Angry Men and Civic Women? Gendered Effects of Conflict on Political Participation in Kosovo

Abstract

This article studies the effect of the 1998–99 Kosovo war on current political participation, disaggregating the analysis by the type of conflict experience – namely death or injury to self or a family member or displacement – and by gender. The results show that experience of conflict is associated with more political participation but with important distinctions between genders by the form of participation and the type of conflict experience. Displacement is associated with more voting among women, but not among men, and with more demonstrating by men but weaker or no effects for women; death and injury are associated with higher political party membership for men but not women. While experiences of conflict increase levels of political participation, the form that this takes varies by gender, with effects on private, civic, action among women, and effects on direct, public, and more emotionally heightened engagement among men. HIGHLIGHTS The view that conflict victims are more politically active than non-victims needs nuancing. In Kosovo, women’s war displacement is only associated with an increase in voting. But men will join a political party (if injury or death in the family) or demonstrate (if displaced). This implies that victimization does not contribute to challenging gendered social norms. The accepted “post-traumatic growth” hypothesis is insufficient to explain these findings.