Can conservatism make women more vulnerable to violence?

Abstract

Violence against women (VAW) affects at least 35% of women worldwide. The need to combat VAW is seemingly noncontroversial: As existing work shows, ideology does not explain governments' propensity to adopt anti-VAW legislation. Yet, effectively implementing anti-VAW legislation requires complex policy frameworks at odds with conservative values. Voters' preferences can meaningfully influence policy outputs, so can electoral conservatism make women more vulnerable to violence? Employing data from 5,570 Brazilian municipalities, we find that conservatism in the electorate is associated with the adoption of fewer anti-VAW policies. With data from a nationally-representative survey of Brazilian respondents (N=2,086), we then show that conservative voters are less likely to prioritize the need for tackling VAW. That is, the adoption of fewer anti-VAW policies in conservative municipalities reflects conservative voters’ policy preferences. Critically, our results suggest that in contexts where the electorate holds conservative preferences, policy responsiveness may incur costs to women's lives.

The Politics of Private Violence: How Intimate Partner Violence Victimization Influences Political Attitudes

“…Budget cuts undermine their outreach efforts. A crisis center in a major city with millions of inhabitants that I visited lost its state-provided cars for outreach campaigns with the election of a more conservative governor-which is consistent with findings from existing research (Araújo and Gatto 2021). Without funds to reach poorer or remote communities, the accessibility of VAW public services is seriously diminished, especially for Black women.…”

“…Indeed, in developing countries, governments tend to lack the financial resources or political will required for widespread service provision, creating a service deficit in many regions (e.g., Neumann 2017). In Brazil, women's police stations and VAW shelters have been established in about 8.3 and 2.4 percent of municipalities, respectively (Araújo and Gatto 2021). The absence of safe and specialized institutions, or the difficulty in accessing them, might leave abused women with no outlets to address the emotional consequences of trauma, seek protection, or mobilize resources to leave an abusive relationship.…”