Citation

Sanín JR. Polit. Gender 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S1743923X23000442

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Research on violence against women in politics (VAWIP) has exploded in the last five years. Initially, most of the work in this area was done by local and domestic organizations and by international organizations (Krook Reference Krook2019; Restrepo Sanín 2022). Today, more and more scholars are researching VAWIP, publishing articles and books on its multiple dimensions, and studying its impact in advanced democracies and democratizing contexts (Berry, Bouka, and Kamuru Reference Berry, Bouka and Kamuru2021; Bjarnegård and Zetterberg Reference Bjarnegård and Zetterberg2023; Collier and Raney Reference Collier and Raney2018; Dalton Reference Dalton2021; Freidenberg and Del Valle Pérez Reference Freidenberg and Del Valle Pérez2017; Håkansson Reference Håkansson2021; Krook Reference Krook2022; Kuperberg Reference Kuperberg2021). This attention is not surprising: the rise of illiberal, populist politicians with profoundly misogynistic, racist, and anti-LGBTQ discourses, and the movements that support them, have made women in politics--as candidates and elected officials, but also as unelected state officials, journalists, women's and human rights defenders, and voters--highly visible targets and victims of this form of violence (Biroli Reference Biroli2018; Biroli and Caminotti Reference Biroli and Caminotti2020; Corredor Reference Corredor2019; Hawkesworth Reference Hawkesworth2020; Kuperberg Reference Kuperberg2021; Matfess, Kishi, and Berry Reference Matfess, Kishi and Berry2023; Piscopo and Walsh Reference Piscopo and Walsh2020; Rowley Reference Rowley2020; Townsend-Bell Reference Townsend-Bell2020).

In this essay, I focus on potential research partnerships between scholars and practitioners to address this urgent issue. In particular, I outline academic challenges to working on this topic, what collaborations as a (feminist) scholar might look like in practice, and opportunities and challenges of establishing effective partnerships. I base this analysis on my experience studying this problem in Latin America, both as an academic and together with several international and regional organizations, including the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy and the Inter-American Commission of Women of the Organization of American States.

Language: en