Towards effective women’s movements against violence: the role of organizational conditions in promoting leadership capital

ABSTRACT

Over recent years, increasing violence in Latin American countries has led women’s movements against violence to face challenging circumstances while advancing their goals. Attention has recently turned to the internal structures of these movements, particularly the aspect of leadership. While prior research recognizes a preference for shared leadership among women’s movements, where responsibilities are commonly distributed among many members, it also points to its potential for conflict, which can impede collaborative action. However, there is still a limited understanding of the organizational conditions of movement leadership, especially within women’s movements facing adverse contexts that require enhancing their capacities for goal attainment. This study follows the concept of leadership capital, which posits that movement leaders use their skills and knowledge to undertake decision-making that is crucial for the movement’s goals. Conceptually, it explores potential relationships between organizational conditions that might foster elements to enhance leadership capital. Employing inductive research through a cross-case study of two Mexican women’s movements against violence, the Olimpia and the Anti-femicide movements, performed between 2017 and 2021, the study focuses on two main organizational conditions: the presence of a common agenda and effective communication. By comparing these movements, which had varying degrees of success in meeting their legislative objectives, the study reveals how differences in these organizational conditions can potentially relate to promoting leadership capital. This study thus advances the social movement literature by proposing a new framework to study movement leadership.

KEYWORDS:

• Women’s movements
• leadership capital
• gender-based violence
• organization
• structure
• Mexico

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Digital violence refers to any act of gender-based abuse that is facilitated, intensified, or propagated through the use of information and communication technologies. It can take multiple forms, including but not limited to online harassment, cyberstalking, image-based abuse, and digital exploitation (UNPFA, 2021).

2. Women’s movements are understood as autonomous groups formed and led by women who engage in collective action in response to political opportunities (Beckwith, 2013).

3. Following Nepstad and Bob’s framework, this study does not separately consider economic capital as part of leadership capital. The authors argue that cultural, social, and symbolic capital can collectively address the lack of economic resources (Nepstad & Bob, 2006, p. 4). Therefore, this paper focuses on these three elements, positing that they can sufficiently mobilize necessary resources for a movement’s goals, without directly incorporating economic capital as a separate component.

4. This estimate is based on members actively involved in decision-making. It excludes attendees of large-scale marches and accounts for activists and collectives that discontinued participation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura Gutiérrez Zárate

Laura Gutiérrez Zárate is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from the London School of Economics. Her research interests include social movements, political mobilization, and gender studies.