Marie E. Berry & Milli Lake
MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN about the benefits of electing women to office. Scholars note links between women’s political representation and the stability of states, the likelihood of peace, the prioritization of social welfare programs, and even economic growth. In recent decades, a number of countries recovering from war have linked their constitutional and government overhauls with gender equality initiatives. Many now have higher rates of women in politics, largely as a result of these efforts. As we have explored in our past work, war can create unexpected opportunities to shift traditional power relations.
But it is equally important to recognize how interventions in the name of gender equality—such as quotas—can create new arenas for armed actors to extend their political influence. Consider Colombia, for example, which has seen record-breaking numbers of women elected to political office over the past decade thanks (in part) to a gender quota requiring that each party put forward at least 30 percent women. In the most recent election in one of the country’s conflict-affected northern regions, three women were elected to the local assembly: one represents a new indigenous political party, but two are linked to powerful, traditional political parties and families that were heavily involved in Colombia’s fifty-plus year armed conflict.