RESEARCH
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Willow Kreutzer. "Women's Support Shaken: A Study of Women's Political Trust After Natural Disasters" Forthcoming in Politics and Gender
"Women have unique experiences during natural disasters including higher risks of death, violence, socio-economic decline, and an increase in specific reproductive health needs. However, government responses often do not directly address these women-specific needs, which can decrease women’s political trust. I investigate women’s trust in government institutions when natural disasters have recently occurred and argue that due to their unique experiences and typical government responses, women’s political trust will decline when there is a natural disaster more than men’s. I find that when there is a high number of disasters and when a larger percentage of the population is affected by disasters, women’s political trust significantly decreases, especially institutional trust. These findings are distinct from previous works that cluster different types of political trust and support the idea that women’s experiences in a disaster may influence their relationship with institutions differently than men’s."
You can find the open-access article here.
Willow Kreutzer, Carly Millerd, Nathan Timbs. "Disaster, Destruction, and the Decline of Women's Economic Freedom" Forthcoming in Disasters
"This article aims to examine, both theoretically and empirically, the relationships between rapid onset disasters and women’s economic freedom. It answers the question “How do natural disasters impact women’s economic empowerment?” We argue that there are underlying factors contributing to unequal economic opportunities that are exacerbated by natural disasters. Current literature discusses how disasters impact women’s economic and political rights, but often does not account for variables that may not have been captured in current indices. We examine women’s burden of care, restrictions on mobility, formal economic employment, and access to recovery resources as impacting their economic empowerment. We analyze countries that experience natural disasters from the years 1981 – 2019 to uncover the effects of disasters on women’s economic freedom."
You can find the open-access article here.
Under Review
Nathan Timbs and Willow Kreutzer. "Why Rebels Comply: Human Rights Treaty Design and Implementation"
"Human rights are a more prevalent topic worldwide, especially in the context of civil conflict. States and rebel groups must consider the repercussions of their actions if they have been found to violate human rights. However, does their commitment to human rights influence their behavior? The literature accounts for why states sign onto and comply with international human rights treaties; however, this paper seeks to explain why rebel groups may comply with human rights commitments as well. We argue that making commitments to human rights allows rebels to establish a relatively cheap form of legitimacy. We test this by examining the effectiveness of three types of rebel commitments to human rights: 1) bilateral treaties, 2) unilateral statements, and 3) internal rules and regulations. We find that internal rules and regulations implemented by rebels produce the best human rights outcomes in terms of reducing civilian deaths. We also acknowledge that women experience conflict differently than other populations. Rebel humanitarian commitments also impact women differently as some include specific provisions pertaining to women’s concerns while others do not. We find that internal rules and regulations also produce the best outcomes for decreasing violence against women. We argue this finding is due to internal rules and regulations commitments being specifically applied to rebel soldiers' battlefield behavior. Using text analysis, we then examine what type of language generates the higher rate of compliance associated with internal rules and regulations. We test this for civilian killings and human rights commitments in general and then test how gendered language within these commitments impacts women, specifically sexual violence against them during civil conflict."
Willow Kreutzer and Sara Mitchell. "Three R's of CEDAW Commitment: Ratification, Reservation, and Rejection"
"Human rights treaties have mixed success records for improving member states’ human rights behavior. Yet the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has been successful for improving women’s rights. However, few CEDAW analyses account for the influence of reservations on state compliance with the treaty. This paper develops a theoretical approach drawn from the opposability (vs. permissibility) school of reservations in international law. We argue that states ratifying CEDAW with reservations are less likely to see improvements in women’s rights than states ratifying CEDAW without reservations. We also show that states with worse women’s rights place reservations on articles most central to the treaty’s success, while states with better women’s rights place reservations on procedural articles. Ordered logit and Heckman selection models of state-year data from 1981-2011 show that reservations in CEDAW are detrimental to the success of the institution."
Working Papers
Willow Kreutzer. "Purposeful Peace Provisions: A Study of Peace Agreement Provisions and their Effect on Positive and Negative Peace"
"Peace agreements have mixed results on peace duration in post-conflict states. Some types of agreements lead to shorter conflict duration, while others result in no influence at all. I investigate the effect of different types of peace agreement provisions in post-civil war states and argue that Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) and amnesty provisions are likely to have a positive influence on the length of peace duration. I estimate a Cox proportional hazards model and find that TRC provisions increase the peace duration after conflict. When there are multiple TRC provisions paired with amnesty provisions this relationship increases. I also examine provisions that deal with women’s TRC and their impact on peace duration. I find that women’s TRC provisions increase the peace duration post-conflict. I contribute to the current literature by evaluating different peace provisions as creating foundations of peace, and healing of society as an influential part of peace duration. Although several articles discuss peace agreements' influence on peace duration, few studies focus on provisions relationships with positive and negative peace quantitatively. These findings are distinct from previous works that do not examine provisions type or strength of language, or gendered provisions and their influence on peace duration. Exploring specific types of provisions and the content of these peace agreements and their relationship to peace duration can influence how scholars and mediators interact with peace agreements after a civil war and influence the provisions they should push for."
