Gender inclusion and rebel strategy: legitimacy seeking behavior in rebel groups

Women’s participation in conflict settings has long intrigued scholars, and for good reason: women play a wide variety of purposeful roles. However, there are numerous challenges associated with clearly defining the impact of their participation. Often, women are seen in a lens of victimhood—of war, terrorism, and repressive societies—overlooking their impacts. This article examines how women’s participation in rebel groups interacts with other strategic measures those groups take to enhance international perceptions. To achieve their goals and govern effectively, rebel groups require both domestic and international legitimacy. This article is based on the premise that aspiring for legitimacy shapes rebel groups’ behaviors. In particular, the strategic inclusion of women interacts with other legitimacy-seeking metrics, often leading to greater support from states, international organizations, and transnational advocacy groups. Using a mixed methods approach, this article demonstrates, through a large N analysis and a case study of the Karen National Union, that the strategies rebel groups deploy in order to gain legitimacy are linked to gender participation. Namely, rebel groups that have foreign affairs departments, official Twitter presence, and have committed to the Geneva Call are also more likely to have women participants in various roles. The results of our analysis indicate that the strategic participation of women is associated with both the chosen institutional arrangements of rebel groups and external legitimacy metrics. This article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the strategic involvement of women cannot be examined in isolation from other aspects of rebel strategy.