Why is the economic status of women better in one country than another? We maintain that the answer lies in part in the extent of external threat to the homeland territory a country faces. To respond to the threat, states centralize their decision-making, invest more in the military and decrease citizens’ liberties. Associated restrictions and emphases on more “masculine” values create an environment where women’s welfare takes a back seat to the ostensible priority of defending the homeland. Utilizing measures of women’s unemployment from across the world, 1981–2001, we demonstrate that higher levels of territorial threat decrease women’s economic welfare.
AshfordMWHuet-VaughnY (2000) The impact of war on women. In: LevyBSSidelVW (eds), War and Public Health. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association, pp. 186–196.
2.
BranisaBKlasenSZieglerM (2013) Gender inequality in social institutions and gendered development outcomes. World Development45: 252–268.
3.
BurgessDBorgidaE (1999) Who women are, who women should be: Descriptive and prescriptive gender stereotyping in sex discrimination. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law5(3): 665–692.
CaprioliM (2000) Gendered conflict. Journal of Peace Research37(1): 53–68.
6.
CaprioliMHudsonVMMcDermottRBallif-SpanvillBEmmettCFStearmerSM (2009) The Womanstats Project database: Advancing an empirical research agenda. Journal of Peace Research46(6): 839–851.
7.
CarliLL (1999) Gender, interpersonal power, and social influence. Journal of Social Issues55(1): 81–99.
8.
CarliLL (2001) Gender and social influence. Journal of Social Issues57(4): 725–741.
9.
CarterA (1996) Women, military service and citizenship. In: SullivanBWhitehouseG (eds), Gender, Politics and Citizenship in the 1990s. Sydney: UNSW Press, pp. 100–119.
ClementsB (2011) ‘Hawks’ and ‘doves’: Public opinion in Britain towards overseas military interventions. Political Insight2(3): 12–15.
12.
DollarDGattiR (1999) Gender Inequality, Income, and Growth: Are Good Times Good for Women? (Vol. 1). Washington, DC: Development Research Group, The World Bank.
13.
FukuyamaF (1998) Women and the evolution of world politics. Foreign Affairs77: 24–40.
14.
GiblerDM (2010) Outside-in: The effects of external threat on state centralization. Journal of Conflict Resolution54(4): 519–542.
15.
GiblerDM (2012) The Territorial Peace: Borders, State Development, and International Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
16.
GiblerDMTirJ (2010) Settled borders and regime type: Democratic transitions as consequences of peaceful territorial transfers. American Journal of Political Science54(4): 951–968.
17.
GiblerDMTirJ (2014) Territorial peace and democratic clustering. The Journal of Politics76(1): 27–40.
18.
GoldsteinJ (2001) The importance of war in the gendered socialization of aggression. Presented at G. Stanley Hall Symposium on Gender and Aggression, Williams College.
19.
HillMAKingE (1995) Women’s education and economic well-being. Feminist Economics1(2): 21–46.
20.
HutchisonML (2014) Tolerating threat? The independent effects of civil conflict on domestic political tolerance. Journal of Conflict Resolution58(5): 796–824.
21.
HutchisonMLGiblerDM (2007) Political tolerance and territorial threat: A cross-national study. Journal of Politics69(1): 128–142.
22.
HynesHP (2004) On the battlefield of women’s bodies: An overview of the harm of war to women. Women’s Studies International Forum27(5): 431–445.
23.
KlasenS (2002) Low schooling for girls, slower growth for all? Cross-country evidence on the effect of gender inequality. The World Bank Economic Review16(3): 345–373.
24.
MelanderE (2005) Gender equality and intrastate armed conflict. International Studies Quarterly49(4): 695–714.
25.
MenonNvan der Meulen-RodgersY (2013) War and women’s work: Evidence from the conflict in Nepal. Journal of Conflict Resolution59(1): 51–73.
26.
MilkmanR (1987) Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex During World War II. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
27.
MitchellS (2012) Norms and the democratic peace. In: VasquezJ (ed.) What Do We Know About War?, 2nd edn.Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 167–188.
28.
MitchelSMThyneCL (2010) Contentious issues as opportunities for diversionary behavior. Conflict Management and Peace Science27(5): 461–485.
29.
MorrisM (1996) By force of arms: Rape, war, and military culture. Duke Law Journal45: 651–781.
30.
MuellerCM (1986) Nurturance and mastery: Competing qualifications for women’s access to high public Office? In: Women and Politics: Activism, Attitudes, and Office-Holding. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
31.
NussbaumM (1995) Introduction. In: Women, Culture, and Development: A Study of Human Capabilities: A Study of Human Capabilities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–36.
32.
OkerekeGO (2006) Violence against women in Africa. African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies2(1): 1–35.
33.
PlümperTNeumayerE (2006) The unequal burden of war: The effect of armed conflict on the gender gap in life expectancy. International Organization60(3): 723–754.
SegalMW (1995) Women’s military roles cross-nationally: Past, present, and future. Gender & Society9(6): 757–775.
39.
SiegelR (1997) Why equal protection no longer protects: The evolving forms of status-enforcing state action. Stanford Law Review49: 1111–1148.
40.
SmithTW (1984) The polls: Gender and attitudes toward violence. Public Opinion Quarterly48: 384–396.
41.
StojsavljevicJ (1995) Women, conflict, and culture in former Yugoslavia. Gender & Development3(1): 36–41.
42.
TirJ (2010) Territorial diversion: Diversionary theory of war and territorial conflict. Journal of Politics72(2): 413–425.
43.
TirJSinghSP (2013) Is it the economy or foreign policy, stupid? A comparative analysis of the impact of foreign crises on leader support. Comparative Politics46(1): 83–101.
44.
TirJSinghSP (2015) Get off my lawn: Territorial civil wars and subsequent social intolerance in the public. Journal of Peace Research52(4): 478–491.
YellinE (2010) Our Mothers’ War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
