“We advocate for larger, systemic change that includes all aspects of women’s status—but especially a reduction of harm to women. When you reduce harm to women, you allow women to mobilize politically …, which is one of the most successful pathways for getting political reform and change in a country.”

The catch-all term “gender equality” masks important discrepancies in women’s status that correlate with more or less violent societies, PACS associate director Sabrina Karim demonstrates in her September 2024 book, Positioning Women in Conflict Studies: How Women’s Status Affects Political Violence.

“Much of the literature suggested that ‘gender equality’ is something of a panacea that reduces the likelihood of interstate war, intrastate war, terrorism and state violence,” write Karim and coauthor Daniel W. Hill Jr. “Our results paint a different picture.”

Gender equality actually encompasses four distinct concepts—women’s inclusion, women’s rights, harm to women, and beliefs about women’s roles—which makes it an imprecise measure of women’s status around the world, the book argues. In an interview with the Cornell Chronicle, Karim explained the findings that one of these concepts, harm to women, makes war or terrorism more likely.

“In societies where women can’t organize for political change because they are dying or being regularly injured or harmed, you’re less likely to see change through nonviolent means, and so those societies resort more to political violence to get the change that they want,” Karim said.

Because certain aspects of women’s status are more closely linked to peaceful societies, the book’s nuanced analysis can help identify promising pathways to peace. “Given limited resources,” she said, “our strategy allows us to formulate better policy recommendations.”

Sabrina Karim is associate director of Einaudi's Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS). She is a frequent commentator on conflict and peace processes.

Read the interview

Featured in World in Focus Briefs

The Berrigan brothers, Philip and Daniel, both Catholic priests, and Philip’s wife, Liz McAlister, a former nun — spent their entire lives engaged in faith-based, nonviolent resistance to war, racism, nuclear proliferation, and the Catholic Church. Named America’s “Most Wanted” fugitives by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, they were the “influencers” of the day, not only spreading the gospel of nonviolence in pulpits worldwide, but appearing on talk shows, in rock lyrics, and on magazine covers.

Told through the perspective of the next-gen Berrigans, THE BERRIGANS: DEVOUT AND DANGEROUS uses live footage of demonstrations and nonviolent actions, archival footage, and interviews with an impressive host of notable figures the Berrigans inspired to make the point that nonviolent direct action is as relevant today as it was in the past.

SPEAKER: Frida Berrigan, daughter of Phil Berrigan and Elizabeth McAlister. Frida is the author of the book, It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood.

The event is sponsored by the Ithaca Catholic Worker, the Daniel Berrigan Society, and the Durland Alternatives Library.

Screening on Tuesday, September 24, 7 PM Durland Alternative Library Anabel Taylor Hall, Cornell, and Wednesday, September 25, 6 PM Cinemapolis Theater. This event is free and open to the public.