Ailbhe Smyth: Men’s Violence Against Women And Feminists’ Challenge To The State In Ireland

“Since the beginning of the second wave of the women's liberation movement, there's hardly been a moment when feminism and real life feminists have not been on the line, subjected to swinging attacks on our credibility and standing.”

“The more effectively and precisely patriarchal power systems are exposed and opposed as abusive and dangerous, the more feminists succeed in developing new and different politics and structures, the more vicious are the attempts to push back those very achievements, and to punish not only the initiators, but all those who stand to benefit from those achievements.”

“The failure to impose sanctions against perpetrators means the de facto legitimation and promotion of violence against women and children.”

“I doubt very much that any of us is naive enough to expect radical change overnight because we stand up and demand it.  But we also know perfectly well that unless we as feminists stand up and make those demands collectively, cogently, strategically, and with all the knowledge , the power and the passion that we know we possess, freedom from violence, exploitation and oppression will never be achieved.”

 

From 1996:

"Men’s Violence Against Women And Feminists’ Challenge To The State In Ireland – Keynote Address

 The paper will focus on how feminist activism in its many forms is challenging and changing the ways in which Irish society generally and the State in particular both see and do not see men’s violence against women, and what that means for women. There is no doubt that in at least some of its institutional incarnations in Ireland, the State has begun to change its responses to and practice around violence as a result of unrelenting feminist pressure. However, the very success and effectiveness of feminist initiatives raises important and urgent questions about feminists’ relation to the State and its tendency to re-define issues, co-opt initiatives and ‘manage’ challenges to its authority.

The concrete basis for the exploration of this issue will centre on my involvement in a Working Party formed to report on the experiences of women, victims of sexual and other crimes of violence, in the legal and judicial process. Set up in 1995 by a coalition of women’s organisations working in the field, lawyers, academics and others, under the aegis of the National Women’s Council of Ireland, and funded by the Minister for Justice, the Working Party has now produced its report.

Ailbhe is involved in developing programmes and plans in relation to rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment and assault. She is Director of the Women’s Education, Research and Resource Centre at University College Dublin, where she teaches Women’s Studies. She has written extensively about feminism and the state. She is a co-editor of Women’s Studies International Forum, a corresponding editor of Feminist Review and on the editorial board of Nouvelles Questions Feministes, The Irish Journal of Feminist Studies and other journals."

Ailbhe Smyth is an Irish academic, who founded the Women's Education, Resource and Research Centre at University College Dublin. She was a co-director of the Together for Yes abortion referendum campaign.