Women's Rights and Opposition: Explaining the Stunted Rise and Sudden Reversals of Progressive Violence against Women Policies in Contentious Contexts

Abstract

International conventions and domestic laws have been enacted to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women worldwide. However, these progressive policy initiatives have faced opposition in contentious contexts where policy rivals have contested their creation and implementation. Existing scholarship focuses primarily on progressive networks that have led to policy advances, such as violence against women (VAW) policies, while emerging literature has noted their limited impact and implementation. However, there is scant attention paid to one major underlying cause of limited impact and problematic implementation: that there is sustained opposition to these policies by policy rivals that resist and undermine progressive policies. We identify opponents and entrenched opposition to VAW laws in Mexico and Nicaragua in the 1990s and 2010s. We also identify how these opponents leverage ties with the state and utilise ‘family discourse’, framing progressives as anti-family, as strategies and mechanisms for stunting and even reversing VAW laws.

Can conservatism make women more vulnerable to violence?

“…Nonetheless, as illustrated, the impact of electoral conservatism on policy uptake is stronger in our models of Protection policies. This is aligned with previous work that suggests that, although combating VAW may be a non-dogmatic policy area, preferences on how to combat VAW diverge (O'Brien and Walsh, 2020;Neumann, 2018). Note: Panels A, B, and C illustrate results from models 3,6, and 9 reported in Table 2, respectively.…”

“…As such, we use TSE data and parties' ideological classifications established by Power and Rodrigues-Silveira (2019) to derive measures of % elected conservative (Mayor) and % elected conservative (Council) 12 . Finally, the existing literature has identified religious influence within the state as a source of rivalry to progressive protective policies for women (O'Brien and Walsh, 2020). To control for this, we follow Boas (2014) and use data from the TSE to identify city councilors whose candidate (i.e., ballot) names included the title of "pastor" and derive the measure % elected Evangelical (Council) 13 .…”

“…While ideology may not impact support for anti-VAW legislation per se, it may shape actors' attitudes towards the policy frameworks necessary for the implementation of legislation. For example, as an emerging literature shows, once legislation is adopted, conservative groups with ties to state actors may work to undermine policies perceived to threaten the maintenance of family structures (O'Brien and Walsh, 2020;Neumann, 2018). There is still much that we do not know about the relationship between conservatism and anti-VAW policies, however:…”

“…In turn, effectively enacting anti-VAW legislation requires the implementation of complex policy frameworks (Tavares et al, 2019). If the political will of politicians to enact these policy infrastructures is tied to the preferences of their constituents, then it is possible that conservative voters' opposition to particular types of policy instruments (O'Brien and Walsh, 2020), unwillingness to fund anti-VAW initiatives (Macaulay, 2010), and/or non-prioritization of VAW as a policy area (Page and Shapiro, 1983) could have dire consequences to governments' efforts to eradicate gender-based violence.…”

“…But the maintenance of family units is a core principle of many conservatives and religious actors (Luna and Kaltwasser, 2014). So, while conservatives may support policies that promote reconciliation and mediation between survivors and their perpetrators, they may strongly oppose "anti-family" mechanisms, such as protective measures (O'Brien and Walsh, 2020;Neumann, 2018).…”