Willow Kreutzer. "CEDAW Reservation Removal"
"The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has a successful record in improving the rights of women in the states that sign it. However, CEDAW still holds the most reservations on any human rights treaty created (Riddle 2002). How then, do so few CEDAW analyses examine reservations placed on specific articles of the treaty and the implications of those removals? Many countries that ratify the CEDAW treaty place reservations on their commitments, such as marriage rights for women and women’s reproductive rights. This paper examines states’ decisions to remove those reservations focusing on naming and shaming’s influence on the removal process. I develop a theoretical approach drawn from rational design and feminist literature examining naming and shaming within the international community. I argue that states withdrawing CEDAW reservations are likely to have done so following naming and shaming from other states within the Objections of CEDAW. The data in this paper is original data that show reservations and article selection on CEDAW from 1981 – 2022."
Willow Kreutzer. "Introducing the CEDAW ROCS Dataset: A dataset on the United Nations Treaty the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women - Reservations and Objections of Committed States
"The CEDAW Reservations and Objections of Committed States (CEDAWROCS) data set provides a rich source of information about the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CDEAW) treaty from 1979 – 2022. For the first time, we can see all the signatories, ratifiers, reservations, and objections to CEDAW, quantitatively in one place. The dataset provides details about which states objected to which types of CEDAW reservations, when states withdrew CEDAW reservations, and what are the most prevalent reservations on CEDAW to date. The data are available in country-year format. This research note discusses the motivation or the creation of this dataset and discusses coding decisions for most of the key variables. I provide a series of descriptive statistics and illustrations of the data and illustrate its capabilities to current human rights and international law scholars."
Book Chapters
Kelly Kadera and Willow Kreutzer. "Handbook of International Relations, Chapter: Methodology in IR"
Public Facing Work
“In Turkey, Women are feeling the worst aftershocks of the earthquake disaster – this disparity may lead to dwindling trust in government” (with Stephen Bagwell) The Conversation, online (March 30, 2023)
Willow Kreutzer. "Women's Support Shaken: A Study of Women's Political Trust After Natural Disasters" Forthcoming in Politics and Gender
"Women have unique experiences during natural disasters including higher risks of death, violence, socio-economic decline, and an increase in specific reproductive health needs. However, government responses often do not directly address these women-specific needs, which can decrease women’s political trust. I investigate women’s trust in government institutions when natural disasters have recently occurred and argue that due to their unique experiences and typical government responses, women’s political trust will decline when there is a natural disaster more than men’s. I find that when there is a high number of disasters and when a larger percentage of the population is affected by disasters, women’s political trust significantly decreases, especially institutional trust. These findings are distinct from previous works that cluster different types of political trust and support the idea that women’s experiences in a disaster may influence their relationship with institutions differently than men’s."
You can find the open-access article here.
Willow Kreutzer, Carly Millerd, Nathan Timbs. "Disaster, Destruction, and the Decline of Women's Economic Freedom" Forthcoming in Disasters
"This article aims to examine, both theoretically and empirically, the relationships between rapid onset disasters and women’s economic freedom. It answers the question “How do natural disasters impact women’s economic empowerment?” We argue that there are underlying factors contributing to unequal economic opportunities that are exacerbated by natural disasters. Current literature discusses how disasters impact women’s economic and political rights, but often does not account for variables that may not have been captured in current indices. We examine women’s burden of care, restrictions on mobility, formal economic employment, and access to recovery resources as impacting their economic empowerment. We analyze countries that experience natural disasters from the years 1981 – 2019 to uncover the effects of disasters on women’s economic freedom."
You can find the open-access article here.
Under Review
Nathan Timbs and Willow Kreutzer. "Why Rebels Comply: Human Rights Treaty Design and Implementation"
"Human rights are a more prevalent topic worldwide, especially in the context of civil conflict. States and rebel groups must consider the repercussions of their actions if they have been found to violate human rights. However, does their commitment to human rights influence their behavior? The literature accounts for why states sign onto and comply with international human rights treaties; however, this paper seeks to explain why rebel groups may comply with human rights commitments as well. We argue that making commitments to human rights allows rebels to establish a relatively cheap form of legitimacy. We test this by examining the effectiveness of three types of rebel commitments to human rights: 1) bilateral treaties, 2) unilateral statements, and 3) internal rules and regulations. We find that internal rules and regulations implemented by rebels produce the best human rights outcomes in terms of reducing civilian deaths. We also acknowledge that women experience conflict differently than other populations. Rebel humanitarian commitments also impact women differently as some include specific provisions pertaining to women’s concerns while others do not. We find that internal rules and regulations also produce the best outcomes for decreasing violence against women. We argue this finding is due to internal rules and regulations commitments being specifically applied to rebel soldiers' battlefield behavior. Using text analysis, we then examine what type of language generates the higher rate of compliance associated with internal rules and regulations. We test this for civilian killings and human rights commitments in general and then test how gendered language within these commitments impacts women, specifically sexual violence against them during civil conflict."
