I Am Woman: Women’s Movements and Political Regime Transitions

Abstract

There is a vast literature on how women's movements affect political regime transitions. This literature largely speaks to how these movements can lead to electoral outcomes with increased representation in formal political spaces, or to how women's movements have pushed for particular political agendas or policies. However, the question still remains: How do political regime transitions effect women's security more broadly? There is a gap in our understanding of how political regime transitions effect the public at-large, irrespective of electoral representation or policy outcomes. This paper argues that political regime transitions provide an opening for improvement in women's civil liberties, a key aspect of women's security, and that elite preferences are a key factor for whether leaders will adopt or reject policies that effect women's security after a regime transition. Using a large-N empirical analysis this paper finds that regime transitions do have an effect on women's security and this effect varies depending on a number of specifications leading to several implications for future work in the area.