Gendering Spanish Democracy by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History & Theory, Social Science, Political Science, Archaeology, General
ISBN: 9781134276813
Google: sOLeIDi18zgC
Goodreads: 17015238
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2004-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

This chapter described the main policies against violence against women established in Spain after 1975. It argued that even though difficulties arise when policies against violence against women are formulated, by far the most problematic stage, littered with sometimes unsurmountable obstacles, was the implementation phase. The reasons for this were complex and went beyond the question of men’s need for violence as a means of maintaining domination over women, in order to perpetuate patriarchy or the gender order. Neither was this due to any bias in the solutions advocated by policy-making communities or feminist advocates to remedy women’s oppression – such as when they see the improvement of women’s condition mainly in terms of increased access to waged labour outside the home – even though this does tend to turn attention away from the phenomenon of violence against women, as several scholars have argued.

Instead, the constraints found in the implementation stage of policies against violence against women arise chiefly because implementation is dependent on a high number of professionals, officials and civil servants (Lipsky’s ‘street-level bureaucrats’) who have to deal directly with the ‘clients’, the affected citizens. In the field of violence against women, these included judges, prosecutors, lawyers, forensic surgeons, doctors, nurses and psychologists, police officers and civil guards, among others. These are the professions that enjoy a high degree of discretion and autonomy when performing their duties. They are also, sadly, in a position to jeopardise the implementation of any programme against violence against women, a realisation that has somewhat dampened the optimism of feminists eager for effective preventive and remedial action. For a policy to be implemented properly, concerted, single-minded action from all these people is necessary, something that is difficult to organise, not least because each profession has its own priorities and ways of working.

In addition, since violence against women is perpetrated in all parts of a country, the implementation of policies to counteract it should by definition occur in a very decentralised way. Consequently, successful implementation in any single village, town or city depends on all these front-line professionals commanding a clear understanding of the complex questions involved in gender-based violence and being correctly trained to assist the victims. Furthermore, when so many actors are involved, the question of who does what tends to remain permanently undefined or in process of being renegotiated. The interviews conducted as part of the research for this chapter showed up both persistent responsibility gaps as well as responsibility overlaps among several actors, for instance between staff working in health centres and forensic surgeons.

For at least three decades feminists of all countries have publicly claimed that women live in a violent world. An increasing number believes that effective resistance requires a combination of women’s own action with state institutional action (Heise et al. 1994: 1174). This chapter shows just how problematical the latter can be. Feminists need to put pressure on the behaviour of institutional actors not only to get them to continue to develop new measures against violence, but also to ensure that they implement existing measures much more effectively.

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