Protest Policy And The Problem Of Violence Against Women

Violence against women is one of the most insidious social ills facing the world today. Yet governmental response is inconsistent, ranging from dismissal to aggressive implementation of policies and programs to combat the problem. In her comparative study of thirty-six democratic governments, Laurel Weldon examines the root causes and consequences of the differences in public policy from Northern Europe to Latin America. She reveals that factors that often influence the development of social policies do not determine policies on violence against women. Neither economic level, religion, region, nor the number of women in government determine governmental responsiveness to this problem. Weldon demonstrates, for example, that Nordic governments take no more action to combat violence against women than Latin American governments, even though the Swedish welfare state is often considered a leader in social policy, particularly with regard to women's issues. Instead, the presence of independently organized, active women's movements plays a greater role in placing violence against women on the public agenda. The breadth and scope of governmental response is greatly enhanced by the presence of an office dedicated to promoting women's status. Weldon closes with practical lessons and insights to improve government action on violence against women and other important issues of social justice and democracy.

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.

"An interesting and important book...with a rare combination of rigor and nuance."--S. Laurel Weldon, author of Protest, Policy, and the Problem of Violence Against Women: A Cross-National Comparison.

In this book, leading gender scholars survey the contribution of feminist scholarship to new norms and knowledge in diverse areas of political science and related political practice. They provide new evidence of the breadth of this contribution and its policy impact. Rather than offering another account of the problem of gender inequality in the discipline, the book focuses on the positive contribution of gender innovation. It highlights in a systematic and in-depth way how gender innovation has contributed to sharpening the conceptual tools available in different subfields, including international relations and public policy. At the same time, the authors show the limits of impact in core areas of an increasingly pluralised discipline. This volume will appeal to scholars and students of political science and international relations.

This book provides university students, policy makers, activists, public health workers, clinicians, and lay citizens alike with a vivid overview of the scope of the problem of gender-based violence worldwide, as well as a sense of the important work now underway to eradicate it. An integration of a vast range of data and insights from all the major disciplines that have contributed to our understanding of this problem, this book is invaluable as a classroom text. The authors have been guided throughout this work by the desire to contribute a document that would move the current international discourse along by providing an historical, interdisciplinary overview that is at once critical, constructive, and visionary.

"A must-read for scholars across a broad sweep of disciplines. Laurel Weldon weaves together skillfully the theoretical strands of gender equality policy, intersectionality, social movements, and representation in a multimethod/level comparative study that unequivocally places women's movements at the center of our understanding of democracy and social change." ---Amy G. Mazur, Washington State University "Laurel Weldon's When Protest Makes Policy expands and enriches our understanding of representation by stressing social movements as a primary avenue for the representation of marginalized groups. With powerful theory backed by persuasive analysis, it is a must-read for anyone interested in democracy and the representation of marginalized groups." ---Pamela Paxton, University of Texas at Austin "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? Political theorist S. Laurel Weldon demonstrates that social movements provide a hitherto unrecognized form of democratic representation, and thus offer a 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 other member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Weldon examines processes of representation at the local, state, and national levels. She concludes that, for systematically disadvantaged groups, social movements can be as important---sometimes more important---for the effective articulation of a group perspective as political parties, interest groups, or the physical presence of group members in legislatures. When Protest Makes Policy contributes to the emerging scholarship on civil society as well as the traditional scholarship on representation. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with advancing social cohesion and deepening democracy and inclusion as well as those concerned with advancing equality for women, ethnic and racial minorities, the working class, and poor people. S. Laurel Weldon is Professor of Political Science at Purdue University.

Analyzing what is known about violence against women, this book centers on the contrast between the U.S.’s historic focus on a criminal legal framework and the human rights lens used globally by feminist activists. Distilling the existing evidence base and literature on violence against women in the United States, this book includes an overview of forms of violence, the prevalence of violence, contexts in which violence occurs, and debates about intervention and prevention. It engages with how human rights frameworks define violence against women as a cause and consequence of women’s inequality, and explores how race, ethnicity, class, citizenship status, and sexual orientation shape experiences of victimization, perpetration, and institutional responses. Chapters synthesize prevalence methods and data, key feminist concepts, impacts and aftermath of violence, what is known about perpetrators, the history of anti-violence activism, violence against women on college campuses and in the media, and how the criminal legal systems respond. Contested issues, such as prostitution and pornography, and the extent to which commercial sex can be understood as a form of, and/or context for, violence against women, are also explored. The book closes with a final chapter offering directions for adopting a human rights approach to ending violence against women in the United States. By offering an analysis of how violence against women has come to be named in activist, policy, and academic arenas, Violence Against Women in the US is an essential resource for students, scholars, and practitioners.

A unique two-volume examination of the progress women have made in achieving political equality, Women and Politics around the World addresses both transnational and gender-related issues as well as specific conditions in more than 20 countries. Women and Politics around the World: A Comparative History and Survey is an exploration of the role of women in political systems worldwide, as well as an examination of how government actions in various countries have an impact on the lives of the female population. Women and Politics around the World divides its coverage into two volumes. The first looks at such crucial issues facing women today as health policy, civil rights, and education, comparing conditions around the world. The second volume profiles 22 different countries, representing a broad range of governments, economies, and cultures. Each profile looks at the history and current state of women's political and economic participation in a particular country, and includes an in-depth look at a representative policy. The result is a resource unlike any other—one that gives students, researchers, and other interested readers a fresh new way of investigating a truly global issue.