When it comes to bringing visibility to equality between all genders, the matter [of political violence] is pretty much invisible
Maria Paula Russo Riva is raising awareness to a topic still very much underresearched, but that hinders equal representation: Gender-based political violence. According to her, when it comes to bringing visibility and equality between all genders, gender based policial violence is hardly discussed as one major problem that keeps women out of politics.
Gender-based Political Violence: Severely Underresearched
Maria says that indeed gendered political violence remains "pretty much invisible" and the few literature on gender-based political violence still takes a binary approach to the phenomenon, with few salient exceptions to it, normally from civil society". Maria wants to change this with her research and contribute to greater awareness of the phenomenon. By studying the impact gendered political violence has on women's experiences, she hopes for evidence-based policy enactment that addresses the matter.
Inititally Maria came to research this topic because she was hired by an organization in Brazil as part of a consultancy group. After getting into the topic more deeply, she had come to notice how gender-based political violence, especially amidst the context of gender backlash, is a barrier to larger gender representation in parliaments. According to her, this is particualrly relevant "when it comes to historically marginalized groups, and the reasons why and how to tackle [their hurdles] are still very much underresearched".
Assesing Complaints on Gender-based Political Violence Against Female Politicians
Taking on this intersectional approach entails going through the justice system and the State Legislative Assemblies with information requests to gather the complaints on gender-based political violence against female politicians, and then on a later stage analyse the legal briefs to categorize information, including on intersectionality traits of the plaintiffs.
We would like to thank Maria Paula Russo Riva for contributing to IN-VISIBLE Academia and wish her all the best for their research.
IN-VISIBLE ACADEMIA - Gender Researchers For Diversity
This feature is part of IN-VISIBLE ACADEMIA, a campaign for research from the fields of Gender Studies, with the goal to make it more visible and accessible to a broader public. Over the course of one year, IN-VISIBLE ACADEMIA helped Gender Studies researchers to gain more visibility and thereby built awareness about its meaning and relevance for society. This project was initiated by IN-VISIBLE and MARGHERITA-VON-BRENTANO-ZENTRUM; you can read the features on LinkedIn and Instagram.