In recent decades, vast networks of national and transnational advocates have worked to place and keep violence against women on the global agenda. Numerous laws and resolutions have been passed and initiatives undertaken. Most of these efforts are aimed at responding to the violence, providing shelter and aid to victims and prosecuting perpetrators. Others focus on prevention, mostly in the form of public awareness and education campaigns. Yet, despite these efforts, there is little evidence that rates of violence are decreasing. While scholars, including myself, have focused on the flaws and shortcomings of these policies and their uneven and incomplete implementation, Jacqui True takes on a much more ambitious question in her book The Political Economy of Violence against Women: What is producing or increasing the violence in the first place? While feminist activists and scholars have long argued the structural sources of violence against women, there is no study that I know of that provides such a compelling and global analysis of this proposition. This book is a powerful and much needed analysis about the ways in which the current global political economic order is implicated in widespread and pervasive violence against women. It is a must read for anyone committed to the elimination of gender-based violence, including activists, scholars, and policymakers at all levels of governance. It should also be required reading for any one studying global political economy, global governance, conflict, or human rights.

In setting out to address one of the most pervasive and daunting challenges to women’s rights, True’s most innovative and significant contribution is her elucidation and application of a “feminist political economy method.” This method examines the local and global context in which violence against women occurs. It makes explicit the linkages between the economic, social, and political and reveals the workings of power not only through direct and visible coercion, but also “in the material basis of relationships that govern the distribution and use of resources, benefits, privileges and authority within the home and society at large” (p. 7). According to True, a feminist political economy approach must examine the linkages between poverty, material gender inequalities, and violence. She argues the three elements should be central in any analysis: the gendered divisions of labor within family and household economy; the contemporary global, macro-economy in which capitalist competition fuels the quest for cheap sources of labor and for deregulation of investment conditions; and the masculine protector and feminine-protected identities associated with war and militarism and the division of war front and home front associated with armed conflict and its aftermath (p. 20). Such an analysis is pivotal in moving beyond band-aid solutions and towards the actual eradication of violence against women.

A key component of True’s analysis is her emphasis on hegemonic masculinities. Like other feminist scholars and activists who argue for a more holistic gendered approach, True examines the role of men and masculinities in gender-based violence. She asks, to what extent do men’s reactions to economic globalization processes affect the prevalence of violence against women? True argues that “transnational business masculinity” has begun to displace militaristic masculinities as the aspirational model of masculinity, but with continued violent consequences. Business masculinity is associated with autonomy, the capacity for reason and control, mobility and power, and has tendencies toward the commodification and weakening of women, de-emphasizing of social welfare, and undermining of alternative forms of masculinity (p. 37). Although True is careful to recognize that not all men commit violence against women, she does argue that particular groups of men, especially those falling short of the hegemonic model, are vulnerable to becoming perpetrators of violence. This is the one component of her argument that I find somewhat troublesome. I am concerned that this particular framing unintentionally overemphasizes the violence perpetrated by men in subordinated positions. To be fair, True does point out the violence of powerful men, such as that alleged in “the DSK Affair,” but the patterns of violence perpetrated by those in positions of privilege is less fully examined in the book. It is often discussed more abstractly as “structural violence” while the “physical violence” seems to be perpetrated by men in subordinated socioeconomic positions. I would like to see a more fully developed and intersectional discussion of masculinities that explicitly acknowledges different facets of social location (including race and ethnicity) and a more thorough empirical study that addresses the multiple forms of violence perpetrated by those privileged within the global political economic order as well as those subordinated by globalization.

Moving beyond the theory, there is much to commend in True’s expansive global empirical study. In the empirical chapters, True explores what she designates as “strategic sites where structural political economic forces can be seen to be heightening conditions for and increasing the extent of violence against women” (p. 19). Each chapter is dense with examples, from an array of countries around the world, that demonstrate the linkages of globalizing neoliberalism and patterns of violence against women. Chapters 4 and 5 explore the exploitation and violence found in migration and in free trade zones. Chapter 6 discusses the role played by international financial institutions that adopt and push gender-blind policies with detrimental gendered impact. Chapters 7 and 8 discuss violence against women in the context of armed conflict, something that has garnered increasing global attention, but also the less recognized implications of addressing the gendered political economics of peace and reconstruction. Chapter 9 provides a timely discussion of natural disasters where past and present political and economic interests are shown to shape every phase of disaster, and where gender sensitive planning can predict and even prevent the gendered impacts that directly and indirectly contribute to violence against women.

In her important conclusion, True provides her prescriptions for what needs to be done to eradicate violence. First, she highlights the empowerment of women economically via an emphasis on education; measures to ensure women’s rights related to owning and disposing of property and assets; the prioritization of women’s employment in foreign investment, trade, and development partnerships; and more rigorous monitoring and accountability for corporations. Furthermore, she emphasizes the need for men to change other men. Second, she lists key strategies for policy change that moves beyond saving women one at a time and is directed at activist. She urges groups to take advantage of political opportunities, such as those opening in the aftermath of financial crises, to define the agenda and disrupt the proverbial status quo. She states the importance of transnational policy networks but also that of local coalitions. Lastly, she calls for the radical reconstruction of gender identity, where advocates can intervene and lead by example in the creation and publicizing of nonviolence gender identities.

Overall, I found The Political Economy of Violence against Women to be a provocative and engaging piece of scholarship. I am not surprised that it has already been honored, via the American Political Science Association’s Human Rights Best Book Award. It is a book I will be citing and adding to syllabi for a long time to come. I strongly encourage others to do the same.