Women and terrorism: How does the treatment of women affect rates of terrorism

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11) the United States (U.S.) has rededicated itself to ending terrorism worldwide. The Global War on Terror is the military component of a multi-faceted comprehensive counter-terrorism effort. Terrorism has a political cause that must be addressed if the U.S. wants to find a more permanent solution to this deadly problem. As such, a purely military strategy is unlikely to be effective in the long term. Since 9/11, the U.S. government has committed itself to addressing the underlying causes of terrorism as part of a pro-active counter-terrorism strategy. This thesis examines the relationship between gender inequality, and the lack of women's empowerment in a country, and the amount of terrorism perpetrated by nationals of that country. The expectation was that countries with more inequality and lower levels of women's empowerment, as measured by labor force participation and fertility rate, would have lower levels of terrorism. The relationship between the treatment of women and terrorism was examined using a multivariate Tobit model that controlled for various demographic, geographic, and political factors. Twenty-seven years (1980-2006) of data on terrorist attacks were analyzed. Contrary to the expectation, the data showed that higher levels of female labor force participation were correlated with higher numbers of casualties from terrorist attacks. Similarly, higher fertility rates were correlated with lower numbers of casualties from terrorist attacks. In both cases, the correlation was statistically, though not practically, significant.