A Woman's Touch: The Impact of Women's Participation and Positive Gender Ideology on Terrorist Organizations in Africa
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Howarth, Kate
- Area of Honors:
- International Politics
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- James A Piazza, Thesis Supervisor
Matthew Richard Golder, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- terrorism
women
female terrorism
female participation
gender ideology
terrorist organizations
Africa
forced recruitment
suicide bombing
ideological recruitment - Abstract:
- For the past twenty to thirty years, the academic study of terrorism has expanded dramatically to include terrorists, acts of terrorism, and their relationship to various other areas of research. A significant body of this research considers terrorism through the lens of gender. However, these studies have predominantly focused on the motivations of female terrorists and the impact of participation on the women themselves. In recent years, studies on women in terrorism have begun to shift to understanding how the presence of women, both in general and while holding different roles within organizations, impacts the conflicts and groups they are a part of. The gap in the literature on understanding women’s influence on the behavior of terrorist organizations inspired my senior honors thesis. I attempt to explore the relationship between both the prevalence of female fighters within an organization and a group’s espousal of a positive gender ideology on group behavior and action. Specifically, I focus on how these two variables impact a group’s use of forced recruitment, suicide bombing, and ideological recruitment appeals. I will conduct a quantitative analysis using a combination of logistical regression and ordered logistical regression tests on data gathered from three different pre-existing datasets. This paper thus seeks to review the existing literature and use statistical analysis to identify potential patterns that begin to explain the relationship between the prevalence of women in combat roles and a group’s gender ideology to terrorist organization action and methods. My study's primary statistically significant finding is that an increase in the prevalence of women in combat roles significantly increases the chances of a group’s use of forced recruitment.