neutral countries during WWII—some invaded, others spared—complemented by a comparative case study of Finland (invaded) and Sweden (neutral). Invaded countries experienced significantly faster growth in women’s political empowerment post-war. The Finland-Sweden comparison reveals that wartime cooperation between men and women—not just women’s changed roles alone—drove gains. Our findings suggest post-conflict policies should foster cross-group cooperation to consolidate women’s wartime gains.