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The phenomenon of violence against women in politics is gaining growing and urgent attention from actors around the globe. Piscopo (2016) criticizes emerging theories and strategies to theorize and combat this problem, arguing that scholars have accepted activist definitions at face value, violence against women in politics is simply a subcategory of violence in politics more generally, weak state capacity and criminal justice systems-the result of incomplete democratic consolidation-explain this phenomenon, these acts of violence do not only violate women's political rights but also other laws, legislation is insufficient given widespread impunity for criminal offenses, and further state actors and policies should be activated to tackle this issue. In response, we argue that nas cent academic studies do bring new tools to bear on definitions of this phenomenon. We maintain that violence against women in politics is distinct from violence in politics, seeking to prevent women's participation as women. Worryingly, this problem is present in all regions of the world, not just Latin America, although context may influence the content and prevalence of different categories of violent acts. This violence is more than a criminal issue, posing a serious challenge to democracy, human rights, and gender equality-such that even ineffective laws can play an important normative role in validating these acts as a "problem". Solutions, finally, should not only be pursued by the state, but instead engage a host of different actors. Although debates continue, we conclude that scholars and activists should not abandon the concept of violence against women in politics, but rather, should work together to bring this problem into focus and ensure that men and women are able to participate in politics equally without fear of violence.
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VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016 pp. 459-490
Política y gobierno
Violence Against Women in Politics
A Defense of the Concept
Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín*
Abstract: The phenomenon of violence against women in politics is gaining growing and
urgent attention from actors around the globe. Piscopo (2016) criticizes emerging theories
and strategies to theorize and combat this problem, arguing that scholars have accepted
activist definitions at face value, violence against women in politics is simply a subcatego-
ry of violence in politics more generally, weak state capacity and criminal justice sys-
tems—the result of incomplete democratic consolidation—explain this phenomenon,
these acts of violence do not only violate women’s political rights but also other laws, leg-
islation is insufficient given widespread impunity for criminal offenses, and further state
actors and policies should be activated to tackle this issue. In response, we argue that nas-
cent academic studies do bring new tools to bear on definitions of this phenomenon. We
maintain that violence against women in politics is distinct from violence in politics, seek-
ing to prevent women’s participation as women. Worryingly, this problem is present in all
regions of the world, not just Latin America, although context may influence the content
and prevalence of different categories of violent acts. This violence is more than a crimi-
nal issue, posing a serious challenge to democracy, human rights, and gender equality
*Mona Lena Krook is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Rutgers Univer-
sity, 89 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. Tel: +1 848 932 9361. E-mail: m.l.krook@rut-
gers.edu. Juliana Restrepo Sanín is a graduate student in the Department of Political Science,
Rutgers University, 89 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. Tel: +1 848 932 9361. E-mail:
juliana.restreposanin@rutgers.edu
We would like to thank Jennifer Piscopo and the editors of Política y gobierno for the opportu-
nity to write this follow-up article. Our thinking on this issue has benefited from conversations
with many people, including Caroline Hubbard, Sandra Pepera, Julie Denham, Kareen Zabre,
Zeina Hilal, Brigitte Filion, Julie Ballington, Gabrielle Bardall, Laurel Weldon, and Elin
Bjarnegård. We are especially grateful to ndi for organizing a two-day workshop on this topic in
Washington, DC, in December 2015, which has pushed our thinking in new directions.
Article received on December 8, 2015, and accepted on March 21, 2016.
Note: This range of pages corresponds to the published Spanish version of this article. Please
refer to this range of pages when you cite this article.
pp. 459-490 Política y gobierno VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016
Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
such that even ineffective laws can play an important normative role in validating these
acts as aproblem”. Solutions, finally, should not only be pursued by the state, but instead
engage a host of different actors. Although debates continue, we conclude that scholars
and activists should not abandon the concept of violence against women in politics, but
rather, should work together to bring this problem into focus and ensure that men and
women are able to participate in politics equally without fear of violence.
Keywords: gender, political violence, Latin America.
Violencia contra las mujeres en política: En defensa del concepto
Resumen: El fenómeno de la violencia contra las mujeres en la política esganando cada
vez más atención por parte de diversos actores alrededor del mundo. Piscopo (2016) critica
teorías y estrategias emergentes para teorizar y combatir este fenómeno, bajo el argumen-
to de que las académicas han aceptado las definiciones de las activistas de manera acrítica,
que la violencia contra las mujeres en la política es simplemente una subcategoría de la
violencia política en general, que la debilidad del Estado y de los sistemas judiciales (re-
sultado de procesos de consolidación democrática inacabados) explican este fenómeno,
que estos actos de violencia no solo violan los derechos políticos de las mujeres sino otras
leyes, que la legislación es insuficiente dada la impunidad rampante en cuestiones crimi-
nales, y que otros actores y políticas estatales deberían encargarse de este problema.
Como respuesta, argumentamos que los nacientes estudios académicos sí brindan nuevas
herramientas para la creación de definiciones de este fenómeno. Argumentamos que la
violencia contra las mujeres en la política es distinta de la violencia política puesto que
busca impedir la participación de las mujeres por ser mujeres. De manera muy preocupan-
te, este problema se presenta en todas las regiones del mundo, no solo en América Latina,
aunque el contexto pueda influenciar el tipo y la prevalencia de diferentes actos de vio-
lencia. Esta violencia es mucho más que un problema criminal, puesto que pone retos
muy grandes a la democracia, los derechos humanos y la igualdad de género —tanto que
leyes que no son efectivas, pueden jugar un papel normativo muy importante, calificando
estos actos como un “problema”. Finalmente, las soluciones no deberían ser solo propues-
tas por el Estado, sino involucrar a un sinnúmero de actores distintos. Aunque los debates
continúan, concluimos que las académicas y activistas no deben abandonar el concepto de
violencia contra las mujeres en política, sino, por el contrario, deben trabajar juntas para
llamar la atención sobre este problema y asegurarse que tanto hombres como mujeres
puedan participar en política sin temor a la violencia.
Palabras clave: género, violencia política, América Latina.
I
n the months since we wrote our article, Krook and Restrepo Sanín (2016),
actors around the world have paid growing attention to the phenomenon
of “violence against women in politics” —or, “political violence and harass-
ment against women”, as the issue is known more commonly in Latin
America. In this short period of time, significant momentum has been
building at the regional level to recognize and combat this problem. In
February 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Women and Organiza-
VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016 pp. 459-490
Política y gobierno
Violence Against Women in Politics: A Defense of the Concept
tion of American States (oas) convened an expert meeting and roundtable
on political violence and harassment of women as a hemispheric challenge
(Organization of American States, 2015). Six months later, states-parties to
the Belém do Pará Convention (the Inter-American Convention on the
Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women
(1994)) endorsed a “Declaration on Political Violence and Harassment
against Women” (Mesecvi, 2015), calling on various actors —including elec-
toral authorities, political parties, civil society organizations, and media and
social media outlets—to develop programs, studies, public policies, and
awareness-raising campaigns to help prevent, punish, and sanction political
violence and harassment against women. After the issue was identified as a
top concern at the 2014 gathering of the Group of Women Parliamentarians
of ParlAmericas (the network of the national legislatures of oas member
States), the group agreed to an Action Plan for Preventing Political Harass-
ment and Violence Against Women at its 2015 meeting (ParlAmericas,
2015), followed by the launch in March 2016 of an on-line portal to map
gender-based political harassment, featuring testimonies from female par-
liamentarians across the region (ParlAmericas, 2016).
