Feminist Global Health Security by Clare Wenham

Author:Clare Wenham
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Structural inequality/violence

Alongside this everyday violence and SGBV, structural violence underpinned the Zika outbreak. The concept of structural violence suggests that social, economic, political, legal, religious, and cultural structures and institutions, at the global, state, and local levels, inflict avoidable harm on certain individuals, groups, and societies by impairing their basic needs or ability to reach their full potential (Galtung 1969). Damage is exerted unequally, systematically, indirectly, and in a manner which is taken for granted (Leach 2015). As Tickner (1992, 69) points out, structural violence highlights the ‘insecurity of individuals whose life expectancy was reduced, not by the direct violence of war, but by domestic and international structures of political and economic oppression’. Importantly, there isn’t one particular perpetrator of this violence: ‘There may not be any person who directly harms another person in the structure. Violence is built into the structure and shows up as unequal power and consequently as unequal life chances’ (Galtung 1969, 171). Galtung (1969, 172–8) conceptualises four components of structural violence: 1) exploitation focused on an asymmetric division of labour; 2) penetration of consciousness by the exploiters on the oppressed, resulting in acquiescence; 3) fragmentation of exploited groups; and 4) marginalisation of oppressed groups from the privileged. As he states, ‘when one husband beats his wife there is a clear case of personal violence, but when one million husbands keep one million wives in ignorance there is structural violence’ (Galtung 1969).

Feminist theorists have incorporated this concept of structural violence into their analysis of gender inequality, sometimes referring to it as gendered violence. Caprioli (2005) has shown how the four components of Galtung’s violence overlap with gender: (1) socially defined gender roles lead to different labour pathways, whether recognised formally or informally, as epitomised in discussions of social reproduction and (2) coupled with gender stereotyping produce a consciousness of a difference between men and women. As Enloe (2016) shows, using concepts of masculinity and femininity is both productive of violence and is violence itself against the empowered human subject, so (3) fragmentation occurs with women performing the predominant role in the household, limiting their external opportunities for equality and formal paid labour (social reproduction). As a consequence of these, (4) gender hierarchies are created, promoting patriarchal domination and female subordination. This combination assimilates into gendered structural violence affecting women across societies, whereby their gender role precludes them from actively participating in decision-making or comprising epistemic communities that create policy or seeking paid work to contribute to personal financial security. Importantly, gendered structural violence can impact women’s ability to access a range of services, including healthcare (Magnusdottir and Kronsell 2015; O’Connor and Bruner 2019).

Socio-economic disparities have been entrenched in Latin America since colonisation. Some of the key ideas of structural violence were originally highlighted by Latin American liberation theologians, recognising the social, racial, and class divides which challenge cohesive societal development (Sontag 1989). Democratisation aimed to redistribute economic gains and social activity, and with the rapidly increasing generation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it was hoped that such inequalities would be overcome.

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