What is it about?
Policies combating violence against women exist in Europe since the 70s. This article reviews and compares policies across 10 countries. It evaluates the role of the nation-state and the women's movements. When and why policies were implemented in each country? What made the difference? What obstacles or promoting factors were in place?
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Why is it important?
Violence against women shows high rates in Europe. Almost 35% of all women experience violence in their lifetime. To decrease this rate and to improve effective prevention, we need to understand what works and why in the different national contexts. In this paper, we found that the nation-state is a very powerful agent of change, but only on condition that it acts under pressure from or in combination with women's movements.
Perspectives
We need to think that gender equality programs will decrease the rate of violence against women, but the association between these two is actually controversial. Programs are implemented in local contexts and their outcomes may be very different, depending on mentality, culture, and education.
Professor Consuelo Corradi
Lumsa University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The lessons of history: The role of the nation-states and the EU in fighting violence against women in 10 European countries, Current Sociology, April 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0011392116640457.
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