Five Gender Datapoints Every National Security Professional Should Know (And Be Ready to Share)

1. Women’s physical security is one of the best predictors of conflict and societal violence. The higher the levels of violence against women—and the larger the gap between the welfare of men and women—the more likely a society is to find itself in civil or international conflict.1
2. Peace processes in which women participate, as mediators, negotiators, and interest groups, have significantly better prospects than processes from which women are absent. Statistical analysis finds agreements which women helped negotiate are 35 percent more likely to endure 15 years or more. Processes where women’s groups are engaged are overwhelmingly more likely to reach agreements, and then to be implemented.2
3. Gender and gender roles play a key part in moderating—or exacerbating—extremism. Interviews across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia identify women as both the first to show the effects of extremism in a community and often the first to push back against it.3 Studies suggest that empowerment is a key motivation for women who join terrorist groups, and that female terrorists are disproportionately likely to come from environments where women’s participation in public life is barred or discouraged.4 Emerging research suggest that young men’s inability to pay bride prices and attain marriage is a similarly strong trigger.5
4. Multiple studies show a direct relationship between women’s decision-making power on issues of peace and conflict, and the likelihood of societal violence.6 Higher women’s representation in parliaments is correlated with lower incidence of conflict; one study found just a 5 percent increase in legislative representation diminished conflict fivefold. Women’s representation in legislative bodies also correlates with lower levels of governmental human rights abuses.
5. Private sector experience, from corporate boards to management teams to business school theory, parallels observations on value of diverse teams and gendered perspectives for durable outcomes.7 Multiple studies show that diverse teams encourage more multi-disciplinary and innovative thinking, and “more careful information processing.”8

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1 Valerie Hudson, Sex and World Peace [New York: Columbia University Press, 2012].

2 O’Reilly, Marie, Why Women? Inclusive Security and Peaceful Societies [Washington, DC: Inclusive Security, 2015].

3 Bennoune, Karima, Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here [New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013].

4 Bloom, Mia, Bombshell:  The Many Faces of Women Terrorists [New York: Viking Press, 2011].

5 Valerie Hudson and Dara Kay Cohen, “Women’s Rights are a National Security Issue,” New York Times, December 26, 2016.

6 O’Reilly, Marie. Why Women? Inclusive Security and Peaceful Societies. [Washington, DC: Inclusive Security, 2015]

7 David Rock and Heidi Grant, “Why Diverse Teams are Smarter,” Harvard Business Review, November 4, 2016, https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter.

8 Chhun, Bunkhuon, “Better Decisions Through Diversity,” Kellog Insight, October 1, 2010, https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/better_decisions_through_diversity.