From aspirational laws to the implementation of legislation against gender-based violence: bottom-up pressure in Peru and Argentina

Gender-based violence is a rampant problem in Latin American countries. Historically, state policy to prevent and sanction it has developed slowly, usually having limited impact because of a lack of resources and political will. While the process of policy adoption involved feminist organizations and international norms diffusion, little is known about when and why policy to address gender-based violence can become a political priority. Based on a comparative case study of Peru and Argentina, we show that sustained mass mobilization was the key variable marking a turning point in both countries in state capacity building in that domain. The latter was importantly enhanced as a consequence of the Ni Una Menos protests. Through process-tracing analysis, we show that there was a substantial increase in state resources and personnel, as well as institutional innovation. This transformation occurred in response to the unprecedented mass mobilization of various sectors of society.