Concerns about violence against women in politics have also increased
outside Latin America. Trainings, seminars, and studies have been initiat-
ed by various regional offices of the International Institute for Democracy
and Electoral Assistance (International idea).
1
Inspired by research from
the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the National Demo-
cratic Institute (ndi) inaugurated a program to raise awareness and monitor
violence against women in elections (National Democratic Institute, 2015).
In March 2016, ndi convened an event in New York coinciding with the
meetings of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women to
launch a Global Call to Action to Stop Violence Against Women in Politics,
with testimonies and perspectives from all regions of the world (National
Democratic Institute, 2016). An issue brief on violence against women in
parliament, based on surveys and interviews with male and female parlia-
mentarians, is currently being prepared by the Inter-Parliamentary Union
(ipu), which is also drafting a resolution on the issue to be put to a vote at
the ipu Assembly in October 2016.
2
un Women, finally, is developing a
handbook with gender-sensitive indicators to measure violence against
1
Interviews in Tunisia, September 2015, and Mexico, November 2015.
2
Personal communication with ipu staff, March 2016.
pp. 459-490 Política y gobierno VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016
Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
women in elections, focusing on the role of gender norms and discrimina-
tion in shaping opportunities for women’s political participation.
3
The concept of violence against women in politics is thus gaining
ground globally, especially among activists and practitioners. Academic
work on this topic is still nascent, however, with most scholarly studies to
date focusing on developments in Latin America (Albaine, 2009; Albaine,
2015; Archenti and Albaine, 2013; Cerva Cerna, 2014; Krook and Restrepo
Sanín, 2016). We therefore welcome Piscopo’s (2016) critical assessment of
our article, as well as the opportunity to respond, as we are able to address
misinterpretations regarding our argument. Our response, however, also
seeks to go beyond our original article by incorporating our subsequent
thinking, informed by seminar discussions, conversations, readings, news
items, and original interviews conducted over the past year.
Piscopo’s (2016) excellent and engaging essay offers a series of criticisms
of our article—and, by extension, much of the existing and nascent schol-
arly research and activism on violence against women in politics in Latin
America (some of which she elides with our argument). Adopting a more
skeptical lens, Piscopo calls on scholars and activists to pause for reflection to
examine shortcomings in emerging theories and strategies. She makes six
claims: 1) we, and other scholars of this phenomenon, have uncritically ac-
cepted activist definitions of political violence and harassment against wom-
en; 2) the “new” phenomenon of violence against women in politics can be
subsumed under, or explained by, violence against politicians and violence
in society more generally; 3) shortcomings in state capacity and criminal
justice systems play a major role in shaping political and gendered violence,
connecting violence against women in politics more to imperfect processes
of democratic consolidation than to backlash against female politicians; 4) vio-
lence against women in politics is not only an electoral crime, but, in some
cases, a criminal offense; 5) legislation on this issue is not sufficient if there is
a culture of impunity and non-implementation; and 6) state strategies to
combat this phenomenon should include the creation of new state agencies,
like special prosecutors’ offices, and the passage of other types of legislation,
especially on sexual harassment in the workplace.
While carefully developed and thoroughly discussed, we argue that
many of these criticisms are misplaced —in some cases, due to misreading
3
Personal communication with un Women staff, August 2015.
VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016 pp. 459-490
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Violence Against Women in Politics: A Defense of the Concept
our argument, and in others, stemming from an exclusive focus on develop-
ments in Latin America. First, research on this topic has indeed been in-
spired by the work of female politicians and activists on the ground, using
their understandings as a starting point for analyzing this phenomenon.
Our work, however, then mobilizes scholarly literatures in history, political
science, sociology, and psychology to theorize what violence against wom-
en in politics is and why it occurs —leading us to argue that the activist fo-
cus on physical, sexual, and psychological violence should be expanded to
include the concepts of economic and symbolic violence. Second, we
maintain that violence against women in politics is a separate phenomenon
from violence against politicians and violence in society more generally.
While the latter may certainly be directed at women, the former entails the
distinct motivation of seeking to restrict the political participation of wom-
en as women —thereby making it a distinct form of violence, affecting not
only the individual victim, but seeking to communicate to women and to
society that women as a group should not take part.
Third, violence against women in politics is a problem in all regions of the
world —not only Latin America— and appears to have increased, or gained
more attention, in recent years as the share of women in elected and ap-
pointed positions has grown. Contextual factors, however, do appear to influ-
ence the content of violent acts, as well as which types of violence are most
prevalent. Fourth, while activists in Latin America have framed violence
against women in politics as an electoral crime, these acts do certainly have
criminal dimensions. But violence against women in politics also poses a seri-
ous challenge to democracy, human rights, and gender equality. Fifth, legisla-
tion can be valuable even if there is little implementation, as a law establishes
that the behavior in question is wrong —validating violence against women
in politics as a “problem” and empowering victims in their efforts to gain
some measure of justice, however imperfect. Sixth, state-based solutions
offer but one means to combat violence against women in politics. We em-
phasize that multi-faceted strategies are required, engaging a host of actors
—including parliaments, political parties, and civil society groups— to tack-
le the many forms that acts of violence against women in politics may take.
We conclude, on the basis of this discussion, that activists and scholars
—in Latin America and beyond— should not abandon the concept of vio-
lence against women in politics. Rather, further conceptual work —as well
as empirical studies and data collection— should be encouraged as actors
around the world seek to understand and grapple with this problem. Im-
pp. 459-490 Política y gobierno VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016
Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
perative to these efforts, we argue, is fostering the idea that violence against
women in politics is not “politics as usual” or simply the “cost of doing
politics”, as implied by Piscopo (2016). Academics and practitioners should
work together to prevent violence against women in politics, creating new
norms of behavior that “denaturalize” this violence and render it unaccept-
able; treat violence against women in politics, developing services and pro-
tocols for assisting survivors; and punish violence against women in politics,
imposing sanctions —legal or otherwise— on perpetrators.
4
As noted by
Madeleine Albright in an opinion piece published on International Wom-
en’s Day in 2016, “When a woman participates in politics, she should be
putting her hopes and dreams for the future on the line, not her dignity and
not her life” (Albright, 2016).
Activism and Academic Research on Political Violence and Harassment
Although women in politics have long faced problems of aggression, coer-
cion, and intimidation (see more on this below), the concept of violence
against women in politics is relatively recent, surfacing in only the last ten
to fifteen years in different contexts around the globe. In Latin America,
“political violence and harassment against women” appeared for the first
time in 2000, when local councilwomen convened a seminar on the topic at
the Chamber of Deputies in Bolivia to discuss reports regarding acts di-
rected at female candidates and elected officials in rural municipalities.
Over the next twelve years, the Association of Local Councilwomen of Bo-
livia (Acobol), along with other female politicians and activists, worked to-
gether in an inductive manner to name this phenomenon and identify its
various manifestations. They identified a host of acts of violence and ha-
rassment that seek, as their central motivation, to shorten, suspend, impede
or restrict the exercise of a woman’s political position, or to induce a woman,
against her will, to do (or not do) something related to her political mandate.
