Violence against Women and Political Participation in Contexts of Criminal Violence

Across the developing world, unprecedented levels of criminal violence led by non-state armed groups have coincided with alarming rates of violence against women (VAW). In this book project, I develop a theoretical framework that helps explain how non-state armed groups’ territorial control make women more vulnerable to gendered violence and its consequences for women’s political participation. I argue that criminal groups’ territorial control increases women’s vulnerability to gendered violence in and outside the home, which undermines women’s likelihood of engaging in politics. I test my hypotheses in the context of gang’s territorial control in El Salvador, relying on quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative analyses use data from two large-scale original surveys at the neighborhood level and a nationally representative survey of VAW. These data allow me to employ survey experiments and advanced statistical techniques to systematically examine the links between gangs’ territorial control, VAW, and women’s political participation.