Willow Kreutzer and Sara Mitchell. "Three R's of CEDAW Commitment: Ratification, Reservation, and Rejection"
"Human rights treaties have mixed success records for improving member states’ human rights behavior. Yet the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has been successful for improving women’s rights. However, few CEDAW analyses account for the influence of reservations on state compliance with the treaty. This paper develops a theoretical approach drawn from the opposability (vs. permissibility) school of reservations in international law. We argue that states ratifying CEDAW with reservations are less likely to see improvements in women’s rights than states ratifying CEDAW without reservations. We also show that states with worse women’s rights place reservations on articles most central to the treaty’s success, while states with better women’s rights place reservations on procedural articles. Ordered logit and Heckman selection models of state-year data from 1981-2011 show that reservations in CEDAW are detrimental to the success of the institution."
Working Papers
Willow Kreutzer. "Purposeful Peace Provisions: A Study of Peace Agreement Provisions and their Effect on Positive and Negative Peace"
"Peace agreements have mixed results on peace duration in post-conflict states. Some types of agreements lead to shorter conflict duration, while others result in no influence at all. I investigate the effect of different types of peace agreement provisions in post-civil war states and argue that Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) and amnesty provisions are likely to have a positive influence on the length of peace duration. I estimate a Cox proportional hazards model and find that TRC provisions increase the peace duration after conflict. When there are multiple TRC provisions paired with amnesty provisions this relationship increases. I also examine provisions that deal with women’s TRC and their impact on peace duration. I find that women’s TRC provisions increase the peace duration post-conflict. I contribute to the current literature by evaluating different peace provisions as creating foundations of peace, and healing of society as an influential part of peace duration. Although several articles discuss peace agreements' influence on peace duration, few studies focus on provisions relationships with positive and negative peace quantitatively. These findings are distinct from previous works that do not examine provisions type or strength of language, or gendered provisions and their influence on peace duration. Exploring specific types of provisions and the content of these peace agreements and their relationship to peace duration can influence how scholars and mediators interact with peace agreements after a civil war and influence the provisions they should push for."
Willow Kreutzer. "CEDAW Reservation Removal"
"The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has a successful record in improving the rights of women in the states that sign it. However, CEDAW still holds the most reservations on any human rights treaty created (Riddle 2002). How then, do so few CEDAW analyses examine reservations placed on specific articles of the treaty and the implications of those removals? Many countries that ratify the CEDAW treaty place reservations on their commitments, such as marriage rights for women and women’s reproductive rights. This paper examines states’ decisions to remove those reservations focusing on naming and shaming’s influence on the removal process. I develop a theoretical approach drawn from rational design and feminist literature examining naming and shaming within the international community. I argue that states withdrawing CEDAW reservations are likely to have done so following naming and shaming from other states within the Objections of CEDAW. The data in this paper is original data that show reservations and article selection on CEDAW from 1981 – 2022."
Willow Kreutzer. "Introducing the CEDAW ROCS Dataset: A dataset on the United Nations Treaty the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women - Reservations and Objections of Committed States
"The CEDAW Reservations and Objections of Committed States (CEDAWROCS) data set provides a rich source of information about the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CDEAW) treaty from 1979 – 2022. For the first time, we can see all the signatories, ratifiers, reservations, and objections to CEDAW, quantitatively in one place. The dataset provides details about which states objected to which types of CEDAW reservations, when states withdrew CEDAW reservations, and what are the most prevalent reservations on CEDAW to date. The data are available in country-year format. This research note discusses the motivation or the creation of this dataset and discusses coding decisions for most of the key variables. I provide a series of descriptive statistics and illustrations of the data and illustrate its capabilities to current human rights and international law scholars."
Book Chapters
Kelly Kadera and Willow Kreutzer. "Handbook of International Relations, Chapter: Methodology in IR"
Public Facing Work
“In Turkey, Women are feeling the worst aftershocks of the earthquake disaster – this disparity may lead to dwindling trust in government” (with Stephen Bagwell) The Conversation, online (March 30, 2023)
