Gender Equality and Electoral Violence in Africa: Unlocking the Peacemaking Potential of Women

Rasmane Ouedraogo () and Idrissa Ouedraogo

No 2019/174, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: We examine the impact of gender equality on electoral violence in Africa using micro-level data from the sixth round of Afrobarometer surveys. The sample covers 30 countries. We find that gender equality is associated with lower electoral violence. Quantitatively, our estimates show that an increase in female-to-male labor force participation ratio by 1 percentage point is correlated with a reduction of the probability of electoral violence across the continent by around 4.2 percentage points. Our results are robust to alternative ways to measure electoral violence and gender equality, as well as to alternative specifications. The findings of this paper support the long-standing view that women empowerment contributes to the reduction of violence and underscore the urgency of addressing gender inequality in Africa.

Keywords: WP; female-to-male labor force participation ratio; agriculture labor force; rainfall growth; ruling party; election worker; gender equality; electoral violence; Africa; dichotomous variable; descriptive statistics; presidential election; Gender inequality; Labor force participation; Women; Gender diversity; Income inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39
Date: 2019-08-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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