Political Gender Equality and State Human Rights Abuse

Abstract

Feminist theorists argue that more equal societies that are not based on gender hierarchies ought to be less plagued by collective violence. This study tests whether political gender equality is associated with lower levels of personal integrity rights abuse carried out by state agents, such as fewer political imprisonments, torture, killings, and disappearances. Two indicators of political gender equality are used: (1) a dummy indicating that the chief executive of a state is a woman; and (2) the percentage of women in parliament. The impact of political gender equality on personal integrity rights abuse is tested using multiple regression techniques and a dataset spanning most countries of the world during the period 1977-96. Female chief executives are rare, and their tenures are not significantly associated with the level of abuse. The percentage of women in parliament is associated with lower levels of personal integrity rights abuse. Results show both a direct effect of female representation in parliament and an effect in interaction with the level of institutional democracy. These results hold when controlling for the most important factors known or suspected to influence human rights behavior: democracy, leftist regime, military regime, British colonial experience, civil war, international war, wealth, population, ethnic heterogeneity, and regime transition and collapse.

Disentangling gender, peace and democratization: the negative effects of militarized masculinity

“…Moreover, when militarized masculinity is strongly present it is likely that violence is viewed as an acceptable means of imposing and maintaining domination. The more widespread and pervasive militarized masculinity is, the more likely it is that conflict will be dealt with violently ( Pin-Fat and Stern 1992, 2005, Enloe 1993, Gibson 1994, Gill 1997, Kimmel 1997, Fone 2000, Hooper 2000, Caprioli 2000, 2005, Goldstein 2001, Tickner 2001, Micheler 2002, Kimmel and Mahler 2003, Melander 2005a, 2005b ii .…”

“…Moreover, among semi-democracies, states with a larger dominance of men in parliament are more likely to be involved in intrastate armed conflict. This tendency (that less equitable societies are more beset by intrastate armed conflict and other forms of collective violence) is a widespread phenomenon (Caprioli 2000, 2005, Melander 2005a, 2005b. As illustrated in the top half of Table 5 (below), less equitable societies are more involved in intrastate armed conflict than authoritarian states, and than full democracies.…”

Kurdish women in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict – perceptions, experiences, and strategies

“…50 Increasing female representation in parliament also reduces the risks of political imprisonment, disappearances, torture, and killings. 51 Moreover, increasing women's status in society is positively associated with successful peace building. 52 Respondent A6 said that 'the only thing we can do is to educate them [that is, young girls] so that they can take care of themselves and do not have to be under anyone's power'.…”

Mind the Gap: State Capacity and the Implementation of Human Rights Treaties

“…Others contend that repressive countries are especially prone to ratify human rights treaties because of the legitimating 102. See Hafner-Burton andTsutsui 2005 andHenderson 1993;Melander 2005;Mitchell and McCormick 1988;and Poe and Tate 1994. 103. See Conrad and Moore 2010;Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui 2005;Poe and Tate 1994;and Poe, Tate, and Keith 1999. 104.…”