Female Fighters and Deadliness of Terrorist Campaigns in Civil War

Abstract

Alison, M 2009, Women and Political Violence, Routledge, London.

Alexander, A & Turkington, R 2018, ‘Treatment of Terrorists: How Does Gender Affect Justice?’, Combating Terrorism Center, viewed 29 November 2021, .

Asal, V & Rethemeyer, RK 2008, ‘The Nature of the Beast: Organizational Structures and the Lethality of Terrorist Attacks’, The Journal of Politics, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 437–449. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381608080419

Asal, V, de la Calle, L, Findley, M & Young, J 2012, ‘Killing Civilians or Holding Territory? How to Think about Terrorism’, International Studies Review, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 475–497. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2486.2011.01127.x

Asal, V, Cousins, K & Gleditsch, KS 2014, ‘Making Ends Meet: Combining Organizational Data in Contentious Politics’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 134–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343314545903

Asal, V & Jadoon, A 2020, ‘When women fight: unemployment, territorial control and the prevalence of female combatants in insurgent organizations’, Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 258–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/17467586.2019.1700542

Beaumont, P 2001, ‘Woman Arrested after Israeli Youth lured to Online Death’, The Guardian, 20 January, viewed 27 November, .

Belgioioso, M 2018, ‘Going Underground: Resort to Terrorism in Mass Mobilization Dissident Campaigns’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 641–655. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343318764795

Bloom, M 2004, ‘Palestinian suicide bombing: Public support, market share, and outbidding’, Political Science Quarterly, vol. 119, pp. 61–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/20202305

––– 2005, Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror, Columbia University Press, New York.

––– 2011, Bombshell: Women and Terrorism, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

Carpenter, CR 2003, ‘Women and Children First': Gender, Norms, and Humanitarian Evacuation in the Balkans 1991-95’, International Organization, vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 661–694. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002081830357401X

––– 2005, ‘Women, Children and Other Vulnerable Groups: Gender, Strategic Frames and the Protection of Civilians as a Transnational Issue’, International Studies Quarterly, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 295–334. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-8833.2005.00346.x

Clauset, A, Heger, L, Young, M & Gleditsch, KS 2010, ‘The strategic calculus of terrorism: Substitution and competition in the Israel–Palestine conflict’, Cooperation and Conflict, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 6–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836709347113

Cohen, DK 2013, ‘Female combatants and the perpetration of violence: Wartime rape in the Sierra Leone Civil War’, World Politics, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 383–415. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0043887113000105

Conrad, J & Greene, K 2015, ‘Competition, differentiation and the severity of terrorist attacks’, Journal of Politics, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 546–561. https://doi.org/10.1086/680262

Coppedge, M, Gerring, J, Knutsen, CH, et al. 2020, ‘V-Dem Codebook v10’, Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project, viewed 27 November 2021, .

Crenshaw, M 1981, ‘The Causes of Terrorism’, Comparative Politics, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 379–399. https://doi.org/10.2307/421717

Crenshaw, M 1985, ‘An Organizational Approach to the Analysis of Political Terrorism’, Open Journal of Political Science, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 465–489. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402398708437313

Croicu, M & Sundberg, R 2015, ‘UCDP GED Codebook Version 4.0’, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, viewed 2 December 2021 .

Cunningham, K 2003, ‘Cross-Regional Trends in Female Terrorism’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 171–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100390211419

Cunningham, KG, Bakke, KM & Seymou, LJM 2012, ‘Shirts Today, Skins Tomorrow: Dual Contests and the Effects of Fragmentation in Self-Determination Disputes’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 67–93. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022002711429697

Dalton, A & Asal, V 2011, ‘Is It Ideology or Desperation: Why Do Organizations Deploy Women in Violent Terrorist Attacks?’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, vol. 34, no. 10, pp. 802–819. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2011.604833

Davis, JM 2013, ‘Evolution of the Global Jihad: Female Suicide Bombers in Iraq’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 279–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2013.763598

––– 2017, Women in Modern Terrorism: From Liberation Wars to Global Jihad and the Islamic State, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham.

Dearden, L 2017, ‘ISIS Calls on Women to Fight and Launch Terror Attacks for First Time’, The Independent, 8 February, viewed 27 November 2021, .

Dearing, MP 2010, ‘Like Red Tulips at Springtime: Understanding the Absence of Female Martyrs in Afghanistan’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, vol. 33, no. 12, pp. 1079–1103. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2010.523861

Dowd, C 2016, ‘Fragmentation, Conflict, and Competition: Islamist Anti-civilian Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Terrorism and Political Violence, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 433–453. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2016.1233870

Eager, PW 2008, From Freedom Fighters to Terrorists: Women and Political Violence, Farnham, Ashgate.

Eggert, JP 2015, ‘Women Fighters in the “Islamic State” and Al-Qaeda in Iraq: A Comparative Analysis’, Journal of International Peace and Organization, vol. 90, no. 3-4, pp. 363–380.

