Transnational Advocacy Networks and Implementing Violence against Women Laws

• In Event: Gender and Political Violence

Abstract

Although violence against women laws exist worldwide, implementation efforts are uneven. Many political contexts have few resources to build institutions, and governments lack gender equality as a policy priority.

While existing research has examined the efficacy of gendered political institutions aimed at gender equality, this paper analyzes variation in their emergence in hostile terrain.

Drawing on comparative case studies of women’s police stations in Nicaragua and Guatemala, this paper develops a novel case-driven comprehensive theoretical framework to explain the role of transnational advocacy networks (TANs) in the emergence and structure of gender equality institutions that implement laws on violence against women.

I demonstrate that, when faced with domestic deficiencies in political will, institutional models, and financial resources, TANs help overcome these shortages and create gender equality institutions by exerting political pressure, sharing information, and providing funding.

While scholarship has thoroughly explored the impact of TANs on the creation of laws that address violence against women, this research moves beyond policy creation to demonstrate how TANs are also crucial for policy implementation.

Author

• Shannon Drysdale Walsh, University of Minnesota Duluth