Outside Latin America, through a project coordinated by South Asia
Partnership International —resulting in several books and conferences in
2007, 2008, and 2009— female politicians, activists, lawyers, researchers,
academics, and members of the media engaged in a similar theory-building
enterprise, sharing and comparing women’s experiences as political actors in
4
For some ideas for different sectors, see ndis Global Call to Action to Stop Violence Against
Women in Politics (National Democratic Institute, 2016).
VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016 pp. 459-490
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Violence Against Women in Politics: A Defense of the Concept
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (South Asia
Partnership International, 2009). One of the project’s earliest publications
used the phrase “violence against women in politics” to describe acts perpe-
trated to hinder, punish, or deprive women of their right to participate in
politics (South Asia Partnership International, 2006). “Violence against
women in elections” appears to be a slightly newer concept, growing out of a
gendered analysis of data gathered by the International Foundation on Elec-
toral Systems as part of its electoral assistance work (Bardall, 2011). This is
the terminology used by ndi in a program launched in early 2015, piloted in
five countries in three regions, focusing on “acts of election violence —such
as threats, hate speech, assault, blackmail or assassination— directed at
someone because of her gender seeking to undermine, delay or otherwise
influence an electoral process(National Democratic Institute, 2015).
Parallel discussions taking place in different parts of the world indicate
shared attempts to come to grips with what is seen to be an emerging glob-
al problem. Defining the exact contours of what it is —and, indeed, what it
should be called— is still an ongoing process. Feminist activists and schol-
ars have long recognized that “naming” an issue can be both personally and
politically important, as it can help marginalized individuals better compre-
hend their own experiences and realize that they share these experiences
with others. It can also raise awareness among members of dominant
groups regarding their own actions that they may not realize are unjust
(Flood and Pease, 2009; Friedan, 1963; Jaggar, 1989). Political scientists
also view concept formation to be a necessary first step when analyzing any
political phenomenon, with (the lack of) robust definitions affecting the
ability to collect accurate data, perform useful analyses, and develop con-
crete policy solutions (Goertz, 2006; Sartori, 1970).
Feminist research often begins from women’s lives, using their experi-
ences and perspectives as a starting point for theorizing (Harding, 2004;
Hesse-Biber, 2014). It is not surprising, therefore, that scholars writing on
violence against women in politics in Latin America have been inspired by
activist debates and definitions. Indeed, some academics —notably Cerva
Cerna (2014)— have played a role in bringing together politicians, activists,
and academics to illuminate the contours of this phenomenon.
5
None of
5
Another example is the international seminar on “Violencia política contra las mujeres
en América Latina: diagnósticos, diálogos y estrategias”, organized at the Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México in November 2015.
pp. 459-490 Política y gobierno VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016
Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
this work, however, uncritically takes “activists’ definitions at face value”,
as Piscopo (2016) suggests. In our case, we extend these conversations by
incorporating insights from scholarly literatures on violence against women
and political and electoral violence, together with a wide range of empirical
examples gleaned from ngo reports, bills and laws, and news items, to en-
gage in further theorizing that seeks to re-orient the understandings of ac-
tivists. As part of this process, we have presented our ideas to a wide range
of academic and practitioner audiences working in many different regions
of the world, with these critical engagements leading to mutual adjust-
ments in understanding.
This path of discovery has directed us to a host of scholarly literatures
that converged in generating our interpretation of what violence against
women in politics is and why it occurs. Inspired by early feminist theorists
(Elshtain, 1981; Landes, 1988), we draw on the historical association in
many societies between men and the “public sphere” of politics and the
economy, and women and the “private sphere” of home and the family to
observe that efforts to promote women’s political participation —by their
very nature— challenge beliefs and practices regarding politics as a male
domain. Like other forms of violence against women, violence against
women in politics thus serves as a form of gender role enforcement (Donat
and D’Emilio, 1992), an argument bolstered by studies in psychology and
sociology showing substantial hostility towards women in leadership roles
(Puwar, 2004; Rudman and Phelan, 2008). Our article argued, further, that
economic and symbolic forms of violence have been overlooked, or ob-
scured, in the current activist focus on physical, sexual, and psychological
violence.
Piscopo (2016) misses this contribution because she mistakes economic
and symbolic violence to be sub-categories of psychological violence —lead-
ing her to assert, in turn, that we seek to criminalize practices of “institu-
tionalized sexism”. To be clear, economic and symbolic violence cannot be
reduced to simple sexism: they involve attempts at coercive control by re-
stricting women’s access to economic resources (Stark, 2007) and the deni-
gration or erasure of women as political actors through portrayals and
representations casting them as “lesser” than men (Bourdieu, 2001). While
some criminal codes recognize economic violence,
6
gaining recourse for
acts of symbolic violence is complicated by free speech protections. Al-
6
For country data, see World Bank Group (2016).
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Política y gobierno
Violence Against Women in Politics: A Defense of the Concept
though freedom of speech is a central element in a healthy democratic so-
ciety, we argue —similar to scholars of hate crimes— that some behaviors
cross over into acts of violence when they target victims due to their iden-
tity, using mechanisms of power and oppression to affirm threatened hier-
archies in order to deny equal access to rights by group members (Iganski,
2001; Perry, 2001). Due to these dynamics, we suggest that legal reforms
cannot address all acts of violence against women in politics, requiring ad-
ditional strategies on the part of both state and non-state actors.
Violence Towards Politicians Versus Violence Against Women in Politics
Although the concept of violence against women in politics is relatively
new, the phenomenon it describes is not (Albaine, 2014). In the 1950s, for
example, rivals of Coya Knutson, a Congresswoman from Minnesota, wrote
and circulated a letter to journalists from her estranged husband, stating
that he was “sick and tired of having [her] run around with other men all the
time and not [her] husband” and urging her to “come home.” Despite its
false claims, the letter had a devastating impact on her re-election campaign,
causing her to lose her seat (Beito, 1990). If the concept focuses on women
as political actors more broadly (the approach of ifes, ndi, and un Women),
historical precedents include violence faced by female suffrage campaign-
ers, especially more radical suffragettes, who were attacked by angry mobs,
imprisoned and force-fed and, in some cases, had their children removed
(Graham, 1983; Harrison, 1978).
7
Similar visceral reactions transpire when
women have entered other previously all-male spaces, with women in the
military, for example, facing high rates of sexual assault and sexual harass-
ment from their own colleagues (Katzenstein, 1998; Nelson, 2002).
The nature of these acts —which are fundamentally about restricting
women’s participation as women— cannot be subsumed under, or explained
by, violence against politicians and violence in society more generally, as
Piscopo (2016) suggests. In her view, what Latin American activists and
scholars call “violence against women in politicsis simply a manifestation
of rampant violence across the region, combined with a general absence of
the rule of law. We agree that general insecurity plays a role in exacerbating
incidences of violence against women in politics. However, we disagree
7
The ever-present threat of physical violence led Britain suffragettes to teach themselves
jujitsu for self-defense. See Ruz and Parkinson (2015).
