Gender and Conflict Datasets

Abstract Women’s experiences in wartime have often been shunted to the margins. A host of early 21st century cross-national, quantitative data collection efforts—tracking women’s participation in non-state armed groups, state-affiliated armed groups, peace negotiations, and public demonstrations—has illuminated the varied and consequential roles that women play during periods of political violence and turmoil. These datasets illustrate the diverse and operationally important roles that women have played in armed groups and in peace processes. Studies leveraging these datasets underscore that the inclusion of women can meaningfully and substantively alter conflict dynamics and postconflict political processes. Furthermore, a complementary set of cross-national, quantitative datasets examining the vulnerabilities that women face—as a result of armed groups’ operations and because of structural violence against women—has enabled a better understanding of women’s lived experience of security. These datasets underscore the ways that political violence and crises both intensify women’s preexisting vulnerabilities and open them up to new threats. Both data collection projects outlining women’s participation in violence and datasets describing gendered violence or gendered conflict dynamics have catalyzed gender-sensitive research and policy analysis. Though these data collection projects are promising, there are a number of gaps in the literature’s understanding of women’s participation in political violence and their experiences of it. There is an acute need for cross-national, quantitative datasets to provide subnational analysis and to disaggregate on key demographic variables (such as race, ethnicity, and class). Furthermore, future research should consider how women’s participation and vulnerabilities have changed over time within the same conflict.