From State Feminism to Neoliberal Feminism

Pauline Delage, is a sociologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). She works on feminist mobilisations and public action aiming at preventing and combating gender-based violence. She is the author of a book published by the Sciences Po Press entitled “Domestic Violence” [in French: “Violences Conjugales”]. Read the interview.

Are we talking about the same thing when we talk about violence against women, sexist violence or gender-based violence?

Male violence against women was brought into common parlance in the 1970s. Various categories have then been formed to name and describe this phenomenon. This categorisation varies depending on the education background and context of use. It discloses different representations of the problem. Within French feminist movements, were first mentionned battered women [femmes battues]. Then so as not to suggest this was solely an issue of physical violence and also to underline the diversity in the experience of violence in intimate relationships, domestic violence [violences conjugales] was evoked. Hence, the word “women” [femmes], which designates the main victims, faded away. Likewise, in the United States, the words battered women — or battered wives — have been replaced by domestic violence, and then by intimate partner violence, focusing first on the domestic sphere, then on intimate relationships, so as not to exclude couples living apart.

While categories referring to types of violence evolved  — categorisation according to their nature, sexual for example, or according to the space in which they are committed, within relationships or at work — other categories seeking to deal with the generic problem evolved. “Violence against women”, “sexist” or “gender-based violence” are three ways of qualifying violence putting the emphasis on its structurality. This violence targets women because they are women. They take root and reproduce structures of domination (sexism) and social structures (gender system). It is a legacy of the feminist formulation of violence to consider the cause of this violence, to deindividualise it and to place it in a "continuum", to use Liz Kelly's expression. We can note semantic drifts in each of these categories, all linked to their contexts of development and use: “violence against women” and “gender-based violence” have been disseminated by international organisations, meanwhile “sexist violence” was first used by activists before being taken up by institutions in France. Without glossing over the social relations at work in violence, the last two categories make it possible to include a variety of affected victims types.

Elissa Mailänder recently pointed out the role played by feminist mobilisations in the 1970s in making violence against women visible. Can you tell us more?

As early as the 1970s, in the wake of the Second Wave movements whose rallying slogan was “The personal is political”, feminist activists recognised the extent of violence in women’s lives. They first took rape and sexual violence into account, considering them as one of the pillars and paroxysms of male domination. Rather than a mere reflection of an individual or pathological problem, they were seen as symptomatic of men's appropriation of women's bodies. Gatherings denouncing sexual violence were thus organised in the mid-1970s: for example, the speak out in the United States or the “10 heures contre le viol” [10 hours against rape] in Paris, and demonstrations such as Take back the Night. The issue of intimate partner violence also appeared during this period: activists realised that although intimate partner violence was widespread — they even sometimes experienced or witnessed it — it was trivialised, minimised, and victims were made to feel guilty while the abusers were cleared.

Thereupon, the extent of sexual and intimate partner violence contrasted with the lack of institutional treatment. Feminists then opened crisis lines and shelters. The 1975 French translation of Erin Pizzey's book Scream quietly or the neighbours will hear [Crie moins fort, les voisins vont t’entendre (FR)] made it possible to disseminate the example of Women's Aid, a London suburbs shelter established in 1971. As Elisa Herman shows in her book (FR), shelters are developing by entering the social work sector.

How did gender-based violence subsequently become a public issue?

In France, the feminist associative network is the bedrock of action against domestic violence. State feminism, for its part, serves as a support, as a relay to the demands of activists and builds public action. The first campaign for violence prevention was launched in 1989 under the auspices of Michèle André, Secretary of State in charge of women's rights and equal opportunities between men and women. It resulted in the creation of Departmental Commissions combating violence against women. Three years later, the country’s still-existing 3919 domestic violence hotline was made permanent thanks to a Secretary of State for Women's Rights’ funding.

Also, some legal reforms changed the understanding of violence: in 1980, rape is defined as a crime in the French Penal Code; in 1992, sexual harassment is defined in both the Penal and Labour Codes, and intimate partner violence becomes an aggravating factor. However, it was under the impetus of international institutions, the UN in particular, and also supranational institutions like the Council of Europe, that public action developed in the 2000s. From 2005, three-year action plans were created and laws proliferated to strengthen support for victims, punishment of violence and prevention. Thus, while feminist associations and institutions responsible for setting up equality policies remain central in the handling of violence, all the institutional actors involved in the care process (police, justice, health) are encouraged to train and take action.

Let us note that the form and temporality of the development of public action depend largely on the institutional and political context: in the United States for example, the expansion of the Penal State and the development of feminist psychology built a framework for institutionalisation and the legitimisation of the problem of domestic violence from the end of the 1970s.

Would you say that #MeToo actually had an effect on the political agenda against gender-based in France?

In recent years, mobilisations, such as those around Jacqueline Sauvage, have contributed to increasing the visibility of gender-based violence in France. At the international level, the Argentinian women's movement #NiUnaMenos underlined the dynamism of feminist struggles against violence. #MeToo fits into a longer history, but this movement — that remains active to this day — actually generated an unprecedented wave of denunciations, both on social media and offline. In France, it led to a renewal of feminist protest moblisations moving the focus to gender-based and sexual violence, around NousToutes in particular, and more general demands, with international feminist strike’s calls for example. With regard to public policy, declarations and measures on violence are also expanding: a new law on gender-based and sexual violence was enacted in 2018; a Forum on domestic violence was organised in 2019; and, from the first days of the first lockdown in March 2020, measures were taken for women victims of domestic violence.

However, the issue of violence tends to be isolated, separated from other social issues. First, violence is put in the political spotlight right when reforms limit women’s economic autonomy, especially this of the most precarious. It could be reforms of the Labor Code, for instance the 2017 reform through ordonnances, or reforms of the social system such as that on unemployment insurance. It is as if the possibility of denouncing and the solutions proposed to break out of contexts of violence or harassment, in the professional or in the private sphere, were completely disconnected from living, working and employment conditions. In addition, the French State encourages partnerships with the market sector and applies in the associative field combating violence the logics resulting from these partnerships. For example, although this project was ultimately abandoned, a competitive bidding process for the 3919 national domestic violence hotline was launched early this year. By taking up the notion coined by Catherine Rottenberg, we can speak of a Neoliberal (State) Feminism to qualify this framing of gender-based violence where the latter is disembodied from concrete living, working and employment conditions and where public policies support a neoliberal logic and neoliberal reforms. The emphasis is being placed on an individual and non-structural handling of violence.

More

• Pauline Delage is a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
• Violences conjugales. Du combat féministe à la cause publique on the Sciences Po Press website