Type:: Event

SITE Seminar | Gender after war: Casualties, victimization, and voting during nation-building

Join us for the next SITE Seminar! On November 25, 2025, we welcome Christian Ochsner to discuss how wartime losses shape the gender divide in political participation and support for nation-building, drawing on evidence from Austria’s First Republic (1918–1934).

Event info

Start time:: 25 November 2025 at 12:00
End time:: 25 November 2025 at 13:00
Time zone:: CET
Location:: At SSE and online via Zoom

Working paper title | Gender after war: Casualties, victimization, and voting during nation-building

By: Sinara Gharibyan, Monika Köppl-Turyna, & Christian Ochsner

Abstract

How do losses during wars affect the gender divide in voting and the support of nation-building? We use the unique voting system in Austria's First Republic (1918 to 1934), which reported election results by gender. We link local war-affectedness during World War I to subsequent gender differences in turnout and voting. Higher war exposure increases women's turnout much more than men's, but only in national elections and not in local elections. This turnout gap translates one-to-one into higher vote shares for anti-state parties that aimed to undermine the Austrian state. The gender gap is particularly pronounced by losses perceived as senseless, amplified by local cultural values in smaller and remote places. Our results show that victimization after wars undermines the ruling order in a gendered way.

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