The concept of violence against women succeeded in uniting women’s activists around the world because of its breadth, covering issues from sexual and domes­tic violence to dowry murders and female genital mutilation and beyond. In the interventions into Russian gender violence politics, the issues that received the most attention were rape, sexual harassment, domestic violence, […]

Finally, global feminism calls for states to shift their formal policy and everyday practice. An essential part of linking gender violence with human rights is to hold states accountable for punishing and penalizing perpetrators of violence against women as well as for providing social assistance to victims so that they can escape and recover from […]

In light of these concerns and obstacles—as in most studies examining gender violence in comparative perspective (e. g., Elman 1996; Weldon 2002; Kantola 2006; Zippel 2006)—this study relies on assessing responsiveness of the state and society rather than effectiveness. In other words, the study investigates the degree to which certain initiatives are taken up rather […]

Neoimperialist Concerns, Empirical Obstacles Investigating this study’s central question—whether foreign intervention can help women—requires creating standards of measurement, a move complicated by the colonial history of justifying imperialist projects under the guise of “help­ing” women. This concern is especially acute when the United States claims to be “in the forefront of advancing women’s causes around […]

To do this, I employ a structural approach to policy analysis in which the policy process is understood “as being fundamentally shaped by social structures that systematically disadvantage some groups and advantage others” (Weldon 2002, 6). By social structure, I refer to “a mode of social organizations, a set of relation­ships that position people relative […]

Comparative and International Models Over the last two decades, social scientists steeped in both feminist theory and social science rigor have begun the comparative study of gender violence politics. The first studies understood the emergence of activisms against gender violence and the passage of policy reforms, such as new domestic violence laws and new protections […]

W hen the Russian borders opened in the early 1990s, the inter­national community responded with an unprecedented torrent of attention to issues such as rape, sexual harassment, domestic vio­lence, and later, trafficking in women. Small grants and then larger grants funded Russian academics to research and then to create crisis centers and other non­governmental organizations […]

To finish a project of this size requires both professional and personal support. I have had both in abundance, and I am truly grateful. For their patient descriptions and explanations, I thank the activists and schol­ars active in Russia, especially Nataliia Abubikirova, Elisabeth Duban, Gabri — elle Fitchett-Akimova, Venera Ibragimova, Irina Khaldeeva, Zoia Khotkina, Marina […]

Chapter i puts these questions into the context of feminist and political science theories and clarifies the study design and key concepts. Chapter 2 discusses the construction of a global normative consensus on violence against women and contrasts this consensus with Russia’s historical approach to gender violence. It also provides more background on gender in […]

Feminist social science, especially in places such as Russia where such research is new, requires eclectic methods. In exploring the impact of intervention on gender violence mobilization, awareness, and state responsiveness, my method is grounded in what social scientists refer to as “participant observation.” I follow other scholars of gender violence politics in this approach […]