Experiencing women’s advocacy : connections with and departures from a feminist socio-political movement to end violence against women

Abstract

This article examines how contemporary women’s advocates working in New Zealand with women experiencing intimate partner violence regard their work and how these experiences both connect with and depart from a feminist movement to end violence against women. Ten women’s advocates from ten different organisations were interviewed two times. First interviews involved participants commenting on vignettes about hypothetical cases of intimate partner violence. Second interviews were semi-structured and involved discussions about participants’ work and wider thoughts on the phenomenon of intimate partner violence. Interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to identify key themes within participants’ interviews. Analysis indicated an alignment with international research illustrating an erosion of feminist perspectives in advocacy work. At the same time, it revealed areas of enduring feminist influence. Findings therefore suggest that the relationship between advocacy and the feminist movement to end violence against women is complicated and contradictory. Implications for further research directions are considered.