DOES WOMEN'S POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT IMPROVE GENDER BALANCE IN PEACEKEEPING? A Large N Study of Troop Contributing Countries

Abstract

Although the United Nations has officially recognized an importance of women’s participation in peacekeeping, the number of female personnel remains low; thus, scholars have been investigating the factors that may facilitate a broader inclusion of women in peacekeeping operations. In order to contribute to the existing literature on the topic, this study examines whether one specific factor, a country’s level of women’s political empowerment, has an impact on the level of gender balance in its peacekeeping troops. I link a countries level of women’s political empowerment to the involvement of female personnel in peacekeeping missions through the argument about women’s interests formulated in the theories about descriptive and substantive representation, and expect that the countries with higher women’s political empowerment deploy more women on peacekeeping missions. This theoretical assumption is tested by conducting a large N study of troop contributing countries using cross-sectional data. In order to do this, multivariate regression analysis, specifically the ordinary least squares method, was employed. The results of the analysis did not support my theoretical expectation, so countries’ level of women’s political empowerment does not influence women’s participation in peacekeeping. However, this conclusion is not definitive due to the limitations caused by data availability.