What's Special about Female Suicide Terrorism?

Abstract This study analyzes the interaction between the motivations of individual attackers and terrorist group strategies. To do so, I combine a quantitative analysis of all known suicide terrorist attacks between 1981 and July 2008 with a strategic account of why terrorist organizations employ female suicide terrorism (fst) and case studies of individual female attackers. I advance five central claims. First, I reveal the superior effectiveness of fst from the perspective of the groups that employ women. Second, I explain that terrorist groups increasingly enlist women as suicide attackers because of their higher effectiveness. Third, I demonstrate that terrorist groups adapt their discourse, catering to the specific individual motives of potential female suicide attackers in order to recruit them. Fourth, I show that female attackers are driven by the same general motives and circumstances that drive men. Furthermore, and in contrast to the existing literature, women attackers uphold, rather than eschew, their societies' norms for gender behavior. Attempts to transform these societies into gender-neutral polities are therefore destined to increase fst. Finally, I conclude that, unless target states adapt their defensive strategies, we should expect an increase in fst. Lindsey O'Rourke is a doctoral student in political science at the University of Chicago. The author is grateful for helpful comments from Nichole Argo, Javier Arias, Richard Betts, John Brehm, Risa Brooks, Ahsan Butt, Alexander Downes, Charles Glaser, Eugene Gholz, Daragh Grant, Christopher Graziul, Christopher Haid, Jenna Jordan, Chaim Kaufmann, Sevag Kechichian, Rose Kelanic, John Mearsheimer, Nuno Monteiro, Kevin Narizny, Robert Pape, Sarah Parkinson, Negeen Pegahi, Roger Petersen, Keven Ruby, John Stevenson, participants in the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, participants in the Chicago Project in Suicide Terrorism conference New Research in Terrorism, and two anonymous reviewers. All remaining errors are the author's own.