A Global Genealogy

Author(s):  
Mona Lena Krook

Chapter 2 traces the global emergence of the concept of violence against women in politics. It outlines how the first efforts to name the problem of violence against women in politics emerged in parallel across different parts of the global South: Working inductively, locally elected women in Bolivia theorized their experiences as “political harassment and violence against women” in the late 1990s; networks of elected women across South Asia, with support from global organizations, mapped and condemned manifestations of “violence against women in politics” in the mid-2000s; and state and non-state actors in Kenya recognized and sought to tackle “electoral gender-based violence” in the late 2000s. The chapter then goes on to show how inductive theorizing planted important seeds subsequently taken up by a wide range of international practitioners, who in the late 2000s and early 2010s actively worked to craft a global concept of “violence against women in politics.”

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 695-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Ballington

Violence against women in politics (VAWP) is a human rights violation, as it prevents the realization of political rights. Violence against women in political and public life can be understood as “any act or threat of gender-based violence, resulting in physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering to women, that prevents them from exercising and realizing their political rights, whether in public or private spaces, including the right to vote and hold public office, to vote in secret and to freely campaign, to associate and assemble, and to enjoy freedom of opinion and expression” (UN Women/UNDP 2017, 20).


Author(s):  
Mona Lena Krook

Chapter 12 provides an overview of physical forms of violence against women in politics. Physical violence encompasses a wide range of bodily harms involving unwanted contact and confinement resulting in death or injury. The tangible nature of these acts makes them the most widely recognized and least contested forms of violence against women. They tend to be relatively rare, however, with offenders opting for “less costly” means of violence before escalating to physical attacks. While legal redress may be a solution for at least some forms of physical violence, politically active women have developed a number of grassroots strategies to respond to and anticipate physical violence. At the same time, individual women and state actors have devised new preventive security arrangements, seeking to avert or mitigate the effects of physical attacks.


Author(s):  
Mona Lena Krook

Inductive development of the concept of violence against women in politics largely proceeded from an activist and practitioner space focused on the global South. Chapter 3 identifies incidents of political sexism and misogyny in other regions that helped propel recognition of violence against women in politics as a global phenomenon. It summarizes debates involving politically active women in other regions—including the global North—showing that this problem affects women across a range of different countries. One of these was the #MeToo movement that swept around the world in late 2017, which drew attention to sexual harassment within political institutions and highlighted that gender-based violence was not restricted to election-related events. The chapter goes on to show that these episodes have largely been folded into the work done by practitioners in the violence against women in politics field, helping to strengthen its recognition as a universal phenomenon.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry Carrington ◽  
Natacha Guala ◽  
María Victoria Puyol ◽  
Máximo Sozzo

Women’s police stations are a distinctive innovation that emerged in postcolonial nations of the global south in the second half of the twentieth century to address violence against women. This article presents the results of a world-first study of the unique way that these stations, called Comisaría de la Mujer, prevent gender-based violence in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. One in five police stations in this Province was established with a mandate of preventing gender violence. Little is currently known about how this distinctive multidisciplinary model of policing (which includes social workers, lawyers, psychologists and police) widens access to justice to prevent gender violence. This article compares the model’s virtues and limitations to traditional policing models. We conclude that specialised women’s police stations in the postcolonial societies of the global south increase access to justice, empower women to liberate themselves from the subjection of domestic violence and prevent gender violence by challenging patriarchal norms that sustain it. As a by-product, these women’s police stations also offer women in the global south a career in law enforcement—one that is based on a gender perspective. The study is framed by southern criminology, which reverses the notion that ideas, policies and theories can only travel from the anglophone world of the global north to the global south. The article has been kindly translated into Spanish by one of the authors María Victoria Puyol - and can be viewed in both English and Spanish Cómo las Comisarias de la Mujer empoderan a las mujeres, amplían el acceso a la justicia y previenen la violencia de género


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tafadzwa Rugoho ◽  
France Maphosa

This article is based on a study of gender-based violence against women with disabilities. The study sought to examine the factors that make such women vulnerable, to investigate the community’s responses to gender-based violence against women with disabilities, and to determine the impact of gender-based violence on the wellbeing and health of women with disabilities. The study adopted a qualitative research design so as to arrive at an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under study. The study sample consisted of 48 disabled women living in marital or common law unions, selected using purposive sampling. Of the 48 women in the sample, 16 were visually impaired while the remaining 32 had other physical disabilities. Focus group discussions were used for data collection. The data were analysed using the thematic approach. The finding was that women with disabilities also experience gender-based violence. The study makes recommendations whose thrust is to change community perceptions on disability as the only guarantee towards eradicating gender-based violence against women with disabilities.


