Violence against Women in Politics: Latin America in an Era of Backlash

Violence against women in politics is increasingly recognized as a problem for women’s political participation worldwide. At the same time, antiprogressive campaigns promoted by religious groups and populist governments have risen across the globe. Looking at several cases in Latin America, I explore the differences and similarities between violence against women in politics and backlash, arguing that while they may be interrelated or concurrent, there are important differences between the goals, perpetrators, and forms of these two phenomena. While violence against women in politics is directed at women as women, backlash is directed at particular policies that, in the view of backlashers, upend a social order based on the heterosexual and patriarchal family. Ending both violence against women in politics and backlash requires structural and cultural changes, but each requires distinctive techniques. On the one hand, institutional changes that disincentivize violence against women in politics and provide effective reporting mechanisms will reduce the effects of this form of violence. Combatting backlash, on the other hand, requires strong and autonomous civil society organizations, mobilized grassroots movements, and political alliances between these actors to create effective pressure for resisting regressive policies. Both violence against women in politics and backlash pose important challenges for democracy worldwide, and combating them is imperative.