How Harming Women Harms Society

Julia Galiza
Feb 11
4 min read

- Julia Galiza, Junior Editor

INTRODUCTION

Violence against women is often framed as private, gender-specific harm. A harm that, while appalling, remains separate from more general discussions of public safety. Separating gendered-violence from other “real” security issues, such as gang violence or political unrest, risks hiding a few troubling patterns. In many contexts, rising violence against women appears alongside equally rising levels of polarisation, social and political erosion, and an alarming tolerance for overall violence. This article does not claim that violence against women causes these phenomena. However, it does argue that gendered-violence may function as an indicator of broader social tolerance for coercion and dehumanisation, and of deeper institutional and cultural dynamics that enable such wider forms of harm. This will be analysed through the case studies of Brazil and the US, as well as understanding institutional and cultural mechanisms that allow for this comparison.

FEMINICIDE AND THE MYTH OF “PRIVATE” VIOLENCE

Feminicide is commonly defined as the gender-related killing of women and girls (1), and, crucially different from most other forms of homicide, it occurs overwhelmingly in domestic settings (2). Globally, an estimate of 60% of women killed in 2024 were killed by a partner or family member (3), and UN Women estimates that a woman or girl is killed by a partner or someone in their family every 10 minutes (4). Due to the private nature of this violence, it is often excluded from security discussion. Domestic violence gets treated as interpersonal and individual as opposed to political and structural, but this distinction cannot hold up under scrutiny. Regulating violence in the home depends on the same institutions that regulate violence in public settings. This can be seen in the cases of Brazil and the US, where violence against women rises alongside other forms of social violence and political unrest.

CASE STUDY: BRAZIL ON RISING FEMINICIDE, BROADER VIOLENCE, AND INSTITUTIONAL STRESS

As of 2025, feminicide in Brazil continues to rise alongside multiple other forms of violence and political strain. Data indicates that violence against women has steadily increased, with 1 in every 3 women aged 16 and over having experienced some form of violence (5). This increase coincides with persistent gang violence, high levels of police lethality, and the continued presence of organised criminal activity (6, 7). Brazil also continues to experience heightened political polarisation, attacks on journalists and activists, as well as weakened institutional trust (8), particularly following the contested 2022 governmental elections and subsequent challenges to democratic norms. These developments are naturally, not linear or uniform, but together they do form an environment where coercion and tolerance for violence are increasingly normalised. The significance in analysing the current circumstances in Brazil lies in simultaneity. Rising violence against women here cannot be dismissed as a residual social problem in an otherwise improving security landscape. We can instead note that it is embedded within a broader ecology of violence.

CASE STUDY: UNITED STATES ON GENDERED VIOLENCE IN A POLARISED DEMOCRACY

When looking at the US, we are able to find a different yet instructive comparison. Rates of intimate partner violence and firearm-related domestic homicides remain high, with women, again, disproportionately affected (9). These patterns unfold against a backdrop of escalating political tension, social polarisation and declining trust in democratic institutions, trends which have been widely documented since the Trump administration took over in 2025 and which have been intensifying since (10, 11, 12). The normalisation of aggressive rhetoric, the erosion of reproductive rights protections, and increased hostility towards feminist and minority movements have further shaped this cultural terrain in which violence not only occurs but is tolerated. To reiterate, it is not a case of one phenomenon causing another, but rather that both appear to draw from the same institutional conditions.

INSTITUTIONAL AND CULTURAL MECHANISMS

A mechanism linking violence against women to broader societal harm is normalisation. Where coercive control in intimate relationships is widespread and inadequately penalised, violence becomes a socially sanctioned means of enforcing control. The household functions as an early site where domination is condoned. Impunity also accelerates this process. Failure in investigating cases of gendered violence and failure to prosecute signals that some harms are tolerable and some victims expendable. Lastly, periods of democratic stress often intensify these dynamics. As seen in the examples of Brazil and the United States, following takeover by current government administrations, already high levels of violence against women and violence as a societal phenomenon have consistently risen alongside one another.

WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS

There is substantial research which suggests that societies in which women are safer tend to be more peaceful and stable overall. A more in-depth analysis can be found in Valerie M. Hudson’s ‘Sex and World Peace’. However, much of the available literature is correlational and faces challenges such as data quality, underreporting or misclassification. As of right now, and mainly due to inconsistencies in cross-national methods of data collection, no research conclusively demonstrates that reducing violence against women will mechanically reduce other forms of violence. This, however, should not be mistaken for irrelevance. Converging indicators should serve as early warning signs. The consistent co-occurrence of gendered violence with broader patterns of coercion and institutional violence itself demands closer scrutiny instead of dismissal.

CONCLUSION

Harming women harms society. Not because it directly affects other forms of violence, but because it reflects societal boundaries of whose safety is protected and whose suffering is tolerated. Where violence against women is persistent, under-policed, and minimized, the institutional conditions necessary to restrain violence overall are already compromised. The comparative cases of Brazil and the United States, while differing profoundly as institutions, illustrate how gendered violence can coexist with, and potentially signal, wider societal fractures. Treating violence against women as a private issue conceals its significance as a core indicator of social health. Recognising it as such is not a moral act of symbolism, but is a necessary step toward understanding how societies move toward greater harm, one tolerated act of violence at a time. A society that tolerates coercion in the most intimate settings is practicing selective rule-of-law. It is thus incredibly important that we remember that selective rule-of-law rarely stays selective.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-rise-of-political-violence-in-the-united-states/

How Harming Women Harms Society

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