While our database provides the platform from which many different types of research questions concerning women can be addressed, the project's principal investigators' research agendas are shaped by their disciplinary backgrounds and previous research interests.

Together as a team, our principal investigators and coders explore the relationship between the situation and security of women, and the dynamics between security, stability, and behavior of the state. More specifically, we address such questions as:

• Are states with greater levels of violence against women less peaceful, of greater concern to the international community, and on worse terms with neighboring states?


• Is the degree to which a state is discrepant in its enforcement of laws protecting women related to the degree to which the state is non-compliant with international norms, treaties, and obligations?


• Is the degree of inequity in family law related to the stability of the state?


• Are states with prevalent polygyny also states of with higher levels of violence against women?


• Is the Islamic world monolithic in its treatment of women, or are there notable differences in the treatment of women, as measured by various indices? Is there a relationship within the Islamic world between the treatment of women within a state and the security, stability, and behavior of that state?

To address these questions, we scale various aspects of women's experiences from the data found within the WomanStats Database, and use those scales to create mappings of practices concerning women. We also use these scales as inputs into more conventional statistical analyses. The links to the left will allow you to explore several of our research papers, as well as our current set of maps.