Ending Violence Against Women

8. Challenging the state.

"Feminist theory has viewed violence against women as a result of a male-dominated society, but traditional counseling models for battered women have largely failed to encourage social change as a solution to this disturbing epidemic. Offering challenging arguments on the power of the counseling relationship to initiate change, Counseling to End Violence Against Women unites feminist and radical feminist theory and counseling practice to promote women's liberation from violence and sexual oppression. In her comprehensive model, author Mollie Whalen examines the historical roles of the women's movement and the battered women's movement in relation to the development of a politically subversive approach to counseling. Whalen's model focuses not only on empowering individual women but on seizing the collective power of women to end their victimization. Grounded in theory, this practical model also addresses professional issues that confront counselors in their work with battered women. In Counseling to End Violence Against Women, Whalen reconstructs the role of counseling with victimized women and promotes a valuable model for use in treatment and training. Counselors and counseling students will find her perspective challenging and invaluable."--Publisher's description.

Involving Men in Ending Violence against Women provides a feminist analysis of men's motivations for joining violence against women's movement. Through extensive fieldwork in Afghanistan, Pakistan and East Timor, this innovative title explores the roles men play in violence against women programs.

Throughout the world, one in three women will experience violence in their lifetime, such as beating, rape, or assault, yet it continues to be downplayed by the general public and by policymakers who fail to create and fund programmes to eradicate it. However, there have been some significant achievements made over the last few decades to combat gender-based violence and to promote women's empowerment. This publication examines the various forms of violence experienced by women around the world, drawing on the findings of research conducted by expert consultants. It highlights examples of good practices and explores the reasons why some activities have failed to meet their objectives. It goes on to consider policy options available and makes recommendations for actions required to build on these achievements. The report includes details of legislation on gender-based violence by country, selected indicators on violence against women, and information on projects supported by the UNIFEM Trust Fund to eliminate violence against women.

"The Secretary-General's in-depth study on violence against women, mandated by General Assembly resolution 58/185, was prepared by the Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat"--P. ix.

Women have made significant inroads into political life in recent years, but in many parts of the world, their increased engagement has spurred attacks, intimidation, and harassment. This book provides the first comprehensive account of this phenomenon, exploring how women came to give these experiences a name: violence against women in politics. Tracing its global emergence as a concept, Mona Lena Krook draws on insights from multiple disciplines--political science, sociology, history, gender studies, economics, linguistics, psychology, and forensic science--to develop a more robust version of this concept to support ongoing activism and inform future scholarly work. Krook argues that violence against women in politics is not simply a gendered extension of existing definitions of political violence privileging physical aggressions against rivals. Rather, it is a distinct phenomenon involving a broad range of harms to attack and undermine women as political actors, taking physical, psychological, sexual, economic, and semiotic forms. Incorporating a wide range of country examples, she illustrates what this violence looks like in practice, catalogues emerging solutions around the world, and considers how to document this phenomenon more effectively. Highlighting its implications for democracy, human rights, and gender equality, the book asserts that addressing this issue requires ongoing dialogue and collaboration to ensure women's equal rights to participate--freely and safely--in political life around the globe.