Findley, MG & Young, JK 2012, ‘Terrorism and Civil War: A Spatial and Temporal Approach to a Conceptual Problem’, Perspective on Politics, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 285–305. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592712000679

Gadarian, SK 2010, ‘The politics of threat: how terrorism news shapes foreign policy attitudes’, The Journal of Politics, vol. 72, no. 2, pp. 469–483. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381609990910

Gilmartin, N 2018, ‘Gendering the ‘post-conflict’ narrative in Northern Ireland’s peace process’, Capital & Class, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 89–104. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0309816818818089

Goldstein, J 2001, War and Gender, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; New York.

Gonzalez-Perez, M 2008, Women and terrorism: Female activity in domestic and international terror groups, Routledge, New York.

Harbom, L, Melander, E & Wallensteen, P 2008, ‘Dyadic Dimensions of Armed Conflict, 1946–2007’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 697–710. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022343308094331

Henshaw, AL 2015, ‘Where Women Rebel: Patterns of Women’s Participation in Armed Rebel Groups 1990-2008’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 39–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2015.1007729

––– 2018, ‘Why Women Rebel: Understanding Women’s Participation in Armed Groups’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 520–521. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2018.1549957

Hicks, R & Tingley, D 2011, ‘Causal Mediation Analysis’, The Stata Journal, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 605–619. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1536867X1201100407

Hoffman, B 2006, Inside Terrorism, 2nd ed, Columbia University Press, New York.

Imai, K, Keele, L, Tingley, D & Yamamoto, T 2011, ‘Unpacking the Black Box of Causality: Learning about Causal Mechanisms from Experimental and Observational Studies’, American Political Science Review, vol. 105, no. 4, pp. 765–789. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055411000414

Israelsen, S 2018, ‘Why Now? Timing Rebel Recruitment of Female Combatants’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 123–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2018.1445500

Jenkins, BM 1975, ‘International Terrorism: A New Mode of Conflict’, in D Carlton & C Shaerf (eds), International Terrorism and World Security, Croom Helm, pp. 23–59.

Krulistova, K 2016, ‘The “Black Widow” media discourse: “desperation, irrationality and vendetta” in Dagestan’, Central European Journal of International and Security Studies, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 30–60.

Li, Q 2005, ‘Does democracy promote or reduce transnational terrorist incidents?’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 278–297. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022002704272830

Loken, M 2017, ‘Rethinking Rape: The Role of Women in Wartime Violence’, Security Studies, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 60–92.

––– 2020, ‘Both needed and threatened: Armed mothers in militant visuals’, Security Dialogue, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 131–137. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0967010620903237

Loken, M & Zelenz, A 2018, ‘Explaining Extremism: Western Women in Daesh’, European Journal of International Security, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 45–68. https://doi.org/10.1017/eis.2017.13

Kalyvas, NS 2003, ‘The paradox of terrorism in civil war’, Journal of Ethics, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 97–138. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOET.0000012254.69088.41

Kydd, AH & Walter, BF 2006, ‘Strategies of terrorism’, International Security, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 49–80. https://doi.org/10.1162/isec.2006.31.1.49

MacKenzie, M 2009, ‘Securitization and Desecuritization: Female Soldiers and the Reconstruction of Women in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone’, Security Studies, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 241–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/09636410902900061

Maoz, Z & Henderson, EA 2013, The World Religion Dataset (1945-2010): Logic, Estimates, and Trends’, International Interactions, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 265–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050629.2013.782306

Nacos, B 2007, ‘The portrayal of female terrorists in the media’, in CD Ness (ed), Female Terrorism and Militancy: Agency, Utility, and Organization, Routledge, pp. 217–235.

––– 2011, Terrorism and Counterterrorism, Longman, New York.

National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) (2015) Global Terrorism Database, viewed 27 November 2021, .

Ness, CD 2008, ‘In the Name of the Cause: Women’s Work in Secular and Religious Terrorism’, in CD Ness (ed), Female Terrorism and Militancy: Agency, Utility, and Organization, Routledge, pp. 11–36.

O’Rourke, L 2009, ‘What’s Special about Female Suicide Terrorism?’, Security Studies, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 681–718. https://doi.org/10.1080/09636410903369084

Pape, RA 2003, ‘The strategic logic of suicide terrorism’, American Political Science Review, vol. 97, no. 3, pp. 343–61. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000305540300073X

Pape, RA, O’Rourke, L & McDermit, J 2010, ‘What makes Chechen Women So Dangerous?’, The New York Times, 30 March, viewed 27 November 2021 .

Patkin, TT 2004, ‘Explosive Baggage: Female Palestinian Suicide Bombers and the Rhetoric of Emotion’, Women and Language, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 79–88.

Pettersson, T 2014, ‘UCDP Actor Dataset Codebook Version 2.2-2016 Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP)’, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, viewed 27 November 2021, .

