Een lange weg

A long road. Toward recognition of femicide as a gender issue in the Netherlands Although the Netherlands was at the forefront of raising awareness about violence against women in the 1970s and 1980s, the specific issue of femicide – particularly intimate partner femicide – has only recently gained broad public attention. This essay explores why the Netherlands lagged behind other Western European countries and examines the factors that contributed to this delay. The current debate focuses on the killing of women by (ex-)partners, driven by a gender-specific motive: men’s loss of control. This contribution places the issue in historical context and emphasizes the need for a gender-sensitive approach to partner violence.