Gender Bias in Policy Representation in Post-Conflict Societies

Abstract

Do politicians represent the policy preferences of men and women equally post-war? Gender inclusiveness has particularly high stakes in this context: research shows that it can help sustain peace. We use a series of survey experiments with politicians (N = 1389) and voters (N = 3049) to study gender bias in policy representation in a post-conflict setting: Bosnia. We find a significant pro-male bias in the policy responsiveness of local politicians (both men and women) to their constituency preferences. We do not find evidence that this is because men are more active and vocal about expressing their policy preferences. Instead, this bias is present in the post-war society more generally: politicians’ attitudes reflect the pro-male bias among voters, both men and women. These results have important implications for the study of gender and post-conflict politics.