Overcoming practical problems in peacebuilding processes is primarily a question of a
society’s ability to rebuild a well-functioning civil society (Doyle and Sambanis 2002; Walter
2002). Research on gender and development suggest that provision of basic rights and
entitlements to women can have large positive effects on development (Barro, 1997, Sen,
1999). An improved social status of women is indicative of a society’s domestic capacity and
social capital. The main position of this paper draws from arguments (e.g. Hughes 2001,
Caprioli 2003) that improved status of women in a society indicates higher respect for human
and civil rights. Likewise, I argue that a society where women do comparatively better has
prospects to reach a settlement after a civil war, because it is easier for women to express a
voice in the peacemaking process and to elicit broader domestic participation in peacebuilding
efforts. The goal of this paper is to systematically evaluate how the status of women in a
society can facilitate or not the peacebuilding process.
I examine 124 cases of intrastate conflict situations where conflict has been likely to
recur, and examine whether women’s status has an impact on the longevity of the settlement.
The findings suggest that even though women’s higher status in a society is not by itself
sufficient to explain the lack of recurrent violence in a war-shattered area 5 years after an
agreement has been reached, the probability that a UN operation will be successful in
sustaining peace multiplies if women have had relatively good social standing relatively to
men prior to the conflict.
2.0. Women and UN role in peacebuilding
2.1. Evolution of UN Role in Conflict Resolution: From Peacekeeping to Peacebuilding
Peacekeeping operations are by no means a new phenomenon in international politics. The
League of Nations engaged in collective forms of conflict management, but it was with the
UN that the concepts of peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding were developed and
differentiated (Last, 2003: phs. 5-6). Peacekeeping was developed by the UN as a method to
3
Convention