16.09.2025

Gender, Violence, and Elections: New Article in the Journal of Peace Research

Co-author Dr. Juliana Tappe Ortiz is a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Tübingen.

The Journal of Peace Research has recently published the article “Gender in elections: The consequences of killing women activists”, co-authored by Andrés F. Rivera, Juliana Tappe Ortiz, and Carlo Koos.

 The article examines the impact of political violence against women activists on women’s political participation, showing that such killings reduce both women’s willingness to run for office and voter support for women candidates.

Abstract

Violence against social activists is a global phenomenon, increasingly prevalent in democratic and conflict-affected states. Violence targeting women activists, in particular, highlights the intersection of gender-based discrimination and the risks associated with activism. We theorize that the killings of women activists reduce both women’s motivation to run for office and voters’ willingness to elect women candidates, driven by fears of further retaliation from armed groups and a demand for protective masculine norms in politics. Using novel fine-grained data on violence against activists, we demonstrate that the killings of women activists in Colombia decrease women’s candidacies and lower voter support for women in mayoral elections. Additional analyses suggest that women’s visibility during peace negotiations and prior territorial control by left-wing FARC rebels mitigated this effect, emphasizing how variation in gender norms can alter the political consequences of violence. Our findings reveal that considering the gender of victims offers important insights into how exposure to political violence influences democratic elections.

Read the full article: https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433251347772