Women, leadership and violent extremism: A potential security risk?

Aurélie Wertz () and Dorcas Mbuvi ()
Additional contact information
Aurélie Wertz: ENABEL, Belgium
Dorcas Mbuvi: UNU-MERIT

No 2020-054, MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)

Abstract: This paper examines an important and overlooked subject area. Women's role in extremist organisations is neglected in general, and the question of their tactical leadership in these settings is poorly understood. Without specific focus on particular extremist movements or ideologies and, to advance understanding and spur critical discussions around female leadership in violent extremism, we propose three conceptual models. The first details key drivers that plausibly facilitate the emergence of female extremist leaders. The second discusses six possible female leadership styles and the third touches on female spheres of influence in violent extremism. The paper provides preliminary explorative insights on a neglected topic while offering opportunities for further research.

Keywords: women; gender; violent extremism; leadership styles; counter-terrorism; security threats (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D02 D74 F52 H12 J16 Z18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-12-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2020/wp2020-054.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:unumer:2020054

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ad Notten ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).