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Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
strongly with the notion that these acts only emerge from a context of imper-
fect democratic consolidation (see more on this below). Moreover, we do not
claim that every violent act committed against a female politician (or female
political actor more generally) constitutes violence against women in poli-
tics, nor do we deny that women may also commit such acts against other
women. For us, the crucial difference relates to the motive behind the vio-
lence, in particular whether it seeks to send a message to women —and to
society— that women as a group should not participate in politics. Our con-
cept thus does not encompass all acts of violence experienced by female
politicians —but rather, aggression, coercion, and intimidation against wom-
en as political actors, due to the fact that they are women.
To make this argument clearer, Table 1 contrasts “violence in politics” (a
symptom of high rates of violence in society) with “violence against women
in politics”. What the table shows is that while the latter is related to, and
shares some features with, the former, there are crucial differences across the
two in terms of perpetrators, spaces, motivations, timing, and forms of vio-
lence. For Piscopo (2016), violence against women in politics occurs only in
public spaces, at the hands of political opponents and criminal delinquents.
As such, it is not surprising that she equates this with violence in politics
more generally. Our definition (and, indeed, the one shared by all activists
and scholars working on this issue) emphasizes that these acts can take place
in both public and private spaces, with many —if not the majority— of per-
petrators being women’s own party colleagues and family members. The
result is that, in addition to facing attacks in insecure environments, women
may also face danger in spaces that are usually safe for men: political assem-
blies, official events, their offices, and even their own homes.
This distinction can be further illustrated through several real world
cases. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007 exemplifies
violence in politics involving a female politician. The first female prime
minister of Pakistan (1988-1990 and 1993-1996), Bhutto returned to Paki-
stan from exile to contest the 2008 parliamentary elections after forging a
power-sharing agreement with then-President Pervez Musharraf. At a rally
upon her homecoming, she narrowly survived an assassination attempt,
which killed more than 130 people. After several failed attempts to en-
hance security for her campaign, from both Musharraf’s government and a
variety of private sources, she was killed during an explosion following a
campaign rally. Although an Al-Qaeda commander claimed responsibility,
Bhutto herself had accused the government of a plot to assassinate her as
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Política y gobierno
Violence Against Women in Politics: A Defense of the Concept
TABLE 1. Violence in Politics versus Violence Against Women in Politics
Violence in politics Violence against women in politics
Who Opponents in other political
parties, criminal gangs
Opponents in other parties, criminal gangs;
but also members of a woman’s own party,
her family and friends, executive branch,
civil servants, media and social media
commentators, police and military forces
Where Public sphere Public and private spheres
When During and around elections During and around elections; during early
preparations for elections and after women
have taken their seats
Why To alter election results, by
preventing a group from
voting or coercing electoral
outcomes
To prevent women from exercising their
political rights and, by extension, to
communicate more broadly that women do not
belong in politics
How Physical and psychological
violence, for example (threats
of) murder, kidnapping,
incarceration
Physical and psychological violence; but also
sexual, economic, and symbolic violence,
for example rape, public stripping, stalking,
character assassination, destruction of
campaign materials, on-line harassment and
abuse
Source: Own elaboration.
early as two months before, and many of her supporters have continued
to make similar claims in the years following her death. Although there
were discussions in Pakistan in the late 1980s regarding the right of a wom-
an to serve as national leader, the issue was resolved by religious leaders
prior to her first election (Zakaria, 1990), and the evidence suggests that
Bhutto was killed for political reasons, not because she was female.
The 2012 assassination of Juana Quispe, a local council member in Bo-
livia, offers a contrasting example of violence against women in politics.
Like several male members of her party, she was critical of the mayor but,
as a woman, she was specifically singled out for mistreatment. After being
elected, Quispe was harassed to resign by the mayor, his supporters, and
various council members. When she did not, they changed the times of the
meetings and refused her entrance to the sessions. When this failed, they
suspended her from her position. When she was reinstated after a seven-
month legal battle, she was denied the salary from the time she was sus-
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Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
pended, on the pretext that she was not present during the council sessions.
One month later, she was found murdered (Acobol, 2010; Corz, 2012). The
experiences of other Bolivian female politicians offer further evidence of
this phenomenon. It is not uncommon, for example, for male suplentes, des-
ignated alternates if office-holders are unable to fulfill their duties, to insist
that their female counterparts in office should share their salaries and re-
sign half-way through their terms in favor of the men—pressures categori-
cally not faced by male politicians.
8
A similar distinction can be drawn in relation to female voters. Follow-
ing disputed elections in Kenya in 2007 and 2008, youths allied with differ-
ent ethnic groups launched a campaign culminating in more than 1000
deaths and the displacement of more than half a million people. Officials
estimate that at least 900 cases of sexual violence occurred, with women
being targeted due to their ethnicity (Mutiga, 2016). In early 2015, Presi-
dent Uhuru Kenya announced a fund to provide “restorative justice”, but
according to Human Rights Watch (2016), the vast majority of this money
has gone to displaced people and not to those who suffered sexual violence.
Despite these gendered experiences of electoral violence, the motivations
were not to keep women per se out of politics, thus reflecting a case of vio-
lence in politics.
In comparison, elections in Afghanistan in 2004 were marred by various
instances of violence against women as political actors. Women faced intimi-
dation when attempting to register to vote, with warlords in some areas push-
ing religious authorities to issue directives preventing women from being
placed on the voter rolls. According to a survey, moreover, nearly 90 per cent
of Afghans believed that women needed the permission of their husbands or
families to vote—permission that was rarely forthcoming. A bus carrying fe-
male election workers was bombed, killing or injuring many on board, and
women who did come to vote on election day often found that female poll-
ing stations —an innovation intended to encourage women’s participation—
were left unstaffed or were closed due to threats of violence (Human Rights
Watch, 2004). In all of these incidents, the intention of real and threatened
violence was to restrict women’s opportunities as women to participate, mak-
ing it a clear case of violence against women in the political sphere.
The contrast between these two types of violence, however, is some-
times blurred. As we write in our article, the means for attacking women
8
Interviews in Bolivia, August 2015.
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Violence Against Women in Politics: A Defense of the Concept
often relies on gendered scripts, focusing on women’s bodies and tradi-
tional social roles to deny or undercut their competence in politics —for
example, via rape threats and questions about their sexual identity or mo-
rality (Bardall, 2013; Herrera, Arias, and García, 2011). In our view, such
claims and insinuations can evolve into a case of violence against women in
politics when such images and stereotypes are employed to suggest that
women per se do not belong in the political realm —going beyond the criti-
cism of a specific woman to communicate the broader message that women
as a group should not participate in politics. Our acknowledgement of this
“gray zone” leads Piscopo (2016) to argue that we subsume “general” elec-
toral or political violence into our definition of violence against women in
politics, when in fact we signal that the “real world” does not always permit
quick categorization —requiring a closer look to determine the motivation
and message of particular forms of political violence towards women.
