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Feminist Mobilisation and Progressive Policy Change: Why Governments Take Action to Combat Violence Against Women
Abstract and Figures
Some national governments have adopted a wide variety of measures to address violence against women, including legal reform, public education campaigns, and support for shelters and rape crisis centres, but other governments have done little to confront the problem. What accounts for these differences in policy? To answer this question, we analysed policies on violence against women in 70 countries from 1975 to 2005. Our analysis reveals that the most important and consistent factor driving policy change is feminist activism. This plays a more important role than left-wing parties, numbers of women legislators, or even national wealth. In addition, our work shows that strong, vibrant domestic feminist movements use international and regional conventions and agreements as levers to influence policy-making. Strong local movements bring home the value of global norms on women's rights.
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... They have a unique history and development as a sub-set of the wider VCS and have been pivotal in developing and changing discourse around the role of women and girls within society and providing opportunities, services and activities that meet important needs. As Weldon and Htun (2013) note, the effects of autonomous organising by women have been and remain critical for, the pursuit of gender equality. It is therefore essential that there is recognition of and space for autonomous WGOs to thrive and carry out their work. ...
... Greater prominence involves risks such as increased alignment with state goals and consequently a decline in independence and the ability to work towards more radical gender equality goals. This is significant when independence has been noted to be critical for pursuing gender equality goals (Weldon & Htun, 2013). These issues of visibility therefore also feed into wider debates about the VCS' independence from and relationship to the state (Egdell & Dutton, 2017;Milbourne & Cushman, 2015). ...
Women and girls’ organisations (WGOs) are a fundamental part of the voluntary and community sector (VCS) and wider society. They have a unique history and development as a sub-set of the wider VCS and have been pivotal in meeting important needs for women and girls, yet existing analysis of the VCS using data from the Charity Commission for England and Wales (CCEW) has not previously focused on WGOs. The purpose of this paper is to present a feminist approach to identifying and classifying WGOs utilising data from the CCEW register. The paper provides a detailed exploration of the methodological approach and argues that such an approach to compiling and analysing datasets is both necessary and advantageous in exposing areas of power and contestation. The paper provides an original overview of the scope of WGOs in England and Wales between 2008 and 2018 and also demonstrates benefits that can be applied in other classification work within the field.
... The promotion of women's rights through policy change is a complex political process that involves different actors and institutions depending on the kind of issue at stake, as shown by Htun and Weldon (2018). In a broad comparative analysis, Weldon and Htun (2013) argue that the central factor explaining the adoption of state policy against gender-based violence is the strength of feminist activism. Indeed, feminist mobilization on the problem of violence against women led to the formation of a regional network in Latin America in the early 1990s (Friedman, 2009). ...
Gender-based violence is a rampant problem in Latin American countries. Historically, state policy to prevent and sanction it has developed slowly, usually having limited impact because of a lack of resources and political will. While the process of policy adoption involved feminist organizations and international norms diffusion, little is known about when and why policy to address gender-based violence can become a political priority. Based on a comparative case study of Peru and Argentina, we show that sustained mass mobilization was the key variable marking a turning point in both countries in state capacity building in that domain. The latter was importantly enhanced as a consequence of the Ni Una Menos protests. Through process-tracing analysis, we show that there was a substantial increase in state resources and personnel, as well as institutional innovation. This transformation occurred in response to the unprecedented mass mobilization of various sectors of society.
... Such steps are largely the result of significant and sustained pressure from feminist movements (Weldon and Htun, 2013). Lessons can be drawn from the decades of leadership of feminist organizers to expand their tactics to include combatting racism and homonegative bias. ...
... 41 Weldon and Htun also advocated for the role of policy reforms driven by feminist mobilization to combat IPV. 42 In addition to the direct measures undertaken by Guyana to combat IPV, two other factors must be considered in the recent history of the country that might indirectly affect IPV prevalence. First, the acceleration in economic activity in Guyana particularly due to gas exploration. ...
Background
Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is a global health issue and a breach of human rights. However, the literature lacks understanding of how socioeconomic and geographic disparities influence women's attitudes toward IPV in Guyana over time. This study aimed to assess trends in women's attitudes about IPV in Guyana.
