GENDER AND STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE

Structural violence is the concept of macro, system-level inequality and oppression which was introduced in modernist discourse by Johan Galtung in 1969 through the article ‘Violence, Peace, and Peace Research’. It refers to a form of violence wherein some social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. Institutionalized adultism, ageism, classism, elitism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, speciesism, racism, and sexism are some examples of structural violence as proposed by Galtung. Because structural violence affects people differently in various social structures, it is very closely linked to social injustice. Structural violence and direct violence are said to be highly interdependent, including family violence, gender violence, hate crimes, racial violence, police violence, state violence, terrorism, and war.
Structural violence is the most basic or fundamental form of violence. It is expressive of the conditions of society, the structures of social order, and the institutional arrangements of power within the society. The articles in this volume look at various societal structures and institutions to understand violence against women. The book will interest researchers, academics, social workers and all those concerned with gender-based violence.

Rekha Pande is the Head of the Centre for Women’s Studies and a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad. She was the Director and Chair of the 12th Women World Congress (2014) organized in Hyderabad. She is the founding member of two Centres for Women’s Studies, one at Maulana Azad National Urdu University and the other at University of Hyderabad. She has to her credit sixteen books and more than 150 articles published in national and international journals and books. She has been the Editor of International Feminist Journal of Politics (IFJP), Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, UK and Foreign Policy Analysis, Blackwell, USA. She has received the Visiting Fellowship at the Institute of Berkbeck, University of London; International Visiting Fellowship in the School of Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK; Academic Fellow, University of Buffalo, USA; International Visiting Scholar, Maison De Research, Paris; and Visiting Professorship at the University of Artois, Arras, France. She has widely travelled in India and abroad to deliver lectures and keynote addresses.
Sita Vanka is currently a Senior Professor at the School of Management Studies, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad. She is also a Joint Professor of Women’s Studies at the same university. She has over three decades of experience in the areas of Management, Educational Management, Human Resource Management, Entrepreneurship and Women’s Studies. She is a teacher, trainer, consultant and a researcher in Management. She is on the Board of Directors of two companies. She has published six books and more than sixty papers in reputed journals. Travelled widely, she has visited countries like USA, Canada, France, UAE, China and Germany on academic assignments.