Evidence from around the world lends support for our approach, reveal-
ing that violence against women in politics is real and can have harmful ef-
fects on women’s rates of political participation. In Peru, nearly half of all
female mayors and local council members have reported acts of violence re-
lated to their political positions (Quintanilla, 2012). This violence is demoral-
izing, making female politicians less likely to stand for reelection and to leave
after fewer terms served. One-third of female local politicians in Sweden, for
example, said they considered giving up their positions as a result of these
incidents (Krantz, Wallin and Wallin, 2012), while 48 per cent of the women
leaving office in Bolivia in 2010 reported being victims of such violence (Aco-
bol, 2012). The impact of this violence also extends beyond the women who
are directly affected. In Australia, 60 per cent of women aged 18 to 21 and 80
per cent of women over 31 said they were less likely to run for office after
seeing how negatively the female prime minister was treated (Shepherd,
2014), while nearly all participants in a program for aspiring women leaders in
the UK had witnessed sexist abuse of female politicians online, leading over
75 per cent of them to say it was a concern when considering whether or not
to pursue a role in public life (Campbell and Lovenduski, 2016).
Contexts and Manifestations of Violence Against Women in Politics
As the examples above indicate, violence against women in politics is not
limited to Latin America, casting doubt on Piscopo’s (2016) claim that po-
litical violence and harassment towards women stems more from incom-
pp. 459-490 Política y gobierno VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016
Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
plete processes of democratic consolidation in the region than to patriarchal
resistance to women’s political participation. It is simply not true that vio-
lence against women in politics is a problem restricted to developing coun-
tries where state capacity is weak: acts of this nature also appear in
developed societies where the state is strong enough to enforce the law and
violence is not routinized. In Italy, the female speaker of parliament has
divulged the graphic photos and threats she has received since assuming
her post (Davies, 2014), while the Norwegian prime minister appeared on
a television program discussing on-line abuse towards her as a female poli-
tician (The Local, 2015). In the UK, various female members of parliament
have received rape threats over Twitter, including a case that went to trial
(Creasy, 2014), and in February 2016, a Muslim women’s organization sent
a letter to the Labour Party leader, reporting tactics being employed to
prevent Muslim women from becoming candidates, including abuse, in-
sults, and pressures on their families to force them to withdraw from poli-
tics (The Guardian, 2016). Similarly, an insider in Australia recently decried
problems of sexual harassment in parliament, occurring across all parties,
with a “toxic culture” preventing any type of disciplinary action against
perpetrators (Faruqi, 2016).
Viewing these cases together, however, it becomes apparent that while
differences in state capacity do not affect the existence of violence against
women in politics per se, they might influence the prevailing means used to
attack women. More specifically, in countries where violence is routine, it
may be “easier” to use physical, sexual, and psychological violence because
of impunity and the ability to hide behind claims about “general insecuri-
ty”. Conversely, in countries in which such forms of violence are highly
condemned and the state has the means to punish perpetrators, symbolic
forms of violence may be preferred, achieving the desired effects while be-
ing more difficult to prove —with high levels of state capacity, ironically,
providing stronger guarantees regarding the right to free speech, which
might be mobilized to permit and defend this behavior (Creasy, 2014).
Attending to the importance of context, consequently, involves recog-
nizing that distinct cultures may provide different “tools” for committing
acts of violence against women in politics, giving meaning to actions, as
well as conditioning the degree to which such behaviors are normalized.
Accusations that a woman is a bad wife, mother, or daughter, for example,
can be especially devastating in a small rural community, where families
share a dense network of social ties, or in cultures where a woman’s “ho-
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Violence Against Women in Politics: A Defense of the Concept
nor” is seen as an extension of her family. Conversely, perpetrating acts of
violence against women in politics via social media has greater resonance in
contexts where citizens have widespread access to computers and cell
phones. Although the tools may vary, the goals are nonetheless the same: to
prevent women’s political participation through efforts to intimidate, dele-
gitimize, or exclude women as political actors.
Dispensing with “Latin American exceptionalism” raises questions, in
turn, regarding the reasons behind increased interest in this phenomenon
across the world. As Piscopo (2016) correctly observes, scholars working in
the region associate expanded election opportunities for women with the
apparent rise in violence (Albaine, 2014; Archenti and Albaine, 2013; Cerva
Cerna, 2014). We do not make a similar causal connection in our article, al-
though it is a question that we have pondered. Global data provide incon-
trovertible evidence that women have made major strides in political
representation over the last twenty years, with the world average of women
in national parliaments nearly doubling between 1995 and 2015 (Inter-Par-
liamentary Union, 2015). In our view, at least three scenarios are possible:
1) more women in the political realm may be simply creating more sites of
potential violence, with more women available to attack; 2) womens great-
er political voice and visibility may appear threatening to those concerned
with preserving the status quo, exacerbating tendencies towards violence as
a means to forestall change; and 3) greater discussion of women’s political
participation may be fostering greater consciousness worldwide regarding
inequality in political life —in turn, casting new light on dynamics that
have been occurring for many years.
Our research suggests, however, that backlash, if not the only expla-
nation, is certainly a very large motivation behind rising violence against
women in politics. Case studies of gender quotas, for example, are replete
with insidious, and often creative, tactics devised by elites to flout the spir-
it and/or the letter of these regulations, drawing on gendered norms and
practices preserving male dominance of political life (Krook, 2016). Further
evidence can be seen in the fact that many perpetrators globally are mem-
bers of the same party as the victims in question, seeking to replace the
women in office with men from the same political group. Acts of this nature
take on greater urgency with enhanced opportunities for women to fill po-
litical roles. Activists and scholars thus do not believe that violence only
occurs when women enter the political arena, as Piscopo (2016) claims.
Rather, the intuition seems to be —echoing the findings of Yoder (1991)
pp. 459-490 Política y gobierno VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016
Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
that these dynamics get set in motion as women’s numbers (threaten to)
rise in perceptible ways. Because this is the ostensible goal of quota poli-
cies, it is thus not surprising that countries where quotas are introduced
may also be those where violence is more pronounced.
The “Problem” of Violence Against Women in Politics
Violence against women in politics is problematic for a number of reasons.
Most obviously, it poses a direct threat to women’s ability and willingness
to engage in politics. Although data collection on this issue is in its infancy,
the available evidence suggests in unambiguous terms that female political
actors around the world have experienced such violence, with implications
for their ability and willingness to participate actively in the political pro-
cess.
9
Although many women hesitated to speak out directly about these
issues, a subtle shift appears to be underway in terms of female politicians
acknowledging this problem. At a side event sponsored by the ipu at the
United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women meetings in 2013,
for example, our presentation on the concept to a room of female politicians
from around the world was met with vigorous nodding from a large portion
of participants. Many immediately grasp the concept when it is explained
to them,
10
and even if they deny being victims themselves, they acknowl-
edge that it occurs to other women (Cerva Cerna, 2014).
These dynamics constitute a violation of women’s rights to political par-
ticipation, enshrined in a host of international commitments and national
legislation. Article 7 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (cedaw) (United Nations,
1979), for example, states that countries should ensure to women, on equal
terms with men, the right a) to vote in elections and be eligible for election
to all publicly elected bodies; b) to participate in the formulation of govern-
ment policy and to hold public office and perform all public functions at all
levels of government; and c) to participate in non-governmental organiza-
tions and associations concerned with the public and political life of the
country. Similar statements are found in the uns Beijing Platform for Ac-
tion (United Nations, 1995), Millennium Development Goals (United Na-
9
Interviews in France, June 2014; Mexico, May and July 2014; Brazil, December 2014; Bo-
livia, August 2015; Tunisia, September 2015; Jordan, September 2015; United Kingdom, January
2016. See also data discussed above.
10
Interviews in Mexico, May and July 2014.