Methods
Data from three nationally representative surveys from 2009, 2014 to 2019 were analysed. The prevalence of women's attitudes about IPV was assessed, specifically in response to going out without telling their partners, neglecting their children, arguing with their partner, refusing sex with their partner, or burning food prepared for family meals. A series of stratified subgroup analyses were also completed. We assessed trends in IPV using the slope index of inequality (SII) and the concentration index of inequality (CIX). We used multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression to assess factors associated with women's attitudes justifying IPV.
Findings
The prevalence of women's attitudes justifying IPV for any of the five reasons declined from 16.4% (95% CI: 15.1–17.8) in 2009 to 10.8% (95% CI: 9.7–12.0) in 2019. Marked geographic and socioeconomic inequalities were observed among subgroups. The SII for any of the five reasons decreased from −20.02 to −14.28, while the CIX remained constant over time. Key factors associated with women's attitudes about IPV were area of residence, sex of the household head, marital status, respondent's level of education, wealth index quintile, and the frequency of reading newspapers/magazines.
Interpretation
From 2009 to 2019, Guyana was able to reduce women's attitudes justifying IPV against women by 34.1% and shortened subgroup inequalities. However, the prevalence remained high in 2019, with persisted inequalities among subgroups. Effective strategies, including the use of media to raise awareness, promotion of community-based approaches, and educational campaigns focusing on geographic and socioeconomic disparities, are essential for continuing to reduce the prevalence of IPV and associated inequalities.
Funding
The study was funded in part by the 10.13039/100000002National Institutes of Health, 10.13039/100000061Fogarty International Center grant number D43TW012189.
... Feminist movements have been instrumental in shifting norms and securing a broad array of social, legal and civil rights for more than a century (George and Harper, 2022). This has come from their collective mobilisation, advocacy for legislative changes, such as on the issue of genderbased violence (Weldon and Htun, 2013;, and provision of frontline services, for example in reproductive health, education and legal aid (Jiménez Thomas Rodriguez, 2021;Karim, 2022). However, insufficient funding of feminist movements and women's rights organisations (WROs) persists, even with extensive evidence of their importance for driving transformative change in society, including across multiple justice issues beyond gender inequality, such as the environmental crisis (Jiménez Thomas Rodriguez, 2023). ...
https://odi.org/en/publications/where-next-for-feminist-foreign-policy-on-funding-feminist-movements/
This brief explores how governments with feminist foreign policy (FFP) along with those aspiring to have FFP, collectively referred to as FFP+, can more effectively resource feminist movements as critical actors driving forward gender equality and intersectional social justice agendas.
Key recommendations are drawn from the existing literature, together with new insights gathered from ODI’s closed-door convening series Where next for feminist foreign policy? hosted online May–August 2023. This policy brief was developed out of the roundtable ‘Can foreign policy be a pathway to effectively fund feminist movements?’, building on participants’ expertise as well as both sceptical and hopeful views about the potential of FFP (see Annex for a partial list of attendees).
It also brings forward ideas based on an ODI policy brief, ‘How to partner with feminist
movements for transformative change’ (Tant and Jiménez Thomas Rodriguez, 2022) and should be read alongside a FFP background note (Michalko, 2023) which outlines some of the key tensions and lessons learnt about FFP implementation.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) within heterosexual relationships affects both men and women, yet an in-depth description of IPV against men in developing countries is still limited. This study explored community perceptions of male IPV victimization in an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. We conducted 12 focus group discussions (FGDs) with 118 ever-married participants (59 men and 59 women), divided into 6 FGDs for each gender. We performed thematic analysis using NVivo software. This article presents three main themes that emerged during data analysis: (a) triggers, (b) manifestations, and (c) consequences/effects of IPV against men. Both male and female participants perceived male IPV victimization as a significant concern in the community. The poor living conditions, coupled with alcohol use, seemed to be major underlying factors, often forming the basis of spousal conflict. Emotional abuse, including denial of basic needs, acts of humiliation, and coercive control, were the most frequently cited forms of violence. The consequences of what was considered IPV against men affected victims and their families including the violent female spouses, children, and the society at large. These effects upset the health, economic, and social spheres of life with some retriggering male IPV, thus creating a vicious cycle of abuse. Notably and of concern, IPV against women was highlighted as a consequence of male victimization. Although we set out to explore community perceptions, study participants openly shared their experiences of male IPV perpetration and victimization. These findings underscore the importance of recognizing men as potential victims of IPV and contextualizing IPV prevention strategies targeting the urban poor with the goal of designing and implementing policies and interventions that address IPV holistically.
