Project Research

While our database provides the platform from which many different types of research questions concerning women can be addressed, the research agenda of the principal investigators of the project is shaped by their disciplinary backgrounds and previous research interests.

Together as a team, we ask about the relationship between the situation and security of women, on the one hand, and the security, stability, and
behavior of the state on the other. More specifically, we have addressed
such questions as:

• Are states with greater levels of violence against women less peaceful, of greater concern to the international community, and on worse terms with neighboring states?
• Is the degree to which a state is discrepant in its enforcement of laws protecting women related to the degree to which the state is non-compliant with international norms, treaties, and obligations?
• Is the degree of inequity in family law related to the stability of the state?
• Are states with prevalent polygyny also states of with higher levels of violence against women?
• Is the Islamic world monolithic in its treatment of women, or are there notable differences in the treatment of women, as measured by various indices? Is their a relationship within the Islamic world between the treatment of women within a state and the security, stability, and behavior of that state?

To address these questions, we have scaled various aspects of women's
experiences from the WomanStats Database, and have used those scales to create mappings of practices concerning women, as well as used these scales as inputs into more conventional statistical analyses. The links to the left will allow you to explore several of our research papers, as well as
our current set of maps.