Epistemologies of violence against women. A proposal from the South

Abstract

The focus of this research is to consider the following questions: Are we using the appropriate conceptual framework in order to understand and terminate the practice of control and violence against women? What epistemic change do we need to understand the systemic violence against women? In order to answer these questions, we will take a look at the dominant epistemic framework—the one called “Western”—to highlight its deficiencies. The proposal will take the usefulness and efficiency of the so-called “epistemology of the South” as formulated by Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Rita Segato. One of the most important conclusions of this research will lead us to propose intersectional feminism as a feminism able to overcome the epistemological barriers and colonial practices that still exist today. The proposal of an epistemology of the South is presented as a useful logical alliance of an intersectional vision of feminisms that may allow us to understand and transform the reality of violence against women.

Keywords

• feminist epistemologies
• violence against women
• gender violence
• intersectional feminism
• feminism from the south