Voices of Change: How Women in Peace Processes Increase Women’s Political Empowerment in Post-Conflict States

In the aftermath of conflict, women’s political empowerment is an important determinant of measures of peace and stability. Recent literature identifies the end of conflict itself – particularly conflict ending in a peace agreement – as an important pathway to expanding women’s political empowerment (Bakken and Buhaug 2021; Hughes 2009; Hughes and Tripp 2015; Tripp 2015; Webster et al. 2019). However, there remains significant variation in women’s political empowerment between states that emerged from conflict with a peace agreement. This paper argues that local women’s participation in both formal and informal components of peace processes is the missing variable that determines the extent of women’s political empowerment in post-conflict states. Using the 2014 Bangsamoro Peace Agreement, this paper inductively identifies several possible mechanisms and tactics through which local women affect women’s political empowerment after the peace agreement. Future research will test these proposed mechanisms against a range of other cases.