Violent Conflict and Gender Inequality : An Overview

Violent conflict is a pervasive feature of the recent global landscape which has lasting impacts on human capital and these impacts are seldom gender neutral. Death and destruction alter the structure and dynamics of households, including their demographic profiles and traditional gender roles. To date, attention to the gender impacts of conflict has focused almost exclusively on sexual and gender-based violence. The authors show that a far wider set of gender issues must be considered to better document the human consequences of war and to design effective postconflict policies. The emerging empirical evidence is organized using a framework that identifies both the differential impacts of violent conflict on males and females (first-round impacts) and the role of gender inequality in framing adaptive responses to conflict (second-round impacts). War's mortality burden is disproportionately borne by males, whereas women and children constitute a majority of refugees and the displaced. Indirect war impacts on health are more equally distributed between the genders. Conflicts create households headed by widows who can be especially vulnerable to intergenerational poverty. Second-round impacts can provide opportunities for women in work and politics triggered by the absence of men. Households adapt to conflict with changes in marriage and fertility, migration, investments in children's health and schooling, and the distribution of labor between the genders. The impacts of conflict are heterogeneous and can either increase or decrease preexisting gender inequalities. Describing these gender differential effects is a first step toward developing evidence-based conflict prevention and postconflict policy.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Buvinic, Mayra, Das Gupta, Monica, Casabonne, Ursula, Verwimp, Philip
Language:	en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, D.C. 2013-02
Subjects:	access to health care, adolescents, age at marriage, aged, aggressive, Agricultural production, anxiety, armed conflict, Armed Conflicts, babies, battle, beatings, Bulletin, Capacity Building, chances of survival, child development, Child Labor, child mortality, Child Survival, childbearing, Chronic Poverty, civic participation, civil conflict, civil war, civil wars, Communicable Diseases, conflict prevention, conflict research, consensual unions, crime, Cultural Change, deaths, Deaths of Children, demographic changes, demographic transition, depression, developing countries, development policy, disability, domestic abuse, domestic violence, Early Childhood, economic development, economic opportunities, economic policies, economic resources, economic status, Emergencies, emergency situations, Epidemiology, ethnic cleansing, ex-combatants, excess mortality, exposure to violence, families, family members, Family Planning, Female Labor Force, fertility, fertility behavior, Fertility Decline, fertility patterns, First Birth, Food Security, Forced Migration, gender differentials, gender equality, gender inequalities, Gender Inequality, gender issues, genocide, girl children, health care, health consequences, health facilities, health outcomes, health services, health system, HIV, hospital, hospitals, household income, household poverty, household surveys, human capital, human development, Human Rights, human welfare, Immunization, impact of conflict, incidence of poverty, infant, infant mortality, infant mortality rate, infectious diseases, infrastructure destruction, injuries, interdependence, International Bank, International Cooperation, International Family Planning, International Family Planning Perspectives, International Journal of Epidemiology, Intervention, labor force, labor market, labor markets, labor supply, Labour Supply, land ownership, large numbers of people, loss of land, loss of men, low-income countries, malaria, male mortality, marital fertility, maternal mortality, Medical Services, mental, mental health, migration, morbidity, mortality, mortality of men, nations, neonatal mortality, number of people, number of refugees, Nutrition, nutritional status, obstetric fistula, older people, opportunities for women, orphans, Parenting, peace, places of origin, police force, policy discussions, Policy Implications, Policy Research, Policy Research Working Paper, Political Activity, political participation, polygamous marriages, poor health, Population and Development, Population Change, Population Conference, Population Research, Population Studies, postconflict reconstruction, postconflict settings, pregnancy, progress, Psychiatry, Public Affairs, public health, Public Health Problem, radio, rape, Reconciliation, refugee, refugee camps, refugee children, refugee movements, refugee status, Refugee Women, refugees, Religious Beliefs, religious groups, reproductive health, Research Policy, Research Program, resource allocation, returnees, role of gender, rural areas, rural infrastructure, rural population, rural women, sanitation, school age, secondary education, secondary school, secondary schooling, service delivery, Sex, sex ratios, sexual abuse, sexual violence, sexually transmitted infections, skilled workers, social networks, social services, spillover, spouse, teenage girls, teenagers, traditional gender roles, transportation, trauma, Traumatic Stress Disorder, unions, United Nations Development Fund for Women, United Nations Population Division, unwanted pregnancies, urban migration, vaccination, vicious cycle, victims, violence, violence against women, violence victims, Violent Conflict, Vulnerability, war, wars, wartime rape, workers, workforce, World Health Organization, Young adult, Young Children, young men,
Online Access:	https://hdl.handle.net/10986/16326
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