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Violence Against Women in Politics: A Defense of the Concept
tions, 2000), and Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015),
all calling for women’s full and effective participation and equal opportuni-
ties for leadership. At the same time, constitutions in more than 150 coun-
tries explicitly guarantee men and women equal rights to political
participation and association (un Women, 2016).
Framing the issue in terms of women’s political rights, as Piscopo (2016)
notes, is the favored interpretation among activists and politicians in Latin
America. This focus makes sense, on the one hand, due to the ability to
draw on the extensive commitments made by Latin American govern-
ments to highlight shortcomings between rhetoric and reality and call on
states to take steps to ensure women’s political rights. On the other hand,
the emphasis on violence against women in politics as an electoral crime
also reflects the most politically expedient approach, given that electoral
courts —in contrast to other state-level institutions— have proven to be
strong and effective defenders of gender equality, as Piscopo (2015) finds
in other research. This way of framing the issue, however, has its limita-
tions, as Piscopo (2016) notes, because electoral tribunals cannot provide
justice for criminal violations —nor can other state institutions either, for
the most part, due to widespread impunity for acts of violence. We very
much agree with this observation, and as we write in our article (and more
below), the solution is a multi-sector approach, with a variety of actors
working together to fill these gaps.
Gaining support for such a broad-based initiative hinges on connecting
violence against women in politics to values important to society as a whole.
In our view, this phenomenon is multiple problems simultaneously. First,
violence against women in politics undermines democracy. Preventing fe-
male voters from accessing polling stations reduces the integrity of elec-
tions, if one sector of the population is systematically excluded from
exercising their political rights. Threatening or harassing female activists
and party members prevents women as a group from contributing to po-
litical debates and informing policy priorities. Pressuring women to resign
after they have been elected to office, or making it overly difficult or impos-
sible to do their job, violates women’s rights to participate and infringe upon
the rights of voters, as electoral results are effectively nullified in favor of
forces of intimidation and coercion.
Second, violence against women in politics breaches women’s human
rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations,
1948) defines “human rights” in terms of the “dignity and worth of the hu-
pp. 459-490 Política y gobierno VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016
Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
man person”. Article 21 states that 1) everyone has the right to take part in
the government of his or her country, directly or through freely chosen rep-
resentatives; 2) everyone has the right of equal access to public service in
his or her country; and 3) the will of the people shall be the basis of the au-
thority of government… expressed in periodic and genuine elections… by
universal and equal suffrage. Acts of violence intended to exclude women
or suppress their participation thus disrespect human dignity and equal
rights by refusing to recognize women as equal citizens. The ipu Commit-
tee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, established in 1976, pro-
vides a precedent for thinking about this issue along these lines, using the
language of “human rights” when investigating different acts —including
undue exclusion from political office, arbitrary arrest, restriction of speech,
murder, torture, and kidnapping— consistent with behaviors witnessed
around the world to prevent women’s political participation (Inter-Parlia-
mentary Union, 2016).
Third, violence against women in politics is a form of sex —and gen-
der— based discrimination. Article 1 of cedaw, signed by 189 states-parties,
defines “discrimination” as “any distinction, exclusion, or restriction made
on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying
the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women… on a basis of equality
of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the po-
litical, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field” (United Nations,
1979). The International Declaration on the Elimination of Violence
against Women (United Nations, 1993) explicitly defines violence against
women as a form of sex-based discrimination, as a “manifestation of his-
torically unequal power relations between men and women”, leading to
“domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the
prevention of the full advancement of women”. Viewed in these terms,
violence against women in politics can be understood as a form of discrimi-
nation against women in the political realm, restricting and impeding ac-
cess to rights and freedoms on the basis of sex and seeking to maintain
unequal power relations between men and women.
Legislation Versus Implementation of Laws Against Violence
Enacting legislation is often a cumbersome process, requiring sustained
efforts on the part of its sponsors to draft bills, cultivate support, and seek
windows of opportunity for policy reform (Kingdon, 1984). Despite the
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Violence Against Women in Politics: A Defense of the Concept
work involved, various literatures in political science suggest that politi-
cians can and do pass policies that they believe will have little impact, in-
cluding signing international conventions they have no intention of
respecting (Leff, 1988; Mazur, 1995; Keck and Sikkink, 1998). Yet the in-
sincerity of a reform does not necessarily preclude effective implementa-
tion. Moreover, naming a phenomenon and deeming it unacceptable
—even if the negative behavior continues, unabated— can have powerful
normative implications (Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink, 1999). This is because a
new law provides a heretofore unavailable resource for actors on the ground
to make claims vis-à-vis the state to protect those rights.
Activists across Latin America are well aware of these dynamics, ac-
knowledging —as Piscopo (2016) argues— that transforming the social,
cultural, and political cultures that cause violence against women in politics
would be ideal, but would likely take a long time to be realized. In the
meantime, legislation can provide a necessary first step in the right direc-
tion.
11
According to women in Bolivia, the awareness-raising element of the
country’s law on political violence and harassment against women should
not be underestimated. Prior to the law, many women believed that these
issues were simply the “cost of doing politics”, not realizing that their po-
litical rights were being violated or how they could take steps to address the
problem. Having a law has given them vocabulary to describe their experi-
ences —as well as motivated them to address this problem in programs to
train and support female politicians, thus breaking the silence around vio-
lence and taking practical steps to mitigate its impact.
12
For Piscopo (2016), the best way forward is to bolster the implementa-
tion of existing laws on violence against women, as well as to pass legisla-
tion on sexual harassment in the workplace (see more on this below).
Efforts to address violence against women in politics, however, need not be
limited to legal reforms. In June 2015, an all-party committee in the Cana-
dian House of Commons issued a report outlining a process for handling
sexual harassment complaints, sparked by the realization that there was no
formal process to deal with these issues after two female parliamentarians
claimed in November 2014 that they had been sexualy harassed by two male
mps from another party. The report also stated that all parliamentarians
should receive training in the new code of conduct and take a pledge that
11
Virtual interview in Costa Rica, April 2015.
12
Interviews in Bolivia, August 2015.
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Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
condemns sexual harassment (Walters, 2015). Recognizing the need for a
similar type of policy at the party level, the British Labour Party has ad-
opted rules to prevent sexism, racism, and bullying in meetings, making
clear what standards of behavior they expect from party members and lead-
ers (Cooper, 2015). Other types of rules, in other words, can contribute to
building up a broader normative framework condemning such behaviors
and raising awareness that such acts are “wrongand need to change.
Multi-sector Strategies to Combat Violence Against Women in Politics
Violence against women in politics is a problem with many dimensions, af-
fecting women engaged in various political roles and involving a range of
different behaviors. Like violence against women in general, therefore, it
cannot be solved using only one set of strategies but, rather, requires a more
holistic and comprehensive approach involving interventions at a host of
different levels (Heise, 1998).