The conceptualization of social problems is an important site for examining the extent to which the knowledge and priorities of local practitioners are reflected in international policy. This study employed critical discourse analysis to examine the constructions of domestic violence (DV) used by service providers in Pokhara, Nepal, as compared with two major international women's human rights policy documents. Both constructed DV as a human rights issue that should be contextualized within patriarchal and intersecting oppressions. Service providers additionally emphasized the denial of rights and entitlements of family life as DV. This finding underscores the long-term risks that survivors navigate and suggests that international human rights policymakers should broaden conceptualizations of DV.
There is increasing awareness of the gendered violence undertaken by incels (involuntary celibates), both online and offline. Much of the analysis of the phenomenon has focused on what incels mean for our understanding of gender, as well as the role that the internet plays in fostering extremist ideologies. This article instead provides a comparative critical frame analysis of policy responses in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Using critical frame analysis, research finds that that there is greater engagement with the topic among parliamentary actors in the United Kingdom than in Sweden, although there appears to be a clearer response in Sweden where it is subsumed within countering violent extremism strategies. However, neither country has developed specific policies to tackle the threat posed by incels; moreover, there are diverse policy frames at work which to some extent makes it difficult to create targeted policies. Theoretically, we argue that this absence of policy should be understood as an abdication of responsibility.
Sexual femicide, an abhorrent crime, is not well described and reported. The aim of the study was to describe sexual and non-sexual femicide in South Africa and compare the 2009 with the 2017 study presenting sociodemographic characteristics of victims, perpetrators, crime and forensic findings. The same retrospective study design using proportionate random sample of medico-legal laboratories were used. Sexual femicide was identified from autopsy and police reports. Findings show sexual femicide is not rare in South Africa. We estimated 451 (95% confidence interval: 366–533) sexual femicides in 2009 and 210 (95% confidence interval: 176–244) in 2017. Sexual femicides decreased by more than half from 19.1% in 2009 to 8.7% in 2017. We show an increase among younger women, those living in rural areas and strangers as perpetrators. Our dedicated studies show the value of documenting sexual femicides over time in a country with high levels of gender-based violence to assist development of theory-based prevention interventions.
This is a bold and exciting book. There are many fine scholars who look at women's movements, political theorists who make claims about democracy, and policy analysts who do longitudinal treatments or cross-sectional evaluations of various policies. I know of no one, aside from Weldon, who is comfortable with all three of these roles. -David Meyer, University of California, Irvine What role do social movements play in a democracy? In When Protest Makes Policy, political theorist S. Laurel Weldon demonstrates that social movements provide a hitherto unrecognized and untheorized form of democratic representation and thus offer significant potential for deepening democracy and overcoming social conflict. Through a series of case studies of movements conducted by women, women of color, and workers in the United States and in the OECD countries, Weldon examines processes of representation at the local, state, and national levels. She concludes that, for systematically disadvantaged groups, social movements are just as important as-if not more important than-political parties, interest groups, and the physical presence of group members in legislatures. Indeed, Weldon argues, the effectiveness of social movements suggests that we ought to promote them through public policy. Yet using government policy to catalyze what must be independent movements is a tricky business, fraught with tensions. Weldon proposes that one way to spark such movements is the creation of an advocacy state: a state aimed at furthering the mobilization of marginalized groups both within the governing bodies and in civil society. She concludes with specific policy recommendations for improving the representation of marginalized groups. S. Laurel Weldon is Professor of political science at Purdue University.
Over the past four decades, violence against women (VAW) has come to be seen as a violation of human rights and an important concern for social policy. Yet government action remains uneven. Some countries have adopted comprehensive policies to combat VAW, whereas others have been slow to address the problem. Using an original dataset of social movements and VAW policies in 70 countries over four decades, we show that feminist mobilization in civil society—not intra-legislative political phenomena such as leftist parties or women in government or economic factors like national wealth—accounts for variation in policy development. In addition, we demonstrate that autonomous movements produce an enduring impact on VAW policy through the institutionalization of feminist ideas in international norms. This study brings national and global civil society into large-n explanations of social policy, arguing that analysis of civil society in general—and of social movements in particular—is critical to understanding progressive social policy change.
