The Role Of Women In Former Rebel Parties

In post-conflict environments, former rebel groups that transition into political parties are critical political actors, as their participation within formal politics is believed to be a crucial guarantee of continued peace and security after war. Yet, for many former rebel parties, the path to political success is littered with challenges in building substantial public support. This dissertation examines a salient strategy through which rebel parties build such support: the inclusion of women. I explore the role of women in rebel parties by asking three related questions: (1) How does women's political representation in rebel parties compare to other political parties? (2) How do legacies of women's wartime inclusion affect women's representation in rebel parties? (3) Which women do rebel parties elect?I begin in Chapter 1 by comparing the role of women in rebel parties to other political parties in post-conflict environments. I argue that these parties have unique incentives to promote the representation of women. By including women, rebel parties stand to distance themselves from their violent conflict legacies and demonstrate they are committed to upholding transparency, democracy, justice, and peace. Novel data on women's candidacy and electoral success at the party-level in post-conflict Africa from 1970-2020 are presented. Findings suggest that rebel parties run and elect significantly more women than other political parties. I find in instances of ongoing violence, women's political representation generally falters, suggesting that these political strategies are only effective during peacetime.Chapter 2 explores the effect of conflict legacies on women's inclusion in rebel parties. Rebel groups that transition into political parties are influenced by their conflict legacies in a myriad of ways. In particular, rebel parties adhere to practices that shaped their identity and garnered wartime support. I argue that the wartime inclusion of women in rebel groups is one such wartime behavior that will carry over to the post-war environment. Using a second novel dataset on women's representation in a global sample of rebel parties from 1970-2020, I find that former rebel parties that included female combatants are more likely to elect a higher proportion of women after war, particularly when women's presence serves to create similar benefits that women offer during war. The results show that when women's wartime combat participation cultivated greater civilian aid and external support during war, rebel parties are more likely to elect women after war.Finally, Chapter 3 considers the role of former rebel women in their respective rebel parties. I ask how former rebel parties create post-conflict political opportunities for their female former members. I argue that the party's integration of these women depends on women's general contributions during war, particularly their roles in the group and its impact on group success. I present a third novel dataset on the election of former female rebels in a global sample of former rebel parties from 1970-2020 and find that women's roles during conflict influence their post-conflict election. Moreover, their integration also influences greater recruitment of other non-rebel women. These findings demonstrate that while many former rebel women are marginalized after war, a select few are successful in translating their wartime experiences into political gains.Overall, this dissertation demonstrates the salient role of women in rebel parties, a role that has been consistently overlooked in the literature. Moreover, these findings suggest that the inclusion of women is a political strategy used by rebel parties, casting doubt on these parties' actual commitment to women and peace.