Gender-based violence, authoritarianism, and the state: Battlegrounds of control and resistance

2025/08/20 by Jennifer Wies, Hillary J. Haldane · 2 voices
Social Sciences · #Gender Politics and Representation

paper · doi:10.1080/00187259.2025.2540110

openalex publication_date 2025/08/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15

Abstract

At a time of escalating authoritarianism, neoliberal austerity, and intensified anti-equity backlash, acts of gender-based violence (GBV) reveal and reproduce systemic inequalities. This article argues that GBV functions both as a barometer of democratic health and as a battleground of state power. Through an applied anthropological lens, the authors use examples from the United States and Aotearoa to demonstrate how policy shifts strategically dismantle GBV protections. These cases illuminate a global pattern in which care infrastructures are being eroded under the guise of neutrality, efficiency, and deregulation. The authors call for renewed ethnographic and theoretical attention to GBV and advocate for anthropological engagement with anti-violence movements and policy reform.

Discussions

• Check out Jennifer R. Wies & Hillary J. Haldane's "#Gender-based violence, authoritarianism, and the state: Battlegrounds of control and resistance" in Human Organization at doi.org/10.1080/0018... #a [bsky, 3 points, 0 comments]
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