13
Piscopo (2016) outlines some innovative
ideas for tackling violence against women in politics in Latin America, ar-
guing that much of the necessary infrastructure already exists between leg-
islation on violence against women and electoral courts ready to defend
women’s political rights —the missing policy element being laws to address
sexual harassment in the workplace. She proposes that further institutional
reforms might include special prosecutors to receive and address com-
plaints regarding physical assault and psychological harassment; training
and sensitization programs for officers at the region’s women’s police sta-
tions; government taskforces to coordinate law enforcement and court of-
ficials to prosecute cases under existing criminal statutes and laws on
violence against women; and ombudspersons in electoral tribunals to docu-
ment and investigate claims.
We think that these are all excellent ideas to pursue, assuming commit-
ment on the part of governments to tackle this problem. However, these
proposals are also limited in two crucial ways. First, the recommendation
that existing legislation be used as a basis for prosecuting acts of violence
against women in politics ignores the fact that elected officials are often
protected by immunity provisions, making it impossible to pursue claims
13
The same is true of efforts to elect and empower women in politics more broadly (Krook
and Norris, 2014).
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Violence Against Women in Politics: A Defense of the Concept
about sexual harassment, for example, perpetrated by a deputy.
14
This ap-
proach also overlooks additional, relatively minor steps that can be taken to
strengthen existing legislation. The Superior Electoral Tribunal in Bolivia,
for example, decided that it would only accept resignations from local
councilors in person at the national office in La Paz —making it impossible
for male suplentes to present a resignation letter from a female office-holder
who was forced to sign a blank paper when she was first elected.
15
Another
idea is to require that suplentes be of the same sex as the propietario, guaran-
teeing that if a woman resigns she is replaced by another woman —thus re-
moving possibilities for coercion on the part of men seeking to push women
out of office.
16
Second, these proposed solutions focus exclusively on state actors, over-
looking other groups of actors who might be mobilized to tackle this prob-
lem. Piscopo (2016) implicitly acknowledges this idea by alluding to
differences in jurisdiction that make some actors more appropriate than
others in terms of responding to different kinds of violence. We would add
that various types of actors also bring with them distinct resources for pre-
venting, treating, and punishing violence against women in politics.
17
Global and regional organizations might integrate violence against
women in politics into existing international instruments; draft an interna-
tional accord or declaration on ending this violence; establish regional pro-
tocols or model guidelines offering guidance to parties and/or parliaments
in tackling this problem; facilitate information sharing on data and strate-
gies for combating violence against women in politics; place the issue on
the agenda of international meetings; and exchange data, documents, ex-
periences, and challenges in combatting violence.
Governments might conduct awareness-raising campaigns directed at
parties and voters to highlight the problem through posters, websites,
tweets, on-line videos and television spots; create procedures for register-
ing and handling complaints through new or existing state agencies, in-
cluding police stations, electoral authorities, or gender equality offices;
designate a state agency to serve as a primary point of contact for victims of
violence against women in politics and their families; develop indicators
14
Interviews in Bolivia, August 2015; virtual interview in Costa Rica, April 2015.
15
Interview in Bolivia, August 2015.
16
Interviews in Argentina, August 2014; interviews in Mexico, July 2014.
17
For a more comprehensive list, see ndis Global Call to Action to Stop Violence Against
Women in Politics (National Democratic Institute, 2016).
pp. 459-490 Política y gobierno VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016
Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
and collect data on the prevalence, form, and impact of violence against
women in politics; and provide training to law enforcement officials to en-
able them to recognize such acts, reporting and prosecuting these crimes to
the fullest extent of the law.
Parliaments might organize a national forum in parliament on violence
against women in politics, inviting locally elected women as well as women
in parties and women’s civil society organizations; introduce a resolution
condemning violence against women in politics in all its forms; incorporate
violence against women in politics into existing state laws and frameworks;
consider legislative reforms; conduct a confidential survey of parliamentar-
ians’ experiences with electoral and political violence, including incidents
occurring within parliament; establish or revise parliamentary codes of con-
duct to address aspects of institutional culture that create a hostile work
environment for female parliamentarians and staff; and provide training for
parliamentarians to raise awareness about their own conduct, as well as the
resources available for responding to acts of violence.
Political parties might organize sessions at annual party assemblies, as
well as distribute materials to party members, including posters, websites,
tweets, and online videos to explain what violence against women in poli-
tics is; approve a party-level resolution condemning violence against wom-
en in politics in all its forms; develop a party code of conduct for executive
and rank-and-file members to prohibit sexism or bullying in meetings, as
well as sexual harassment in all contexts of party work; reform party sta-
tutes or policies to impose sanctions on members who commit acts of vio-
lence against women in politics; establish a party-level body responsible
for receiving complaints from victims and recommending sanctions
against perpetrators; make a public pledge, independently or with other
parties, to ensure the safety and security of women in elections; and sign a
cross-party declaration defining violence against women in politics as un-
acceptable.
Civil society groups might organize consciousness-raising efforts with
female voters, activists, and candidates to introduce them to the concept of
violence against women in politics; develop a network of elected women
across the country to raise awareness and build pressure for reform; provide
services to victims, including call centers and referral systems; and create
score cards for parties rating them on how well they respect womens rights
to participate in politics without fear of violence. Female leaders can add to
these efforts by sharing their personal stories and creating networks to gen-
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Violence Against Women in Politics: A Defense of the Concept
erate momentum for change; participating in training and mentoring pro-
grams for female candidates with coping strategies for responding to and
mitigating acts of violence against women in politics; and participating in
networks to develop shared concepts of violence against women in politics
and work toward greater public awareness. Both civil society groups and
individual politicians might use social media as a platform for exposing acts
of violence, for example by posting photos of defaced offices or screenshots
of rape threats, to draw attention to the problem and its various manifesta-
tions, while also calling out perpetrators for their unacceptable behavior.
Members of the justice and security sectors might create protocols for
responding to victims of violence against women in politics; establish pro-
cedures for registering and handling complaints; raise awareness regarding
legislation and other legal tools that might be mobilized to tackle this prob-
lem; and provide training to police officers to help them recognize and re-
spond to complaints. Electoral observers and authorities might revise
electoral management body rules and regulation to define and respond to
acts of violence against women in politics; mobilize civil society actors to
assist in election monitoring, for example through telephone hotlines, text
messaging systems, and web-based applications; create procedures for reg-
istering and handling complaints; and incorporate a gender perspective in
electoral observation guidelines to recognize acts of violence against wom-
en in politics. The media sector, finally, might provide training for journal-
ists to enhance gender-sensitivity in media coverage; partner with civil
society organizations and technology companies to develop mechanisms to
deal with online abuse; and harness social media as a tool to publicize and
condemn acts of violence against women in politics, using public scrutiny
to bring pressure to bear on perpetrators. Viewed together, these strategies
suggest that a host of different actors can —and should— be engaged to
combat violence against women in politics.
