The main purpose of this research is to examine gendered outcomes of peace processes and processes of post-conflict reconstruction. One of the most celebrated consociational peace settlements, the Dayton Peace Agreement, often described in the literature as a new ‘social contract’, was to set the standards for post-conflict societies. Power-sharing agreements are the most commonly used form of agreement aimed at resolving conflicts based on ethno-national identity, although it is argued that they give insufficient political rights to women (Bjorkdahl, 2012). As part of this debate the Dayton Peace Agreement has been criticised for the fact that its focus on ethnicity has meant that up to the present, ethnic divisions have been privileged at the expense of other forms of social identity, including gender. From this perspective it is argued that the institutions put in place by the Dayton Peace Agreement have had the tendency to reinforce women’s inequality, including in low levels of political representation. This research examines the gendered impact of the continued ethnic divisions in the postsettlement era on women, in the context of the Dayton Peace Agreement, in terms of their political representation as a contribution to this debate. The complex structure of government institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that are an integral part of the consociation agreement, allow the impact of ethnicity to be accessed at the different level of government and the wide variety in the percentage of women in the different legislative bodies to be explained. In particular, the variety in the ethnic composition of the local government units and the significant variety in levels of xv women’s representation facilitates a within case comparative method. The thesis uses this analysis to draw lessons from the impact of the Dayton Peace Agreement and in particular its gendered aspects on Bosnia and Herzegovina that can be used to inform future agreements that are based on the tenets of consociationalism.