The Unsung ‘Sheroes’: Studying the Role of Women as Decision Makers in Curbing Conflicts

This study examines how women’s political participation influences both the incidence and duration of armed conflict using a panel of 175 countries from 1960 to 2020. Employing random-effects logistic regressions on twelve binary conflict indicators, I find that a one-unit increase in the V-Dem women’s participation index reduces conflict probability by approximately 4 to 16 percentage points, with the largest effects for internal armed conflict and governmental disputes, and the smallest for territorial-ethnic conflicts. Negative-binomial models of peace-year counts show that the same increase extends expected years of peace by roughly 21–24 years, with gains accelerating at higher representation levels. Subsample analysis of Emerging Market and Developing Economies reveals even stronger effects, up to a 22 pp reduction in conflict risk and 26 additional years of peace, highlighting the potency of women’s inclusion where institutions are most fragile. The concave profile of conflict-onset effects and convex profile of peace-duration effects together highlight that initial gains in female representation deliver the steepest risk reductions, while sustained improvements yield growing extensions of stability. JEL Codes: C23, D74, J16, O15