Gender-Based Violence in Central American Women’s Lives, by Cecilia Menjívar – 20 April 2026

From Futures of Difference

Sociologist Cecilia Menjívar shows that violence against women is not a matter of individual acts but a product of converging structural forces: militarization, authoritarian governance, and conservative religious ideologies that prioritize “family values” over women’s rights. Drawing on interviews with women experts across four countries, she reveals how these forces naturalize violence — and how women’s organizations fight back.

My research on gender-based violence in the lives of women in Central America shows a convergence of forces that is significantly harming women and gender minority groups. In an upcoming book co-authored with Pamela Neumann, we explore how the rise of militarization and authoritarian practices fosters conditions where gender-based violence in the lives of women thrives. A key element in this scenario is the spread of conservative religious ideologies, often propagated through misinformation campaigns, which promote “family values.” These ideologies prioritize family unity, reinforce gender hierarchies within families and in public spaces, and emphasize the life of the fetus. Such ideologies subvert women’s rights and their access to justice.

How structural violence becomes invisible

In contexts shaped by autocratic-militarized structures, a confluence of structural, social, ideological, and institutional conditions generates visible manifestations of violence, such as physical assaults, which occur with impunity. More insidious, though less visible forms of violence—structural, symbolic, and gendered—become ingrained in everyday interactions, shaping gender expectations of women’s behavior in both private and public life.

In our study, which is based on interviews with women experts—lawyers, academics, organizers, journalists, social workers, researchers, and psychologists —in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, alongside extensive documentary research and our own long-term scholarship in the region, we examine the complex interplay of institutional, structural, historical, gender, political, and social violence in the lives of women. We argue that gender-based violence in women’s lives cannot be viewed merely as individual acts aimed at causing harm, nor can it be eradicated through a focus on individual risk factors or punitive tactics. Instead, it is crucial to recognize how histories of dictatorships and military violence, colonial legacies of violence, sexism, racism, and deep inequalities are fundamental for a better understanding of violence in women’s lives.

The naturalization of violence

“The naturalization of violence does not diminish the harms that women endure; they simply become commonly perceived as interpersonal violence.”

Gender-based violence is rooted in histories of state violence and genocide and the disposability of certain bodies—especially the poor, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant women—who also face significant obstacles in accessing gender justice. Today, a new wave of authoritarian practices sustained through militarization campaigns and conservative religious ideologies add a key layer: they model various forms of violence, embedding them in everyday practices. This creates a perceived “natural order of things”—the socially constructed hierarchies that go unquestioned and appear self-evident. The naturalization of violence, however, does not diminish the harms that women endure; they simply become commonly perceived as interpersonal violence.

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Cecilia Menjívar holds the Dorothy L. Meier Chair in Social Equities and is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her work examines how state power manifests in individuals’ lives across institutions, such as families, employment, healthcare, immigration enforcement, justice and judicial systems, and religious spaces. Empirically, she focuses on two areas: Central American immigrants living in the United States and gender-based violence in women’s lives in Central America.

Gender-Based Violence in Central American Women’s Lives, by Cecilia Menjívar – 20 April 2026

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