Abstract Conventional wisdom suggests that when women attain high political office they are more likely to act as peacemakers than their male counterparts. In contrast, this article argues that women political leaders may be more likely to initiate conflict than their male colleagues. The theory draws on insights from feminist theory, particularly the notion that gender is performative, to argue that the effects of a leader’s gender on foreign policy decision making vary with social and institutional context. To gain and maintain status in elite policy in-groups, female leaders are incentivized to perform gender by signaling their toughness and competence through initiating conflict. Statistical tests and qualitative case studies of the tenures of Turkish prime minister Tansu Çiller and Chilean president Michelle Bachelet provide evidence that female heads of government in democracies are more likely to initiate conflict than their male counterparts and that this effect is conditioned both by domestic political constraints and overall levels of women’s political empowerment.

中文翻译：

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和平缔造者还是铁娘子？性别与国际冲突的跨国研究

摘要 传统观点认为，当女性获得较高的政治职位时，她们比男性更可能充当和平缔造者。相比之下，本文认为女性政治领导人可能比男性同事更有可能发起冲突。该理论借鉴了女权主义理论的见解，特别是性别是表演性的概念，认为领导者的性别对外交政策决策的影响因社会和制度背景而异。为了在精英政策群体中获得和保持地位，女性领导者被激励通过发起冲突来表明她们的强硬和能力来表现性别。