Labored legacies: The post-conflict implications of women’s wartime participation

Does the legacy of women’s participation in non-state armed groups impact women’s post-war political representation? Existing research suggests that women’s inclusion in rebel groups is typically a short-term strategy, creating logistical and tactical advantages without commitment to long-term gendered change. Relatedly, after wars, patriarchal backlash can close the space for women, limiting their newfound political access. This paper argues that despite the incentives to leave women behind, the political parties evolving out of rebel groups (‘rebel parties’) continue practices of women’s inclusion to capture the continued benefits of their representation after war. I argue that the legacies of women’s roles will have symbolic effects on the rebel party’s recruitment of women, women’s candidate emergence, and voter support for women. I present novel data on women’s representation in rebel parties from 1970 to 2020 and find that rebel parties run and elect more women post-conflict when rebels had women wartime participants. I show that these results are consistent across the types of roles that women held during conflict and over time. These findings underscore the wartime legacies of rebel parties and show how women’s wartime contributions affect their post-war political standing.