Gender, violence and Brexit

Abstract

What would be the implications of Brexit for gender, for violence, and for gendered violence? While most attention on Brexit has concerned the economy, and the relationship of the UK to the Single European Market, this article focuses on violence, and the relationship of the UK to the European Area of Freedom, Justice and Security. Brexit potentially restructures the balance of multiple polities, including the UK and EU, and their capacities and powers to govern. This potentially has implications for gender relations, insofar as gender is governed by the EU rather than the UK, for violence, insofar as violence is governed by the EU rather than the UK, and for gendered violence, at the intersection of these processes. The article addresses the likely outcomes of different forms of Brexit (from hard to soft) by analysing the significance of the UK and the EU in governing gender and governing violence. This includes engagement with the theories of gender regimes and the theories of violence, and the significance of different forms of governance in shaping gender and violence. The article concludes that the detrimental implications of socio-legal changes that would be consequent on Brexit for the rate of gendered violence are underestimated.