Polo, S & Gleditsch, SK 2016, ‘Twisting arms and sending messages: Terrorist tactics in civil war’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 53, no. 6, pp. 815–829. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022343316667999

Polo, S & Gonzalez, B 2020, ‘The Power to Resist: Mobilization and the Logic of Terrorist Attacks in Civil War’, Comparative Political Studies, vol. 53, no. 13, pp. 2029–2060. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414020912264

Revital, S 2007, ‘Female Suicide Bombers: Israeli Newspaper Reporting and the Public Construction of Social Reality’, Criminal Justice Studies, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 197–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/14786010701617615

Sánchez-Cuenca, I & De la Calle, L 2009, ‘Domestic Terrorism: the Hidden Side of Political Violence’, Annual Review of Political Science, vol. 12, pp. 31–49. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.12.031607.094133

Sjoberg, L 2010, ‘Women fighters and the ‘beautiful soul’ narrative’, International Review of the Red Cross, 15 April, viewed 27 November 2021, .

Sjoberg, L, Cooke, GD & Reiter Neal, S 2011, ‘Introduction: Women, Gender and Terrorism’, in L Sjoberg & C Gentry (eds), Women, Gender and Terrorism, University of Georgia Press, pp. 1–25.

Soules, MJ 2020, ‘The tradeoffs of using female suicide bombers’, Conflict Management and Peace Science, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0738894220948506

Speckhard, A 2008, ‘The Emergence of Female Suicide Terrorists’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, vol. 31, no. 11, pp. 995–1023. https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100802408121

Spinner, J 2005, ‘Female Suicide Bomber Attacks U.S. Military Post’, Washington Post, 29 September, viewed 1 December 2021, .

Stack, A 2011, ‘Zombies versus Black Widows: Women as Propaganda in the Chechen Conflict’, in L Sjoberg & C Gentry (eds), Women, Gender and Terrorism, University of Georgia Press, pp. 83–95.

Stanton, JA 2013, ‘Terrorism in the Context of Civil War’, Journal of Politics, vol. 75, no. 4, pp. 1009–1022. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381613000984

Sundberg, R & Melander, E 2013, ‘Introducing the UCDP Georeferenced Event Dataset’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 523–532. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022343313484347

Taylor, V & van Dyke, N 2004, ‘Get up, stand up: Tactical repertoires of social movements’, in DA Snow, SA Soule & H Kriesi (eds), The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, Wiley, pp. 262–293.

The Guardian 2021, ‘Palestinians shocked at use of suicide mother’, viewed 27 November 2021, .

Thomas, J 2021, ‘Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Assessing the Effect of Gender Norms on the Lethality of Female Suicide Terrorism’, International Organization, vol. 75, no. 3, pp. 769–802. http://doi:10.1017/S0020818321000035

Trisko Darden, J, Henshaw, A & Szekely, O 2018, Insurgent Woman. Female Combatants in Civil Wars, Georgetown University Press, Georgetown.

UN Women 2012, ‘Identifying Women’s and Peace and Security Priorities’, viewed 27 November 2021, .

Warner, J & Matfess, H 2017, ‘Exploding Stereotypes: The Unexpected Operational and Demographic Characteristics of Boko Haram’s Suicide Bombers’, Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, 9 August, viewed 27 November 2021, .

Winter, C 2005, ‘Abu Maysara al-‘Iraqi, The al-Qa’ida Organization Claims Responsibility for the Martyrdom-Seeking Operation on a Recruitment Center for Apostates in Tal’afar’, The Media Section for al-Qa’ida in the Land of the Two Rivers, 10 October, viewed 27 November 2021, .

Winter, C & Margoline, D 2017, ‘The Mujahidat Dilemma: Female Combatants and the Islamic State’, Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point, 3 August, viewed 27 November 2021, .

Wood, RM 2010, ‘Rebel Capability and Strategic Violence Against Civilians’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 47, no. 5, pp. 601–14. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022343310376473

––– 2019, Female Fighters: Why Rebel Groups Recruit Women for War, Columbia University Press, New York.

Wood, RM & Kathman, JD 2015, ‘Competing for the Crown: Inter-rebel Competition and Civilian Targeting in Civil War’, Political Research Quarterly, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 167–179. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1065912914563546

Wood, RM & Thomas J 2017, ‘Women on the Frontline: Rebel Group Ideology and Women’s Participation in Violent Rebellion’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 31–46. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022343316675025

––– 2019, ‘The Women in Armed Rebellion Dataset (WARD), Version 1.3. Dataset Description and Codebook (Updated 7.31.2019)’, viewed 27 November 2021,

Zedalis, DD 2008, ‘Beyond the Bombings: Analyzing Female Suicide Bombers’, in CD Ness (ed), Female Terrorism and Militancy: Agency, Utility, and Organization, Routledge, pp. 63–82.