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This article reviews the literature on gender, conflict, and peace. In traditional security studies there was not much room for gender or gender equality, while feminist theorists have claimed most of the research on war and peace. The empirical research on gender, conflict, and peace is a relatively new sub-field that brings together diverse traditions from sociology, feminist theory, international relations, and economic development. The common ground of all researchers included in this short review is the effort to systematically understand the role of gender in shaping outcomes of conflict and peace. Despite the increasing number of articles and new datasets, I identify four areas that scholars must address for the research agenda to further grow, deepen, and develop as part of the mainstream study of peace and conflict: women's status and quality of peace, women's participation, sexual violence, and gender mainstreaming to promote gender equality in development and peace.

Research on women and post-conflict reconstruction tends to focus primarily on women as victims and passive targets for aid rather than conceptualizing peacebuilding as a process where greater participation by women may help increase the prospects for success. Here, I argue that women's social status is a dimension of social capital that is largely independent of general economic development. Societies and communities where women enjoy a relatively higher status have greater prospects for successful peacebuilding, as cooperation by the local population with peacebuilding policies and activities increases. Thus, in the presence of a UN-led peacebuilding operation, women's status has a direct and independent impact on post-conflict reconstruction. The theoretical claims are empirically assessed by looking at variation in levels of cooperation and conflict during the UN peacebuilding missions within the countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Previous studies have suggested that societies where women have higher social and economic status and greater political representation are less likely to become involved in conflict. In this article, the author argues that the prospects for successful post-conflict peacebuilding under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) are generally better in societies where women have greater levels of empowerment. Women's status in a society reflects the existence of multiple social networks and domestic capacity not captured by purely economic measures of development such as GDP per capita. In societies where women have relatively higher status, women have more opportunities to express a voice in the peacemaking process and to elicit broader domestic participation in externally led peacekeeping operations. This higher level of participation in turn implies that UN Peacekeeping operations can tap into great social capital and have better prospects for success. An empirical analysis of post-conflict cases with a high risk of conflict recurrence shows that UN peacekeeping operations have been significantly more effective in societies in which women have relatively higher status. By contrast, UN peacekeeping operations in countries where women have comparatively lower social status are much less likely to succeed.

"This volume presents systematic empirical research on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (UNSCR 1325). How should we understand women's participation in peace processes and in peace operations? And what forms of gendered security dynamics are present in armed conflict and international interventions? These questions represent central themes of protection and participation that the international community has to address in order to implement UNSCR 1325. Thus far, the implementation has often employed varying approaches related to gender mainstreaming, a third theme of the resolution. Yet, there is a dearth of systematic data which until recently has restricted the ability of researchers to evaluate the progress in implementation and impact of UNSCR 1325. By engaging with both empirics and critical theory, the authors of this edited volume make important contributions to the gender, peace and security agenda. They identify some of the problems of implementing UNSC 1325 and offer a sobering assessment of progress of implementation and insights into how to advance our understanding through systematic research. Many of the chapters are focused on operational aspects of UNSCR 1325, but all also engage with the theoretical underpinnings of UNSCR 1325 to bring forth central debates on more fundamental challenges to the development of knowledge in the fields of gender, peace and security. This book will be of much interest to students of gender studies, peace and conflict studies, security studies and IR in general"--

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 highlights the distinct needs of women in security and well-being. Few studies explore how peacekeeping affects women's access to health and education. Yet, women's access to public services such as health is a form of gender inequality in post-conflict countries leading to unbalanced distribution of resources. We argue that peacekeeping operations (PKOs) have both a direct and an important indirect impact on maternal health and women's well-being. First, peacekeeping can have a direct effect by providing medical and training facilities. Second, peacekeeping has an indirect effect as improvement in the overall level of security facilitates women's access to medical services and education. We evaluate our argument by combining evidence from different levels of analysis. First, we use a difference-in-difference analysis of 45 African countries with data between 1990 and 2013, comparing the changes in maternal mortality rates (MMR) for countries with and without PKOs. Second, we look at within-country variations across areas with and without UN peacekeeping deployment in three countries with integrative PKOs, combining geo-coded peacekeeping data with individual data on maternal health and education from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte D'Ivoire, and Liberia. We find strong empirical support for a positive relationship between peacekeeping presence and maternal health outcomes and access to services.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 highlights the distinct needs of women in security and well-being. Few studies explore how peacekeeping affects women's access to health and education. Yet, women's access to public services such as health is a form of gender inequality in post-conflict countries leading to unbalanced distribution of resources. We argue that peacekeeping operations (PKOs) have both a direct and an important indirect impact on maternal health and women's well-being. First, peacekeeping can have a direct effect by providing medical and training facilities. Second, peacekeeping has an indirect effect as improvement in the overall level of security facilitates women's access to medical services and education. We evaluate our argument by combining evidence from different levels of analysis. First, we use a difference-in-difference analysis of 45 African countries with data between 1990 and 2013, comparing the changes in maternal mortality rates (MMR) for countries with and without PKOs. Second, we look at within-country variations across areas with and without UN peacekeeping deployment in three countries with integrative PKOs, combining geo-coded peacekeeping data with individual data on maternal health and education from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte D'Ivoire, and Liberia. We find strong empirical support for a positive relationship between peacekeeping presence and maternal health outcomes and access to services.