Global Perspectives on Violence against Women and Girls - by Tamsin Bradley (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

As the movement to end all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) gains momentum around the world, this provocative new work applies an innovative theoretical lens to gendered violence across a wide variety of countries and contexts.

Global Perspectives on Violence against Women and Girls engages with VAWG in the UK and across the global South, including case studies from India, Pakistan and South Sudan. Considering various forms of violence including harmful cultural practices such as FGM to Early Child Marriage, dowry and bride price related harassment, stranger rape, work-based harassment, Intimate Partner Violence and other forms of domestic violence, this important volume creates an original critical lens by combining the ecology model, the intersectional approach and a spectrum designed to identify the range of different forms of VAWG in a given context. Arguing for a greater understanding of the local political and cultural contexts in which VAWG is allowed to flourish, Global Perspectives on Violence against Women and Girls is one of the few works to give due prominence to local women's organizations in the global South and beyond, who it argues must ultimately play the leading role in ending VAWG.

At a time when the fight against violent misogyny finds itself at a critical turning point, this volume makes a substantial and timely contribution towards the ultimate goal of ending VAWG.

Review Quotes

A brave and important book that challenges both mainstream and feminist approaches to VAWG, advocating a contextualised multi-faceted approach that draws on an understanding of women's own agency, networks and reality. Bradley integrates theoretical approaches to effective theories of change with grounded evidence based on research on a range of different forms of gender based violence in the regions.
Ruth Pearson, University of Leeds

Bradley calls for a gender inclusive lens to deploy new tools that link gender, power, and violence across countries in South Asia and Africa. The book provides a useful tool for the design and monitoring of development programs that address VAWG.
Mangala Subramaniam, Purdue University

About the Author

Tamsin Bradley is a social anthropologist and Professor in International Development Studies at the University of Portsmouth, UK. Her previous works include Women and Violence in South Asia (2015) and Challenging the NGOs (2012), as well as the edited collections Interrogating Harmful Cultural Practices (2015) and Dowry: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice (Zed 2009).