Since the 1990s, many countries have adopted policies aimed at combating violence against women; however, despite widespread policy adoption, actual reform has been uneven at best. In this article, I analyze the role played by international organizations and transnational networks in promoting women's human rights. In the first section, I examine the different mechanisms by which states adopt new policies and the implications they have on prospects for implementation. I propose a new model, the umbrella pattern, that accounts for the decoupling of policy and practice caused by states with limited local capacity. In addition, I argue that international organizations can improve the prospects for domestic implementation by engaging in capacity-building strategies, such as resource distribution and the facilitation of transnational networks. In the second section, I present an empirical study of the European Union and its efforts to address violence against women. In regards to policy adoption, I evaluate its efforts at policy promotion and then provide a comparative and aggregate analysis of policy adoption in member and candidate states. To address EU capacity-building efforts, I focus on one particular initiative, the Daphne project, which is the EU's primary mechanism for addressing gender violence.
Between 1993 and 2000, nearly every democracy in Latin America passed a law prohibiting domestic violence. Between 2001 and 2006, five countries strengthened their legislation, and Brazil passed its first law. What explains these advances with respect to women's rights? While other work has focused on domestic or international factors, this article brings to light the role of the region. It reveals that the two inter-American women's rights organizations have been active in both establishing regional norms and promoting their national adoption and implementation. While this suggests that regional governance can promote women's social rights, there is no automatic institutionalization of these norms. Case studies on Chile and Brazil illustrate the impact of national context.
This volume argues that international human rights law has made a positive contribution to the realization of human rights in much of the world. Although governments sometimes ratify human rights treaties, gambling that they will experience little pressure to comply with them, this is not typically the case. Focusing on rights stakeholders rather than the United Nations or state pressure, Beth Simmons demonstrates through a combination of statistical analyses and case studies that the ratification of treaties leads to better rights practices on average. By several measures, civil and political rights, women’s rights, a right not to be tortured in government detention, and children’s rights improve, especially in the very large heterogeneous set of countries that are neither stable autocracies nor stable democracies. Simmons argues that international human rights law should get more practical and rhetorical support from the international community as a supplement to broader efforts to address conflict, development, and democratization.
Women entered the political scene in Africa after the 1990s, claiming more than one third of the parliamentary seats in countries like Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi. Women in Rwanda hold the highest percentage of legislative seats in the world. Women's movements lobbied for constitutional reforms and new legislation to expand women's rights. This book examines the convergence of factors behind these dramatic developments, including the emergence of autonomous women's movements, changes in international and regional norms regarding women's rights and representation, the availability of new resources to advance women's status, and the end of civil conflict. The book focuses on the cases of Cameroon, Uganda, and Mozambique, situating these countries in the broader African context. The authors provide a fascinating analysis of the way in which women are transforming the political landscape in Africa.
Obra que reconstruye el origen y evolución de las actuales redes transnacionales que, con la utilización de las nuevas tecnologías informativas como recurso organizador y aglutinador, han logrado constituirse en movimientos más o menos presionadores en la defensa de los derechos humanos, de la protección ambiental y de una mayor equidad de género, entre otros.
Violence against women is a global phenomenon linked to patriarchal cultural values and social structures that subordinate women. In Latin America, grass roots women's organizations and the Inter-American Commission of Women have recently turned their attention to pressing the governments of the Americas to address the endemic problem of violence against women. The work of the Inter-American Commission of Women has been particularly important but widely ignored in this area. As a specialized commission of the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Commission of Women has long worked to improve the rights and status of women throughout the Americas and has recently succeeded in negotiating an important international convention, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women. This convention breaks new ground by defining violence against women as a violation of women's human rights and by identifying the duties of states to address the problem.This article traces the historical and contemporary role of the Inter-American Commission of Women in negotiating international norms aimed at defining and securing women's rights in the Americas. It outlines the specific work the commission carried out in negotiating the Convention on Violence Against Women, which has been in force since 1995, and it examines the innovative international norms found in the convention. It shows that, despite problems of public obscurity and state resistances to change, the commission has pressed governments from the international level to address and improve women's rights. Combined with a growing women's movement at the grass roots level in the Americas, the governments of the region are now having to take real steps to combat violence against women. Aggr. Behav. 24:135–146, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.