Peace through equality: Exploring the cross-national micro-foundations of the gender equality-peace nexus

Does individual-level support for women's rights decrease tolerance of political violence cross-nationally? While some research demonstrates that support for women's rights decreases support for political violence, this relationship has not been explored globally. Using the World Values Survey, we demonstrate that individuals supportive of women's rights view political violence and terrorism as less acceptable, confirming prior findings. Yet, this pattern does not hold uniformly. We find that the relationship varies across regions, with few substantive relationships in Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia and reversed associations in the Middle East and North Africa. Moreover, pro-women's rights respondents in non-conflict-affected countries decrease their political violence support more than their counterparts in conflict-affected countries. We also find differences based on the country's political institutions and women's political participation. We highlight the need for greater consideration of how country context moderates support for political violence.