Female combatants play a central role in rebel efforts to cultivate and disseminate positive narratives regarding the movement and its political goals. Yet, the effectiveness of such strategies in shaping audience attitudes or generating tangible benefits for the group remains unclear. We propose and test a theory regarding the channels through which female fighters advance rebel goals. We argue that female fighters positively influence audience attitudes toward rebel groups by strengthening observers’ beliefs about their legitimacy and their decision to use armed tactics. We further contend that these effects directly help them secure support from transnational nonstate actors and indirectly promote state support. We assess our arguments by combining a novel survey experiment in two countries with analyses of new cross-national data on female combatants and information about transnational support for rebels. The empirical results support our arguments and demonstrate the impact of gender framing on rebel efforts to secure support.

中文翻译：

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叙事框架：女战士，外部听众的态度以及对武装叛乱的跨国支持

女战士在反叛者的努力中起着核心作用，以培养和传播有关该运动及其政治目标的积极叙述。然而，这种策略在塑造听众态度或为团体带来切实利益方面的效果尚不清楚。我们提出并测试了有关女战士提​​升叛乱目标的渠道的理论。我们认为，女战士通过加强观察者对其合法性和使用武装战术的决定的信念，积极地影响观众对反叛团体的态度。我们进一步认为，这些影响直接帮助它们获得了跨国非国家行为者的支持，并间接促进了国家的支持。我们通过将两个国家的一项新颖的调查实验与对女性战斗人员的新的跨国数据分析以及有关对叛乱分子的跨国支持的信息相结合，来评估我们的论点。实证结果支持了我们的观点，并证明了性别框架对反叛者争取支持的努力的影响。