Esther Barbé, PhD – Professor, School of Political Science and Sociology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), Barcelona, Spain
Magdalena M. Martín, PhD – Professor, Universidad of Málaga, Spain

Series: Gender Issues and Challenges; Laws and Legislation
BISAC: LAW043000; LAW051000; POL011000
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52305/IGUU8648

“This volume shows how the “war on gender” waged by various illiberal and far-right forces is trying to erode the norms and policies for eradicating violence against women, that have been painstakingly build up for years both in the global and regional realms. As the initial quote from Simone de Beauvoir reminds us, “a political, economic, and religious crisis is enough for women’s rights to be called into question again.” One of the merits of this book is that it convincingly shows that this attack is part of a broader process of transition, or rather crisis, in the liberal international order driven by these forces, coordinated in a “reactionary international,” inorganic but no less real, in their role as “normative anti-entrepreneurs”.” Read the full review here>>> – José Antonio Sanahuja, Professor (Full) of International Relations, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain

Eliminating violence against women is a gender norm that emerged in the 1990s and has evolved into a complex regime comprising partially overlapping and non-hierarchical institutions. The current fragmentation of the liberal international order and the ongoing transition to a new model—where the old configuration has died, and the new one is yet to emerge— is driven by a sustained contestation of the liberal norms that underpin the rules-based order. This normative contestation has caused a significant setback in the international regime aimed at eliminating violence against women. This book uses the Cosmopolitan vs. Communitarian cleavage as an analytical framework to examine how the elimination of violence against women is contested, and the extent to which it has been eroded. What impact has the increasing reclaim of sovereignty had on the international norm advocating for the elimination of the violence against women? How has the growing illiberal tide affected the individual rights underpinning this norm? The attacks on this gender norm come from diverse political forces and international actors, operating across multiple levels, leading to the erosion of the norm’s validity and its legal de-positivization. The book’s eight chapters explore this contestation at the global (United Nations), regional (European Union, Organization of American States) and domestic levels (Türkiye, Argentina). The chapters focus on key political and social actors, such as the anti-gender movement, as well as legal institutions, including global and regional human rights courts that act as containment mechanisms against the anti-gender movement. Additionally, this book examines new legal avenues, such as the concept of “gender apartheid”, proposed to counteract the severe violence and discrimination faced by Afghan women.

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