| dc.description.abstract | Recent work on United Nations peacekeeping operations have begun to examine how operational factors may influence the ability of UN missions to help maintain peace in post-conflict societies. Some research analyzes mission type and peacekeeping success rates (Doyle and Sambanis 2006, Fortna 2008), others the impact of personnel type and strength in numbers (Hultman, Kathman and Shannon 2016). A further branch of study considers the diversity of the mission personnel, arguing that missions with a more diverse member base can draw on a wider "portfolio of skills," helping to increase their performance effectiveness (Bove and Ruggeri 2015). In this paper, we focus on gender dynamics in peacekeeping missions. Drawing from previous theoretical and case study work on women in peacekeeping, we theorize that peacekeeping missions with more women will be better able to interact with local populations, influence public attitudes towards missions, and maintain greater internal accountability. Examining UN peacekeeping missions in Africa from 2006-2010 using the Uppsala Conflict Data Program and mission-level data on women in UN peacekeeping operations from the UN Peacekeeping website, we find that missions containing a higher percentage of female military personnel experience a longer duration of peace. Including missions with even a small percentage of women serving, we see a significant jump in peace duration compared to missions with no women, where the risk of peace failure is much higher. | |
