Replication Data for: Can’t Live with Them or Can’t Live Without Them? How Varying Roles of Women in Rebel Groups Influence Onesided Violence

How do women’s roles in rebel groups influence the perpetration of violence against civilians? Research regarding women rebels’ impact on armed group behavior produces mixed findings, warranting further exploration. In this study I provide the first cross-national analysis of women rebels’ influence on one-sided violence arguing that women’s impact is conditional upon their role within the group. War is considered a masculine phenomenon where violence is plauded, and women combatants are socialized to behave violently. Gendered perceptions of women as peaceful push women on the frontline to defy stereotypes and be exceptionally violent to be taken seriously as combatants. Meanwhile, these same stereotypes allow women to be especially lethal in their attacks because society does not expect it. Alternatively, women in outreach roles are tasked with acquiring support through nonviolent means. Perceptions of women as legitimate, trustworthy, and peaceful make women in outreach roles effective in garnering support for the group, reducing the group’s need to kill civilians to coerce support. Stereotypes of women are responsible for women killing both more and less civilians. Consequently, rebel groups composed of larger shares of frontline women fighters commit higher levels of OSV while groups using women in outreach roles commit less OSV. Using data from the Women’s Activities in Armed Rebellion dataset and the Georeferenced Events Dataset, I find support for both hypotheses.