Gender inclusion has historically been a forgotten variable of democracy (Paxton 2010). Although legal mechanisms for enhancing women’s access to public institutions have slowly narrowed the quantitative gender gap in the global political arena, discrimination and political violence against women has increasingly hindered democratic practices in qualitative terms (Freidenberg and Del Valle 2017; Krook and Sanín 2020). In this sense, political violence against women has become a critical global concern, and this panel aims at fostering a comprehensive dialogue on the complex ways this phenomenon affects women’s leadership in different settings in Latin America.
It is important to take into account that such gender-based political violence does not only hinder women’s leadership in the electoral and institutional scenarios, but that is also related to civil society organisations. That means it does not target just politicians and their immediate surroundings, but also human right defenders and members of civil society associations and social movements (Krook 2020). Moreover, it can manifest itself both in a material way, through harassment, intimidation, and physical threats designed to exclude or silence women as a whole, and in a symbolic way, through discourses and practices that subtly undermine women’s leadership. The multi-dimensional complexity of violence requires a gendered and intersectional approach for better understanding how it affects women in their diversity, taking into consideration black, indigenous, rural and LGBTQ+ identities.
Panel discussion will address the variety of political violence and discrimination against women, and it will comprise of both empirical studies and research engaging with theoretical debates on the subject. Submissions grounded on decolonial feminist theory, intersectionality, and critical gender studies are particularly welcomed. By drawing on diverse theoretical perspectives, the panel will contribute to deepen our understanding about multifaceted structural factors, like political violence, that continue to limit women's full and equal political participation, and to explore strategies in the pursuit of meaningful democratic practices that respond to gender equality.