The Political Economy of Violence against Women

Violence against women is a major problem in all countries, affecting women in every socio-economic group and at every life stage. Nowhere in the world do women share equal social and economic rights with men or the same access as men to productive resources. Economic globalization and development are creating new challenges for women's rights as well as some new opportunities for advancing women's economic independence and gender equality. Yet, when women have access to productive resources and they enjoy social and economic rights they are less vulnerable to violence across all societies. The Political Economy of Violence against Women develops a feminist political economy approach to identify the linkages between different forms of violence against women and macro structural processes in strategic local and global sites - from the household to the transnational level. In doing so, it seeks to account for the globally increasing scale and brutality of violence against women. These sites include economic restructuring and men's reaction to the loss of secure employment, the abusive exploitation associated with the transnational migration of women workers, the growth of a sex trade around the creation of free trade zones, the spike in violence against women in financial liberalization and crises, the scourge of sexual violence in armed conflict and post-crisis peacebuilding or reconstruction efforts and the deleterious gendered impacts of natural disasters. Examples are drawn from South Africa, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, the Pacific Islands, Argentina, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Iceland.

"By bringing the political economy approach to her analysis, Jacqui True has rightfully placed 'violence against women' within the web of economic, social and political realms, demonstrating that the problem is embedded in structured inequalities in relations of production and reproduction. She demystifies the often compartmentalized approaches that reduce the problem to 'victimization' and 'harm done' and reveals how gendered social and economic inequalities increase the risks of violence against women whether in the context of different hierarchical systems, neoliberal economic policies, armed conflicts, natural disasters or other crises. This book is a major contribution to the feminist debates on women's human rights and will have a positive impact on policy and practice for change."

--Professor Yakin Ertürk, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women 2003-2009

"I have been working in the field of human rights and in particular the rights of women for many, many years. My own observations, particularly in relation to post-conflict situations, were that the absence of social and economic rights inhibited real participation by women in governance and other public life. Jacqui True has explained that simplistic observation as only part of a broader analysis. She moves easily from one context to the next, from the economic crisis to trafficking, between conflict and non-conflict, and consistently explains and applies the theory of political economy in a way which is compelling. With this book she has opened a door, and one which we should all be determined to go through."--Madeleine Rees, former Chief of the UN OHCHR Women's Rights and Gender Unit

Jacqui True is Professor of Politics and international Relations at Monash University

Chapter 1: From Domestic Violence to War Crimes: The Political Economy of Violence Against Women

Chapter 2: What Has Poverty Got to Do With It? Feminist Frameworks for Analyzing Violence Against Women

Chapter 3: Losing Entitlement, Regaining Control: Masculinities and Competitive Globalization

Chapter 4: Crossing Borders to Make Ends Meet: Sex Trafficking, the Maid Trade, and Other Gendered Forms of Labor Exploitation

Chapter 5: New Spaces of Gender Violence: Economic Transition and Trade

Chapter 6: Boom, Bust and Beating: International Financial Institutions, Crises, and Violence against Women

Chapter 7: Old and New Tactics of War: Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict

Chapter 8: Rebuilding With or Without Women? Gendered Violence in Post-Conflict Peace and Reconstruction

Chapter 9: Who Suffers Most? Gendered Violence in Natural Disasters and their Aftermath

Chapter 10: Researching Violence Against Women: The Point is to Change it