Politics - Reproductive violence in conflict: conceptualising a problem in policy

Supervisor: Dr Claire Pierson

Supervisor bio: Claire Pierson is a senior lecturer in Politics and a specialist in reproductive politics, abortion rights activism and women's rights in post-conflict societies. You can read about her research and projects here: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/politics/research/research-projects/abortion-reform-strategies/

Email: c.pierson@liverpool.ac.uk

School: Histories, Languages, and Cultures

Department: Politics 

Module code: POLI001

Suitable for students of: Politics, International Relations, Sociology, Social Policy

Desired experience or requirements: Overall field of business/management, sociology, and strategy

Places available: 2

Start dates: Session 1 (15th June 2026), Session 2 (6th July 2026)

Project length: 4 or 8 weeks

Virtual option: Yes

Hybrid option: Yes

Project description:

Whilst there has been increased recognition of the specific harms that women face in conflict, the overwhelming focus of law and policymaking in this area has been on sexual violence and specifically rape. In contemporary conflict there is increasing evidence of reproductive violences including maternal mortality, forced sterilisation and lack of access to abortion. The UN suite of Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security provide an important framework for the mainstreaming gender in all aspects of conflict prevention, management, and resolution yet have also been critiqued for a narrow conceptualisation of violence focused on sexual violence. This project utilises a similar methodology to previous work on abortion in the WPS Resolutions (Thomson and Pierson, 2018) to investigate through content analysis, if and how reproductive violences are included within both the Resolutions themselves and state-based mechanisms for implementing WPS in the form of National Action Plans (approximately 140 documents). The project aims to create a database illustrating the extent to which reproductive violences are included within international policy and under what framing they are included. 

Additional requirements: N/A