Female Fighters by Reed M. Wood

Author:Reed M. Wood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Columbia University Press

CHAPTER 4

Empirical Evaluation of Female Combatant Prevalence

In chapter 1 I presented a theory of rebel mobilization of female fighters that coupled core insights from existing demand-side theories of rebel recruitment with leader expectations of and tolerance for the potential costs associated with this decision. More specifically, I argued that the leaders of armed groups that face resource demands that outstrip the supply of potential male recruits will become increasingly likely to create opportunities for women to participate in the armed wing of the movement, including allowing them to participate in combat. Yet, I also argued that not all groups facing resource mobilization challenges opt to recruit women; rather, the decision to respond to resource shortages by incorporating women into the movement is contingent on the group’s (and its constituents’) commitment to traditional gender norms. These arguments produced a series of hypotheses that linked the prevalence of female combatants in an armed group to (1) the severity of conflict-induced resource demands, (2) group political ideology, and (3) the interaction of these factors.

The case illustrations presented in chapter 3 probed the plausibility of the hypotheses and highlighted the dynamics of women’s mobilization for war and its implications. The quantitative analyses presented in this (and the subsequent) chapter represent a more systematic analysis of the factors associated with the decision to deploy female combatants. I discuss the data used to evaluate the hypotheses presented in chapter 1 and the results of the quantitative analyses in this chapter. I reserve the examination of the strategic implications of female fighters, which was the topic of chapter 2, for chapter 5.

The theory outlined in chapter 1 assumes that rebel leaders are able to coarsely evaluate the expected tradeoffs involved with adopting a given strategy. Herein, this trade off, which I describe as the dilemma of female recruitment, reflects the balance of the expected benefits of recruiting women (easing resource constraints) and the expected costs associated with that decision (e.g., constituency backlash or internal dissent). Fully assessing the rationale that guides rebel leaders to recruit or exclude women is exceedingly difficult, and it is not my intention, nor is it possible using the data and methods I adopt, to thoroughly investigate the individual motives of any specific leader.1 Nonetheless, in this chapter I examine a series of indicators that should serve as reasonable proxies for the factors that I argue are likely to influence rebel decision-making. The results of the analyses allow me to identify a set of general conditions that influence the prevalence of female combatants in armed resistance movements.2

Concepts and Measures

In order to systematically assess the hypotheses presented above, I conduct a series of statistical analyses using novel cross-national data on the presence and prevalence of female combatants in large sample of contemporary rebel movements. Before delving into the technical aspects of the methodology, it is useful to first identify the variables utilized in the analyses and discuss their ability to capture the core concepts reflected in the prior arguments. In this section I therefore

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