Author(s):  
Zorica Saltirovska Professor ◽  
Sunchica Dimitrijoska Professor

Gender-based violence is a form of discrimination that prevents women from enjoying the rights and liberties on an equal level with men. Inevitably, domestic violence shows the same trend of victimizing women to such a degree that the term “domestic violence” is increasingly becoming synonymous with “violence against women”. The Istanbul Convention defines domestic violence as "gender-based violence against women", or in other words "violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately." The situation is similar in the Republic of Macedonia, where women are predominantly victims of domestic violence. However, the Macedonian legal framework does not define domestic violence as gender-based violence, and thus it does not define it as a specific form of discrimination against women. The national legislation stipulates that victims are to be protected in both a criminal and a civil procedure, and the Law on Prevention and Protection from Domestic Violence determines the actions of the institutions and civil organizations in the prevention of domestic violence and the protection of victims. The system for protection of victims of domestic violence closely supports the Law on Social Protection and the Law on Free Legal Aid, both of which include provisions on additional assistance for women victims of domestic violence. However, the existing legislation has multiple deficiencies and does not allow for a greater efficacy in implementing the prescribed measures for the protection of victims of domestic violence. For this reason, as well as due to the inconsistent implementation of legal solutions of this particular issue, the civil sector is constantly expressing their concern about the increasingly wider spread of domestic violence against women and about the protection capabilities at their disposal. The lack of recognition of all forms of gender-based violence, the trivial number of criminal sentences against persons who perform acts of domestic violence, the insufficient support offered to victims – including victim shelters, legal assistance, and counseling, and the lack of systematic databases on domestic violence cases on a national level, are a mere few of the many issues clearly pointing to the inevitable conclusion that the protection of women-victims of domestic violence is inadequate. Hence, the functionality and efficiency of both the existing legislation and the institutions in charge of protection and support of women – victims of domestic violence is being questioned, which is also the subject for analysis in this paper.


Author(s):  
Mutambuli J. Hadji

This article aims to evaluate government's communication strategy and citizens' awareness of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign in Soshanguve, South Africa. The study applied the diffusion of innovation theory because of its ability to assess how communities receive communication about the campaign from various media. Survey method was used to collect data, which was analysed using descriptive statistics. It was found out that mass media and other communication channels were main sources of campaign messages, which help the community to know how to address gender-based violence issues. Notably, this study found that females were more likely to know about the campaign than males. This article recommends that this campaign should be visible throughout the year and there should be more campaigns targeting men, and school curriculum, which educate pupils about the social and economic consequences of GBV.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052199792
Author(s):  
Kazhan I. Mahmood ◽  
Sherzad A. Shabu ◽  
Karwan M. M-Amen ◽  
Salar S. Hussain ◽  
Diana A. Kako ◽  
...  

There is increasing concern about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown’s social and economic consequences on gender-based violence. This study aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender-based violence by comparing the prevalence of spousal violence against women before and during the COVID-19 related lockdown periods. This study was conducted in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq using a self-administered online questionnaire survey after the COVID-19 lockdown period in June 2020. Data were collected from a sample of 346 married women about the occurrence, frequency, and forms of spousal violence before and during the lockdown period. Significant increases in violence were observed from the pre-lockdown period to the lockdown period for any violence (32.1% to 38.7%, p = .001), emotional abuse (29.5% to 35.0%, p = .005), and physical violence (12.7% to 17.6%, p = .002). Regarding emotional abuse, humiliation (24.6% to 28.3%, p = .041) and scaring or intimidation (14.2% to 21.4%, p < .001) significantly increased during the lockdown. For physical violence, twisting the arm or pulling hair (9.0% to 13.0%, p = .004) and hitting (5.2% to 9.2%, p = .003) significantly increased during the lockdown. Forcing to have sexual intercourse also significantly increased during lockdown (6.6% to 9.5%., p = .021). The concerned authorities and women’s rights organizations should collaborate to enhance the prevention of violence against women. An effective prevention strategy should emphasize recognizing and acknowledging the extent of the problem, raising awareness about the problem and the available resources to address it, and ensuring social and economic stability. Lessons learned about the increased prevalence of spousal violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to adopt appropriate strategies to prevent and address it will be valuable for similar future crises.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 862-881 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mieko Yoshihama ◽  
Tomoko Yunomae ◽  
Azumi Tsuge ◽  
Keiko Ikeda ◽  
Reiko Masai

This study reports on 82 unduplicated cases of violence against women and children after the Great East Japan Disaster of March 2011. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from informants who worked with the disaster-affected populations. In addition to domestic violence, reported cases involved sexual assault and unwanted sexual contact, including quid pro quo assault perpetrated by nonintimates. Perpetrators often exploited a sense of fear, helplessness, and powerlessness and used threats to force compliance with sexual demands in exchange for life-sustaining resources. Findings point to the urgent need to develop measures to prevent and respond to postdisaster gender-based violence.


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