Recent world events, such as the rise of hypermasculine authoritarian leaders, have shown the importance of both sex and gender for understanding international politics. However, quantitative researchers of conflict have long relegated the study of sex and gender inequality as a cause of war to a specialized group of scholars, despite overwhelming evidence that the connections are profound and consequential. In this review essay, we demonstrate the tremendous progress made in this field by analyzing a wave of research that examines the relationships between sex and gender inequality and war. We divide this work into theories that emphasize strategy versus those that analyze structures. In addition, we focus on two aspects of this research agenda—specifying mechanisms that link sex and gender inequality to war, and leveraging data at multiple levels of analysis—to outline fruitful pathways forward for the broader international security research agenda. Ultimately, we argue that the study of the nexus of sex and gender inequality and war will enliven theoretical debates, illuminate new hypotheses, and enrich the policy discourse with robust evidence.

最近的世界事件，例如超男性化的威权领导人的崛起，表明了性和性别对于理解国际政治的重要性。然而，冲突的定量研究人员长期以来一直将性别和性别不平等作为战争原因的研究归结为一个专门的学者群体，尽管有大量证据表明这种联系是深刻而重要的。在这篇评论文章中，我们通过分析一波研究性与性别不平等和战争之间关系的研究，展示了该领域取得的巨大进步。我们将这项工作分为强调战略的理论与分析结构的理论。此外，我们关注本研究议程的两个方面——明确将性别和性别不平等与战争联系起来的机制，并利用多层次分析的数据——为更广泛的国际安全研究议程勾勒出富有成效的前进道路。最终，我们认为，对性和性别不平等与战争之间关系的研究将活跃理论辩论，阐明新假设，并以有力的证据丰富政策话语。