Conclusions and the Way Forward
Violence against women in politics is a serious problem, but activists and
scholars around the world are still coming to terms with what this phenom-
enon is and, indeed, even what it should be called. A growing consensus,
however, is that these acts should not simply be brushed away as an inevi-
table part of “politics as usual”. Rather, supporters emphatically believe
that violence is not the cost of participating in politics (ndi, 2016). Attending
pp. 459-490 Política y gobierno VOLUME XXIII · NUMBER 2 · II SEMESTER 2016
Mona Lena Krook and Juliana Restrepo Sanín
to this dynamics, rather, is crucial for ensuring that violence against women
in politics does not undermine the civil and political rights of women, as in-
dividuals and as a collective, and thereby threaten broader prospects for in-
clusion and democracy. Tackling violence against women in politics can
thus play a crucial role in developing democratic culture, institutions, and
practice—not the other way around, as Piscopo (2016) argues. Growing
global momentum behind this issue suggests that these conversations will
continue into the future, however, as interested parties work together —and
at times disagree— on the best concepts and solutions for ending this perni-
cious problem, with the goal of ensuring that men and women are able to
participate on equal terms without the fear of violence.
P
g
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... Takođe, i za pronalaženje odgovora na pitanje da li nasilje nad političarkama narasta kao negativna reakcija na političko osnaživanje žena ili je reč o fenomenu koji postoji već dugo u političkoj sferi i koji su istraživači svesno previđali i zanemarivali, fokusirajući se na nasilje prema muškarcima. Treba naglasiti i da postoji stanovište da nasilje nad ženama u politici ima dodirne tačke sa zločinima koji se čine iz mržnje, jer se koriste isti mehanizmi moć i kao sredstvo za reafirmaciju ugroženih vrednosti (Krook, Restrepo Sanin 2016). Kao i zločini iz mržnje, akti nasilja nad ženama u politici su poruka koja ima za cilj da uskrati jednak pristup ljudskim pravima i da stvori efekat talasanja koji pojačava oseć aj ranjivosti među ostalim pripadnicima napadnute zajednice. ...
... Ključni izazov kod obe vrste nasilja leži u činjenici da žrtve često ne doživljavaju da su na isti način povređene. Zbog toga se dešava da u pojedinim slučajevima političarke naturalizuju ovakvu vrstu ponašanja i tretiraju je kao nelagodu i kolateralnu štetu, koja ide uz posao bavljenja politikom (Krook, Restrepo Sanin 2016). Vrlo često i negiraju problem nasilja i ne žele da se suoče sa optužbama u strahu da ne ih bi opravdavale i išle na ruku seksističkim i rodnim predrasudama i stereotipima. ...
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... In this process, even though there should be a woman and a man for each position, one as titular and one as deputy, because women still play a secondary role in decision-making, women elected to the titular position are pressured to leave their position to the male deputy (Domínguez and Pacheco 2018: 4). As mentioned by Krook and Restrepo (2016), like other violence against women, violence against women in politics can be seen to serve as a form of gender role enforcement (Donat and D'Emilio 1992). The problem of political violence towards women eventually resulted in the 2012 law against political violence and abuse against women, but it took a long time before it was approved. ...
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The electronic version of this book has been prepared by scanning TIFF 600 dpi bitonal images of the pages of the text. Original source: Gender bias and the state : symbolic reform at work in Fifth Republic France / Amy G. Mazur.; Mazur, Amy.; xviii, 312 p. ; 24 cm.; Pittsburgh, PA :; This electronic text file was created by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). No corrections have been made to the OCR-ed text and no editing has been done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through an automated process using the recommendations for Level 2 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file.
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Violence against women in politics is increasingly recognized around the world -but especially in Latin America- as an emerging tactic to deter women's political participation. We survey how this concept has been defined by academics and practitioners across the region -largely in terms of physical and psychological violence- and draw on global data and research in various disciplines to propose expanding this concept to include two further forms of violence: economic and symbolic. We provide examples of all four types of violence in Latin American countries and then consider a range of solutions that might be pursued in light of this broader definition. We emphasize that a comprehensive approach provides the best means for tackling violence in all its forms.
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Female politicians in Latin America experience myriad forms of gender-based abuse, from physical attacks to degrading sexual commentaries. Activists have framed this problem as violence against women in politics (VAWIP), an emphasis on women's political and electoral rights that reflects the political opportunity structure. In Latin America, broken criminal justice systems foment impunity, normalizing actors' use of violence to maintain political and patriarchal power. Citizens' rights to physical and emotional security are not protected by law enforcement, but women's rights to elect and be elected have received substantive protections from electoral institutions and electoral courts. Consequently, framing VAWIP as an electoral crime represents an astute activist strategy-but one that researchers cannot adopt without losing explanatory power. From an academic standpoint, VAWIP overlooks how widespread impunity results in the routinization of violence throughout state and society, leading to policy solutions narrowly tailored to punish political parties and protect elite women. Such reforms do little to address the underlying absence of the rule of law.
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Violence against women in politics is increasingly recognized around the world but especially in Latin America as an emerging tactic to deter women's political participation. We survey how this concept has been defined by academics and practitioners across the region largely in terms of physical and psychological violence and draw on global data and research in various disciplines to propose expanding this concept to include two further forms of violence: economic and symbolic. We provide examples of all four types of violence in Latin American countries and then consider a range of solutions that might be pursued in light of this broader definition. We emphasize that a comprehensive approach provides the best means for tackling violence in all its forms.
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Gender quotas have diffused rapidly around the globe in recent decades, suggesting widespread and dramatic transformations in women's access to political power. Yet, quotas often face serious challenges following their introduction, resulting in a gap between quota requirements and electoral outcomes. To explore these dynamics, this article develops a theoretical account of how and why political elites resist the changes called for by quota reforms. It argues that three tools predicated upon women's exclusion from the political sphere – false universalism and political principles, male power and political survival, and gender and leadership norms – are often mobilized to render quotas illegitimate, making resistance understandable and, indeed, even desirable on a host of grounds. The article then catalogues trends in resistance at different stages of the electoral process, integrating materials from case studies around the world – and exposing a wide range of strategies, often creative, to subvert the impact of quota policies. Adopting gender quotas may thus be only the beginning – rather than the end – of a long and contested process to empower women as political actors.
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The rising influence of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) has paralleled the rapid development of women’s political participation worldwide. For women entering political life or holding public positions, new ICTs are frequently used as tools of gender-specific electoral and political violence. There is evidence of ICTs being used to perpetrate a broad range of violent acts against women during elections, especially acts inflicting fear and psychological harm. Specific characteristics of ICTs are particularly adapted to misuse in this manner. Despite these significant challenges, ICTs also offer groundbreaking solutions for preventing and mitigating violence against women in elections (VAWE). Notably, ICTs combat VAWE through monitoring and documenting violence, via education and awareness-raising platforms and through empowerment and advocacy initiatives.
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Constitutional questions about hate crime laws in the United States were settled in the early 1990s. Yet, critics persist in arguing that the laws punish “improper thinking.” In this context, this article addresses the question of the justification of punishing motivation—or bias—behind hate crimes when the type of expression and the thought behind it used to indicate motivation are largely protected. There has been considerable legal scholarship on this question but little empirical investigation of how supporters of legislation respond to the question. The article draws from in-depth interviews carried out with a purposive sample of “elite” informants in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1999. A key theme that emerged was that alleged greater harms inflicted by hate crimes—over and above the harms inflicted by the same underlying but otherwise motivated crimes—justify greater punishment. A conceptualization is provided of alleged harms involved.