War termination and women's political rights

Does the manner in which a civil war is terminated affect women's political rights developments? In this article, we develop an analytical framework showing how the context of war termination type affects both the opportunity and willingness of warring parties and their openness towards the influence of international actors, thereby making it possible to translate social ruptures and pressures from women's groups into post-war improvements in women's political rights. Studying 205 civil war terminations in 69 countries since 1989, we find support for our claim that a conflict terminated through the negotiation and implementation of a comprehensive peace agreement significantly improved women's political rights in the post-war period when compared to other types of conflict termination. This finding holds after controlling for the women's rights provisions negotiated in the agreement. Our results carry substantial policy relevance by underlining the significance of women's inclusion in peace processes.